Willsenton R8 Owners & Discussion Thread

[08Boss302]

 

45 minutes ago, bruceathome said:

Just ordered an R8 with the EL34 tubes. Now for the long wait. My first  tube amplifier - I’m really looking forward to hearing it!

 

I am sure you will be happy. This was my first tube amp too.  Thus far I am very happy with the amp and the experience from purchase to taking delivery of it.

I am keen to roll some tubes but I am enjoying it as it is for now as I have not been offended or disappointed with the std supplied Willsenton tubes but that said, know that things can be improved and very much looking forward to that in due time.

[echorec]

The Melz 1578s arrived today and boy are they neat! For those that don't know, they were developed for Soviet era nuclear facilities and military applications. Here's a pic of them warming up in the R8. They sound really good! I'll do some critical listening this weekend to pick out the differences, but for now just enjoying them without thought. Hope you all have a happy healthy new year and roll lots of tubes in 2021!

 

 

[muon*]

....................

Edited July 22, 2021 by muon*

[Candan]

Frikkin' love this thread!  

 

Where is my Willsenton R8 

 

Happy New Year everyone!  

[TonyAV]

I just got my R8 after a long wait (UPS tracking - what a mess). Everything seems good on arrival. Purchased the unit with the Psvane KT88 upgrade option. For future tube rolling I also bought a pair of Silvania JAN 6SL7 WGT (1950's) and a pair of Melz 1578 (6NS7/6N8S) for the pre amp section, and some Genalex Gold Lion KT77. This thread has been a blessing.

 

Peace,

Tony

[Candan]

12 minutes ago, TonyAV said:

I just got my R8 after a long wait (UPS tracking - what a mess). Everything seems good on arrival. Purchased the unit with the Psvane KT88 upgrade option. For future tube rolling I also bought a pair of Silvania JAN 6SL7 WGT (1950's) and a pair of Melz 1578 (6NS7/6N8S) for the pre amp section, and some Genalex Gold Lion KT77. This thread has been a blessing.

 

Peace,

Tony

Ship by ocean or air?  How long did you wait after you placed your order?

 

Mine shipped by ocean on December 1st.   I'm told to start expecting UPS tracking any day now....   Although UPS ground from West Coast to East is going to be another 2 weeks....   The agony 

[xlr8or]

14 minutes ago, TonyAV said:

I just got my R8 after a long wait (UPS tracking - what a mess). Everything seems good on arrival. Purchased the unit with the Psvane KT88 upgrade option. For future tube rolling I also bought a pair of Silvania JAN 6SL7 WGT (1950's) and a pair of Melz 1578 (6NS7/6N8S) for the pre amp section, and some Genalex Gold Lion KT77. This thread has been a blessing.

 

Peace,

Tony

 

Please share some pics.

[chinook9]

1 minute ago, Candan said:

Ship by ocean or air?  How long did you wait after you placed your order?

 

Mine shipped by ocean on December 1st.   I'm told to start expecting UPS tracking any day now....   Although UPS ground from West Coast to East is going to be another 2 weeks....   The agony 

 

I wasn't aware that we could choose boat shipping.  How much did you pay for shipping?

[Candan]

1 minute ago, chinook9 said:

 

I wasn't aware that we could choose boat shipping.  How much did you pay for shipping?

Going from memory (so not too much faith please!)  I paid $180 ish for shipping ocean.  Air was about $380.  The extra $200 seemed like a waste.   At the time....     

[chinook9]

17 minutes ago, Candan said:

Going from memory (so not too much faith please!)  I paid $180 ish for shipping ocean.  Air was about $380.  The extra $200 seemed like a waste.   At the time....     

Thank you!  Good information. 

[TonyAV]

53 minutes ago, Candan said:

Ship by ocean or air?  How long did you wait after you placed your order?

 

Mine shipped by ocean on December 1st.   I'm told to start expecting UPS tracking any day now....   Although UPS ground from West Coast to East is going to be another 2 weeks....   The agony 

It was shipped by air. I ordered it Nov 17 and it arrived Dec 21, just a couple of days before I left town to visit my daughter. 

