3.1 Overview

3.8 Mullard M8100

The Mullard house sound is much warmer compared to the GE tubes reviewed above. The warm tone is especially complimentary to female vocals where sultry voices such as Norah Jones and Dianna Krell’s come across as positively seductive. With rock music, the full body bass has a visceral impact.  These tubes don’t have the sweetest treble of the EF95 family (that title goes to the 6ZH1P-EV), but they nevertheless manage to give the music a sense of presence and body. Trumpets and strings unfortunately don’t have the most prat or the most natural decay but these are sins of omission that I could happily live with.

                Bass: 20

                Mid: 20

                Treble: 18

                Detail: 18

                Soundstage: 18

                Total: 94/100

3.10 Voshkod 6ZH1P-EV

I first became intrigued about these Russian tubes when several head-fi members began posting wildly contradictory comments about them – so dissimilar were people’s impressions about these tubes that I just had to find out for myself what they really sound like.  After some research I discovered that many versions of this tube were manufactured in various factories in the former USSR, and by far the best sounding version is the Voshkod 6ZH1P-EV which was made for cold war rockets.  I got my matched pair from Yen Audio and first impression out of the package proved that in keeping with its military heritage, these tubes are some of the most solidly constructed tubes I’ve ever encountered. Sonically, these tubes pleasantly surprised me with their stunningly clear and transparent treble and authoritative sounding bass that compliments my HD650 as well as my Grados.  Vocals are similarly impressive with a level of realism that is what I love about the ‘tube sound’. These are my favorite EF95 tubes.

                Bass: 19

                Mid: 20

                Treble: 19

                Detail: 19

                Soundstage: 18

                Total: 95/100