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Genalex GOLD LION EL84 (N709) - Matched Set of 4
But first a long story, short I was having lunch with a long time friend and intense audiophile a while back. During the lunch I mentioned the great difficulty we have finding NOS (New Old Stock) EL84 power tubes for our Monoblocks. I was hoping he could help me with a couple of good sources but instead he gave me that “No Big Deal” look and said “Why don’t you use the New Genalex GOLD LIONs? They sound wonderful” I snobbishly replied that we don’t use New Production tubes; we value our ears and our customers too much! At that he balked and insisted the Genalex EL84’s are an exception and urged me to try them. Of course I had heard of the fabled, "Vintage" Genalex Gold Lion El 84s but I also know that a good matched quad commonly sells for a $1000 or even more, if you can find them. So on his trusted recommendation we ordered up a Platinum Matched Quad of the new Genalex EL84’s. It turns out the Genalex and Gold Lion brand names were purchased by New Sensor and they've made a commitment to a faithful reproduction of the original tubes. We're also told that New Sensor uses premium materials on the Genalex line. Stuff like gold plated grid wire and carbonized black plate structure. Fast forward a couple of weeks, The Genalex EL84 tubes have arrived. I must admit we still had a negative bias (pardon the pun) when we installed them into the EL84 Monoblocks for the first of several listening sessions. After all, our past experience with "new production" EL84's always left us disappointed and our ears a bit bloodied. They didn’t come close to the NOS tubes we love so much. Wow, were we surprised! The Genalex EL84 tubes sound sweet and silky without so much as a trace of the midrange bitterness and top end bite we experienced with other new production EL84s. We listened for several hours to all types of music, even swapping in a set of vintage Philips tubes and then back to the Genalex just to be sure. Every one agreed the new Genalex EL84’s sound as good as or better than the vintage tubes. Eureka! We continued to listen to them off and on for about a month after that. The verdict. These are truly exceptional tubes! If all new production tubes were this good, there would be no vintage tube market! In a number of A – B listening tests not one person could tell them apart from the highly prized Amperex Bugle Boy EL84’s in the Monoblocks. We are proud to include them as standard equipment in our EL84 Monoblocks, and are confident you'll enjoy them as much as we do. Price is for a matched Quad. Includes free lifetime testing. |
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