A month ago, I promised to do a review of different tubes in the Lampizator Atlantic TRP. Many tubes have already been discussed in much detail. Hence, I will focus on the WE274B and WE350B. Before I start, I have to admit that in the many years I have collected and listened to tubes I always loved the sound of Western Electric tubes. My Border Patrol 300B amplifier uses WE417a driver tubes, WE300B (1998) output tubes and a WE422a rectifier tube. My goal was to create a full Western Electric tube chain. That is why I searched for, and luckily found a matched pair of Western Electric 350Bs and a 274B rectifier for the Lampizator Atlantic TRP.
In general Western Electric tubes have a typical sound. They sound airy, spacious, delicate, natural and open. For lack of a better word: ‘beautiful’. Note that I did not mention ‘detailed’, ‘attack’, ‘slam’ etc. They are detailed, absolutely, have decent attack, but no slam. However, all that does not really matter. Once you press play, you just relax and enjoy the beautiful music. That being said, they have one major shortcoming, especially when you compare them to other great tubes, and that is the ability to deal with complex passages. That is in my opinion their Achilles heel. And of course deep bass and slam. Attack (mid bass) is decent, but slam (deep bass) is not. Now they all have this to a certain degree. However, in my case the 300B output tubes suffer (by far) the most from this problem. Once I changed the WE300B in my amplifier with the ELROG 300B the problem of bass slam and dealing with complex passages in music was solved. The ELROG 300B is really a great tube.
Back to the tubes on the TRP. As rectifier I prefer directly heated rectifiers over indirectly heated ones. Difficult to explain, but directly heated rectifier sound more clear and open to me in the TRP. For instance, I prefer the WE274B over the WE422a in the TRP, and the GEC U52 over the Cossor GZ37 (big bottle).
Rectifiers
WE274B: very open, clear and natural sounding. The music flows with this tube. Horizontal (forward) flow (melody), lyrical. Great soundstage, very airy. All instruments are projected in one big open space. Very detailed, but naturally detailed. It is all there, but not as obvious as some other rectifiers. Again, that is the typical WE sound. Dynamics are good, bass is good, but not as deep as some other rectifiers. The main selling point is this natural flow of music in a grand open airy space. Addictive with classical music (symphonies and operas).
ELROG 274B: Similar to Western Electric I think ELROG also has a typical sound. Very detailed but with great tone. Absolutely not etched or sharp. Normally tubes with great full tone are warm sounding (Mullard, Cossor , GEC). Not this one. It sounds open and clear. Has great bass, and handles complex passages in music wonderfully. I love it, but it is a different type of sound than WE274B. It is a bit less lyrical than WE274B, but more dramatic (vertical oriented, harmony). It is more dynamic than WE274B as well. More edge of your seat type of sound. Not as airy and missing that last amount of natural flow that the WE274B has. But climaxes in classical music are handled with aplomp! Hence, more dramatic, less lyrical than WE274B.
GEC U52. Intimate warm sounding tube. Nice cosy sound. But for me, both WE274B and ELROG 274B are better is all areas except if you prefer an intimate stage with beautiful tone and a warm atmosphere.
Output tubes
With respect to output tubes, I will focus on WE350B and Tesla EL51 with Genelex KT77 as benchmark. I think the Genelex KT77 is a good tube: detailed, airy, dynamic. Slightly sharp and edged, or forced. To me, the WE350B and the TESLA EL51 are clearly better.
WE350B
The WE350B has that typical Western Electric type of sound. Open, airy, spacious, natural. Compared to the WE300B in my amplifier the 350B in the TRP sounds dynamic, bass attack is really good, and it handles complex passages in music well. There is no deal breaker here. It does not grasp your attention as much as the TESLA EL51, but I really love the naturalness and the open and airy sound. You just press play and before you know it is very late in the evening.
TESLA EL51. A fantastic tube. It shares some similarities with the ELROG tubes. It is very full sounding. Great tone, but very detailed. I think its main feature is Presence! It captivates you. Grasps you by the throat. It communicates the essence of music. It is very dynamic, has great bass, is completely in control of the music. It is less spacious and airy than WE350B. a bit less horizontal flow and naturalness compared to the WE350B. The Tesla EL51 graps your attention more. It communicates the music more directly. If you combine the TESLA EL51 with the ELROG 274B you have a nuclear bomb on your hands. Utterly exciting, but a bit too much for me. If your system needs a wake up call. This will do it.
So what do I prefer. At the moment I prefer the WE350B with the WE274B in the TRP. However, for change of scenery I will use the TESLA EL51 with the WE274B as my runner up, and the WE350B with the ELROG 274B next. It is not about what is better, this is on equal level, but with a different perspective on music. That is it. Hope this was helpful.