Returned back to town before yesterday, and I have been playing the amp since then. I paid US$380....way too much. I do believe that they had more orders that they can handled and the holiday rush didn't help. The UPS tracking drove me nuts, so inaccurate and wrong. Yong Lee was very responsive to my e-mails since I told him way ahead of time the dates that I was leaving for vacation. It was close. Two weeks turned into almost five weeks.

 

Peace,

Tony

 

 

[TonyAV]

1 hour ago, xlr8or said:

 

Please share some pics.

 

[Candan]

47 minutes ago, TonyAV said:

It was shipped by air. I ordered it Nov 17 and it arrived Dec 21, just a couple of days before I left town to visit my daughter. 

Returned back to town before yesterday, and I have been playing the amp since then. I paid US$380....way too much. I do believe that they had more orders that they can handled and the holiday rush didn't help. The UPS tracking drove me nuts, so inaccurate and wrong. Yong Lee was very responsive to my e-mails since I told him way ahead of time the dates that I was leaving for vacation. It was close. Two weeks turned into almost five weeks.

 

Peace,

Tony

 

 

That's too long for air, and far too much money for it!  Since I went ocean, I'm going to need to lower my expectations in lead time I suppose.  Thanks for the heads up!

[TonyAV]

5 minutes ago, Candan said:

That's too long for air, and far too much money for it!  Since I went ocean, I'm going to need to lower my expectations in lead time I suppose.  Thanks for the heads up!

Believe me, it was very frustrating for me. Paying that much, and taking too long, is not a nice combination. But at the end it arrived ok and I'm very much enjoying the purchase. 

 

Peace,

Tony

[Candan]

48 minutes ago, TonyAV said:

 

LEDs look great!

[Zed Zed]

19 hours ago, Candan said:

That's too long for air, and far too much money for it!  Since I went ocean, I'm going to need to lower my expectations in lead time I suppose.  Thanks for the heads up!

 

You are right. I paid 768 USD for the amp and 342 USD for air freight! Looking back at that choice, I think I must have been temporarily insane. The freight has cost me about 44% of the value of the amp itself!  HST, I don't think I would have the patience to wait for a slow boat from China, even if it saved me 200 dollars. I suppose the way I am looking at this now is that the total price of 1,110 USD still represents amazing value and there is nothing in the UK that offers the promise and potential of the R8 at anything like its price. I ordered on 27th December, so am hoping that the unit arrives around the middle of this month. (BTW, HNY to everyone).

[echorec]

The Melz 1578 in the R8 are interesting. They are airy and expand the soundstage, but at the expense of some midrange. You have to be very careful what you pair them with. I tried them with the RCA 5691s, which are also airy and extend the soundstage, and it was like doubling down on their qualities. The result was an exaggerated soundstage that was too "hazy" and soft for me. I like them better with the TS 6SU7-GTYs, which have a dense, rich tone. That combo sounds great. Keep in mind I'm comparing while using EL34Bs. I haven't tried these combos with the KT88s yet.

 

 

[TonyAV]

1 hour ago, echorec said:

The Melz 1578 in the R8 are interesting. They are airy and expand the soundstage, but at the expense of some midrange. You have to be very careful what you pair them with. I tried them with the RCA 5691s, which are also airy and extend the soundstage, and it was like doubling down on their qualities. The result was an exaggerated soundstage that was too "hazy" and soft for me. I like them better with the TS 6SU7-GTYs, which have a dense, rich tone. That combo sounds great. Keep in mind I'm comparing while using EL34Bs. I haven't tried these combos with the KT88s yet.

 

 

Thanks for the information echorec. I'm expecting some Melz 1578 tubes in a few weeks (from Ukraine). I will be ruling them with my KT88s. I'm also expecting some EL34 (Genalex).

 

Peace,

Tony

[echorec]

45 minutes ago, TonyAV said:

Thanks for the information echorec. I'm expecting some Melz 1578 tubes in a few weeks (from Ukraine). I will be ruling them with my KT88s. I'm also expecting some EL34 (Genalex).

