General Asylum: REVIEW: Diyhifisupply The Ella Amplifier (Tube) by Till E.

Model:	The Ella
Category:	Amplifier (Tube)
Suggested Retail Price:	$ 429
Description:	El34 40 Watt PP Kit Integrated Stereo Amplifier - The Ella
Manufacturer URL:	Diyhifisupply
Manufacturer URL:	Diyhifisupply

Review by Till E. ( A ) on March 16, 2003 at 18:47:06
IP Address: 12.87.141.66

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for the The Ella

Ella was the best amp I never heard.
Last year, at the mid-West Audio Fest, the DIYCable room featured Billies playing almost non-stop. I tried to hear Ella but the crowd wasn't having it. SET's, especially 300B's, are IN!
The lowly EL-34, although known to old-timers like myself as a wonderfully musical, even sweet-sounding tube, was, GASP!, a creature of PUSH-PULL amps. And with so many audiophiles turning to high efficiency speakers, we could finally rid ourselves of THOSE THINGS.
And I have several speakers of about 100dB. And 2A3 amps. But I wanted to know what more watts would mean to vintage Altec horns and JBL woofers designed to handle 100's of watts.
So I ordered Ella.
All you want to know about spec's, pictures and assembly is available on the Forum and the DIYHIFISupply site. Let me just say that the chassis is huge as are the eyelets on the tube sockets and the 50 or so point-to-point wire connections are quite accessible. Mostly.
It needs to be told that Ella was designed to amplify a CD player. Period. One input. One output. A passive volume control. VERY high sensitivity so the 1.8 to 2.2 volt output of most CDP's will get the job done. That means that you're pre-amp is not invited. You might want to upgrade to a DACT or Goldpoint but the Alps sounds (or doesn't sound)pretty good.
First Impressions: fired up right from the start the Ella is almost silent and plays music.A little boominess on the bass and some sizzle on top that smoothed out after 15 to 20 hours. The documentation recommends 50 hours minimum burn-in. I waited a little more before critical listening because I had built it with ICW Clarity caps in the coupling and output stages and I knew they took longer to settle down. These caps are highly detailed but without the brightness usually heard with some others.
First impression is soundstage and imaging. Much bigger and deeper soundstage than with 2A3 Paramours or Dynaco ST-70. This might be, overall, the most impressive thing about Ella. Imaging, and I'm an imaging guy, is precise, and the relative sizes of instruments are right. These impressions are right from first start-up and don't change over time.
An overblown bass is also a first characteristic. Ba-Boom! Isn't it interesting to contrast that with the other review here that says electronica won't play well, not enough bass! Well, the bass has settled down now. But I do have JBL 2226's on the bottom in big bass reflex cabinets.
The other hallmark at 50 hours is a somewhat overly bright, and on some recordings, shrill upper treble. Worse, massed voices and/or instruments were congested. The SACD of the Mormon Tabernacle "Battle Hymn..." and the Gabrielli SACD with the Chicago, Phil; and Cleve Brass stand out as poor.
Once again, it must be taken into account that the speakers are vintage Altec 811's with 806A drivers with aluminum diaphragms, a somewhat bright system.
The mid-range, however, the three octaves centered on Middle "C", are EL-34 gorgeous. And I thought I knew what to do about the problems.
I had ordered the optional power supply choke for $19. I installed it, waited about 10 more hours of playing while at work and listened. That $19 doubles the value of this amplifier. The background went from very quiet to dead silent. And dead silent created a difference in sound that was, at once, sweeter and more detailed. I can't overstate this difference. I have several benchmarks, one of which is clearly remembering
Infinite Slope Model 3's driven by Counterpoint electronics. That's detail. Another is the collective memory of playing in orchestra's, starting with the local, pretty good community group from the time I was 14 and continuing on to those at Interlochen and a fairly major university orchestra. And dance bands. Anyone remember "combo-orks" sheets: Satin Doll, Five o'Clock Jump, etc., etc.? So I think I know what the instruments of the orchestra sound like. I also spent many Thursday mornings in the audience at Severance Hall listening to the Cleveland rehearsing. I want John Mack, Bernie Goldschmidt and Donald White where they belong.
The Ella with the choke sounds like music. Instruments have the correct tone and timber. And the little things are heard with changes in register and what happens when limits are reached at the top and bottom of an instruments range.
The upper treble was still a problem. I don't feel that my CD player is shrill or etchy but the highs were overly bright. But this is DIY, right? We don't build components, we build systems. The crossover for the JBL/Altec had a cheap Dayton Metal film on the tweeter attenuation circuit. I changed it for an Auricap of the same value. Let it play. What a difference!
Now, with over 100 hours on this set-up, this is Ella:
On Joni Mitchell's Gold CD Blue you can hear her moving at the microphone, you can hear the pedals being relased on the piano and the 12 string resonates like a Sitar. And her voice is just as sweet as you could want.Especially the intro to Track 7, "This Flight Tonight".
Vivaldi Flute Concerto In D, Chesky CD78, Track 13, the Viola behind the Flute can sound almost like a woodwind with other amps. With Ella it's clearly a stringed instrument and has gut strings. The First Violin on this, as well as the Reference Recordings Scheherazade is absolutely the most beautiful recorded violin I've ever heard. None of the "screechiness" near the bridge is sacrificed for the sweetness of the middle register.
The Gabrielli is now the beautiful brass choir it should be. This music has a special place for me. As a boy, I was allowed to "relax" with my "Music Minus One" record after I had finshed an hour practising the Arban's excercises and I played the Johann Pezel "Suite" over and over until I got the contrapuntalism right. "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic", I don't care if you voted for Clinton and just got home from an atheists against Bush and the Iraq War rally it will bring tears to your eyes.
Woodwinds aren't just woodwinds but Oboe, English Horn, Bassoon, etc. It's not often you can pick out the contra-Bassoon doubling the String Basses but you can on the Cleve orchestra Sony Classics Beethoven 3. And Bassoon in general is tough to pick out. Conductors strive for ensemble playing but it's tone, on a poor recording, or a less resolving system blends too well with the French horn or the Trombones. Hell, when we got tired of counting measures on the Tchaikowsky 6 we used to play the Bassoon parts. Got sent to my cabin at Interlochen for doing that! On the other hand, I was listening to the Phillips 50 Greatest Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique and I played an Oboe-English Horn entrance over and over and it sounded like an Accordion each time! LOL!
Blood, Sweat and Tears; "Child Is Father, etc" SACD. This may be the best SACD so far (But the Cleve Mendelssohn and the Midori Sinfonia Concertante are right there). Track 9 solos are so real, the kickdrum so powerful and the Sax riffs, whoa!
Speaking of Saxophone, all of "An Electrifying Evening With Dizzy Gillespie" sounds great on the 2A3 Paramours. But on Ella, Track one just SUCKS! And then "Salt Peanuts" sounds great. A good amplifier shows the good and the bad. Nothing hiddden or smoothed over.
Finally, weirdo that I am, I listen to the Sargent "Messiah" fairly often. No, it's not that, being Jewish, I feel cheated out of Christmas. It's Proctor, Shirley-Quirk and Harwood. Oh yeah, Young is okay, too. These are great recordings of human voice whatever you feel about the work as a whole. So beautiful on the Paramours but Ella takes it to a different level. And when Mr. Young get's going on the "Trumpet Shall Sound" and it does, Oh My!
So that's Ella. I guess I like her. I still have to disconnect the volume pot and try the Goldpoint's. And I kind of miss having a pre-amp, having grown up with vinyl. I suppose it's obsoleted by CD. But some will argue that dynamics are missed. As I've written elsewhere, not using a pre-amp is kinda like teeing off with a 3 wood or long iron. You could reach with a long drive and chip, but you sliced your drive into the woods on the last hole so you leave the pre-amp, errrr the driver in the bag.
Then there's triode mode, lowering negative feedback, 6N1P driver, 6550's, Rikens across the filaments, etc, etc, etc.

