E88CC vs E188CC

[Steve275]

Afternoon All,

Relatively recently acquired an Aesthetix Calypso pre (via the Wam Classifieds so big thumbs up there!) and have already rolled the stock 12AX7's in favour of Sylvania GB 5751's. Very happy with results.

So now looking at options to roll the stock 6922's. From reading up on this, one of my favoured options would be Amperex E188CC's. But just wondering if there's any issue with using E188CC's rather than E88CC's - purely from functional considerations are E188CC's always interchangeable with E88CC's, or perhaps it depends on the underlying amp design? Understood that sonics may well vary and that's fine but certainly don't want to cause any harm to the pre by using a different type of valve than the original spec...

Thanks for any advice...

 

[i_should_coco]

They're the same. E188CC is a ruggedised version.

 

[Baron Slater]

They are the same. Try the Siemens E188CC. I liked it better than the Amperex in a Audio Note DAC 3.1x Balanced. The Amperex is very detailed and clear but the Siemens made the music have more sense. The musicians suddenly played together in the same space in stead of separated. Maybe a strange observation but thats what is sounded like...

Cheers!

 

[Valvebloke]

Depending on who the manufacturer is you might find that one or other of them has a 335mA heater rather than the much more common 300mA one. But unless Aesthetix were particularly penny-pinching in the design of the Calypso's power supply the extra 10% or so of current shouldn't bother it at all (any valve will draw loads more than that for a few seconds at switch-on). Otherwise the specs are the same.

Back in the good old days the rationale for 'Special Quality' valves, which the 88CC and the 188CC both are, was that some end users (often the military) cared about long life and reliability i.e. could they just pull a new valve out of the box and be sure that it'd be OK when they needed it in an emergency. To ensure this kind of thing manufacturers put their valves through a fairly stringent test regime. But the actual electronic specs (except perhaps noise) were rarely any different from the bog-standard version, in this case the ECC88.

VB

 

[Steve275]

Great, many thanks for the feedback guys. Yes have thought about the Siemens option too so might keep shopping around to see what value is out there!

And great to get the background on why the variations of the same valve "family". Thanks again!

 

[uncl_nigel]

If you email him via the Aesthetix website, you will find that Jim White is very reactive when it comes to answering questions about his products. A nice person too - I have talked with him twice at my local dealer's here in France.

 

[Steve275]

Yes, I'd heard that Jim was very responsive to queries so that was actually my first port of call and I emailed Aesthetix a while back with some questions regarding rolling the tubes. Unfortunately no response yet. But great to get the Wam feedback so just need to start checking out the E188CC options now...

 

[bernislo]

You should try some Valvo also. The one made in the 60s are the one you are looking for, this is especially important with the Siemens!! The later one are pretty poor(Siemens).