 

Peace,

Tony

 

Awesome! Are you getting the one's with perforated anode holes like mine or solid plates? From what I've read, they are very different sounding. Also, be careful with the holed ones, as there are some out there being sold with fake stamps and not the real deal. There's a thread on another forum somewhere that shows how to ID the real ones.

 

So far the holed ones are the only 6SN7 type tube I've tried that not only effects the tone, but also the soundstage. In my earlier tests, the other 3 6SN7 type tubes did not effect soundstage.

 

Have fun and post your thoughts after you've spent time with them!

Edited January 2, 2021 by echorec

[TonyAV]

16 minutes ago, echorec said:

 

Awesome! Are you getting the one's with perforated anode holes like mine or solid plates? From what I've read, they are very different sounding. Also, be careful with the holed ones, as there are some out there being sold with fake stamps and not the real deal. There's a thread on another forum somewhere that shows how to ID the real ones.

 

So far the holed ones are the only 6SN7 type tube I've tried that not only effects the tone, but also the soundstage. In my earlier tests, the other 3 6SN7 type tubes did not effect soundstage.

 

Have fun and post your thoughts after you've spent time with them!

Yes. With the holes in the Anode. Its always a gamble when dealing with tubes. I’m hoping for the best. Here’s a picture. 

 

[echorec]

21 hours ago, TonyAV said:

Yes. With the holes in the Anode. Its always a gamble when dealing with tubes. I’m hoping for the best. Here’s a picture. 

 

 

It looks like these might not be a real 1578s. In particular, the one of the left doesn't have steel brackets/mica supports or the mica spacer with ledges (this one looks oval, which is unique to the Melz 6N8S). Also, the paint and font on the glass is different - It is bright white and not sharp. The real ones have a slightly silver paint and the stamp is sharper. The violet color on the metal bases is suspect too. Should be more blueish-violet. I think these might possibly be faked 6N8S, which are real Melz tubes, but not real 1578s. I hope I'm wrong, but would love to hear others' thoughts on these.

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by echorec
qualifiers added

[TonyAV]

8 minutes ago, echorec said:

 

It looks like these might not be a real 1578s. In particular, the one of the left doesn't have steel brackets or the mica spacer with ledge (this one looks oval, which is unique to the Melz 6N8S). Also, the paint and font on the glass is different - It is white and not sharp. The real ones have a silver paint and the stamp is sharper. The violet color on the metal bases is suspect too. Should be blue. I think these might possibly be faked 6N8S, which are real Melz tubes, but not real 1578s. I hope I'm wrong, but would love to hear others' thoughts on these.

 

Uffff!

I was afraid of that since I'm not a tube expert. I'm always adamant to deal with vendors from Russian or ex-Soviet nation, and I bet you there's a lot more good vendors than bad ones, but every time I deal with them, its a problem. 

 

Peace,

Tony

[echorec]

Just now, TonyAV said:

Uffff!

I was afraid of that since I'm not a tube expert. I'm always adamant to deal with vendors from Russian or ex-Soviet nation, and I bet you there's a lot more good vendors than bad ones, but every time I deal with them, its a problem. 

 

Peace,

Tony

 

I'm not an expert and am basing my suspicions on what I could find during my research of these tubes. Perhaps some tube experts can weigh in: @xlr8or @muon* @Graywulf ?

[echorec]

Also here is a diagram I found on another forum:

 

 

 

 

[xlr8or]

48 minutes ago, echorec said:

Also here is a diagram I found on another forum:

 

 

Just confirming the original 1578 metal bases had the rectangular shaped mica plates as shown in the pic above. The 6N8S metal bases had elliptical shaped mica plates instead.

 

The date codes shown on the begrant pic suggest 1986 production but these appear to me to be relabelled at a much later date and possibly touched up after market Also, the tube on the left looks like a 6N8S Melz tube but the one on the right looks like the real deal with the rectangular plates and the longer reinforced brackets on the inside of the glass envelope further bracing the top mica plate.