Product Weakness: This is important and isn't in the body of the review: I haven't heard the Halcros, Tenors, Wavac's etc so I can't say
where this $600 amp would falter. But I have heard the EL-34
and 6550 80's and 90's Conrad Johnson Premiers and the Ella is
clearly better.
Product Strengths: Soundstage and imaging, inner detail, punch

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	N.A.
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	N.A.
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Sony SCD-775 SACD with mods by SACDMods.com
Speakers:	Altec 811B/806A horns crossed over with 2nd order B.W. at 800 Hz to JBL 2226J
Cables/Interconnects:	Magnet wire speaker cables and John Risch cross connect IC's by DIYCable.com
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	As stated in the review
Room Size (LxWxH):	15 x 12 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	Risch Quick and Dirty tube traps
Time Period/Length of Audition:	2 weeks, after 100 hour break in
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Monster 2000
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition):	compared in room to 2A3 Paramours with Foreplay as well as passive Goldpoint and Dynaco ST-70 restoration with Foreplay and passive Goldpoint

Product Weakness:	This is important and isn't in the body of the review: I haven't heard the Halcros, Tenors, Wavac's etc so I can't say where this $600 amp would falter. But I have heard the EL-34 and 6550 80's and 90's Conrad Johnson Premiers and the Ella is clearly better.
Product Strengths:	Soundstage and imaging, inner detail, punch