I own and listen to TU-8600 for a while now. Besides that, I also own and listen by rotation all my 20-plus tube amps, mostly vintage and PP. The Elekit is my second tube amp from Japan. My first was a Sansui 1000A receiver.
With 1 vintage 12AD7 (substitue for 12ax7), and 2 vintage Telefunken ECC82, driving my Gold Aero Premium 300B, the TU-8600 right outta box, sounds a little sibilent on voices. A lot of "SSSSSSSSS". On other sound reproduction without voice, it actually sounds quite competently put together. It has ultra low noise floor, good gain (read: drive sensitivity), that magic middle/highs of directly heated 300B, and bass comes quite convincing. Compared to my other vintage tube pp amps (MC240, 8b, Mullard 5-10, a few Leak TL series amps running KT88, 6BQ5, and even Futterman OTL-3, the TU-8600 still hold up quite well in the department of producing "oooooomph". Plus a huge bonus of the 300B signature sound.
I believe the reason the TU-8600 runs so well, may be due to its newly designed FET-driven power supply, its autobiasing circuitry, and the weel executed OPT irons.
So I think it has potential to receive better irons. Considering Hashimoto’s trafo’s a good alternative for TU-8600, I bought a pair of H-30-3.5S O.P.T.’s and installed it. It came with potting and a square tall case, which luckily could be fitten laid down on its side on the trafo bridge. There was just enough speace under the hood with the top cover installed. But because it only has two windings, short of the thid feedback winding of the Elekit’s original OPT’s, I have to use its 16 ohm output taps for NFB feeding.
Result: stunning. FR was up a notch in the highs, distortion even lower, and it actually runs better with my JBL 4320 (2-way mon 96dB/W/m SPL) giving much deeper bass response and better control there.
That cost me nearly $900 though.
Terence
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