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Hi Willie. There's much more to this: First of all, most NOS 45's, 2A3, 300B, etc., have a rectangular
plate structure, and usually a rectangular grid structure. So far, so good. Now, what happens when we insert a non-symmetrical
part into this desirable arrangement-- we place into it a filament structure that is made like a cheap toaster-- a folded-up filament
mess that is "M" or "W" shaped. This kind of tube can be euphonic (W.E. 300B), NOS 45, standard 2A3's, etc. While there may very well be some desirable characteristics, such
tubes cannot ever accurately reproduce the signal put into them. They always sound sick to me in some way or other with no exceptions. ENTER EML-- and the original RCA Single-Plate tubes which welded separate
filament strings onto a horizontal top and bottom filament bar. This process, while expensive, made the tube into an accurate reproducer. Now about meshies: there are phony ones out there where the plate merely has
holes in it. While these "premium" types can sound barely acceptable,
again, they will not accurately reproduce the input signal, but the EML
INTERWOVEN mesh plate WILL. Again, it's more expensive to build. TRUE mesh plates will not necessarily outperform solid plates in an
amp that was voiced around any non-true mesh plate tube. But, if the amp is voiced for an EML mesh-plate tube, no other tube
can equal it overall. I used JJ 2A3-40 solid plates at RMAF 2016. (See Stereophile's 2 reviews on it). This happened because I had a new amp design, and had voiced it for the JJ tube, and didn't have time to do likewise for the EML Mesh-Plates until after the show. The JJ 2A3-40 is a very interesting tube. Although it's cheap to
manufacture, it was designed by real engineers. The rectangular plate and grid structures are matched up with a rectangular filament structure! The cheap way to do this was to eschew all the welding of 8 or 11
separate parallel filaments onto bars, and simply run a single
filament, keeping it vertical. How? Simply by running some of it across the top and bottom of the support structure, and then keep running it truly vertical where
it's facing the grid and plate structures. Is this as good as 8 or 11 separate welded-on elements? We know that
there is a longer distance for the voltage differential between the two ends of the filament structure. (some may argue that a longer filament length has less voltage differential per inch, and that could be good....
maybe so, maybe not so...)..? In the case of a 300B, that would be 5 volts. In the case of a 45 or 2A3,
2.5 volts, which isn't nearly as bad to manage due to the universal law of squares. Did the somewhat compromised JJ 2A3-40 sound like real music? Well it's not too bad! Will it, under any circumstances, equal an EML Mesh-Plate in an amp that was set up for the EML Meshie? NO. Keep up the good work, Willie! Since you're experimenting into things, why not
splooge and get some EML mesh and then re-voice until every kind of music "socks-in"-- that is, until it just sounds right in every way. Use good recordings! Don't pay attention to any single "improvements".. Work for total accurate
rendering of the actual music being played. ---Dennis---
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