EAR 859 amp

are there any forum users with an experience with this amp?
i'm thinking of another system and although i am not a big fan of 834L preamp (too lean for my taste), i though about giving a chance to EAR 859.

not sure if its 13W would be enough to power some older spendors such as SP1, although not for any banging music. my tastes vary from gorecky and arvo part to sigur ros, johnny cash and flaming lips.

what is to be expected from it and what is a normal price to pay for a good piece? i think that a new one is around 2,400 pounds.

 

Hi there, the EAR 859/869 is an awesome amp, and highly under rated in the current scheme of things...I had heard of it being a little thin or cool before acquiring mine and it's true, but the dead easy fix is to simply replace the input 7DJ8 tubes with your flavour of NOS 6DJ8's-Pow ! Instant oats...nice and full but still more purity than most tube amps can dream about, in fact go the whole hog and source some NOS EL509/6KG6A output tubes-Bingo ! The whole thing is sweet and mellow, just right for a long night of listening to tunes till the cows come home....
Cheaper to retube than your pushbike !...trust me this design is a true legend just flip the bottles and enjoy its sublime abilities to render music like few others irrespective of price :JPS:

 

thanks coolhand,
just wondering - as it uses not the most usual choice of tubes - how are the things with availability of the mentioned NOS tubes and how much they approx. cost.
also what is your experience with a power it delivers. 13w doesn't seem much on paper and to be honest i spent some time long time ago with a rather charming but seriously flawed low power valve amp (audio innovations 300, OK i know you cant mix apples and...) and i wouldnt love to go back to days of soft clipping, muddled bass, rolled highs etc.
is there a s/h reasonably priced speaker that can make a synergy with 859?
cheers g

 

Hi Anubisgrau,

Some might say that the problem wasn't with the AI 300 but the speakers you were using with it. I've used one with very sensitive speakers and it didn't suffer from any of the shortcomings you describe. Horses for courses etc.

 

true i've never heard them with some extremely eff. speakers (over 100db sensitivity) but i did spent quite some time listening them with 92-93 dB tannoys, the combination did have wonderful mids but rolled off highs and very sloppy bass, even a cheap budget SS amp from these days (marantz pm 66SE) managed to keep extremes in a sort of full control.

 

wait, 6DJ8 - is that actually 6922? OK I see why it sounds fuller, it's a usual trick to lower a heating voltage when you want to achive more 'bloom'. how's about speed, did it slow the sound?

 

Well as far as tubes go, they are readily available just about anywhere, I have sourced them locally (Australia), and also from the US, Germany and the UK....I have a little collection happening and I occassionally swap pairs to enjoy another characteristic as is the case with tubes (referred to as tube rolling)...all I have acquired for small change in relative terms to what people are paying for the more common tubes such as 300B's, 6C33's, 845's etcc,etc...
The input tubes are in fact common 6 or 7DJ8's which range in price anywhere from 5 quid to 100 for the "esoteric rarities", the output tubes are less common but, only 20 minutes ago a matched pair of NOS 509's sold for a measly 10 quid on Aussie eBay (I was outbid !).
....the way the circuit operates however means that they will easily outlast virtually any other types used in other tube amps, I'm talking years of 24/7 useage, and they don't require constant re-biasing, in fact they never do as the circuit is self compensating !
Power wise, this amp will effortlessly drive my 89dB sensitivity speakers to greater levels without any apparent distortion than most would tolerate for extended listening, it will drive anything with at least 86+dB loudly in a 16' x 21' room such as I have, bass is well accounted for and quite honestly belittles many amps with higher rated outputs, for example, I don't have any issue using it (and prefer it for it's beautiful sound quality, and greater image depth and width) instead of my Bryston 150wrms mono blocks on the same speakers, it is PLENTY loud !!
Also due to its excellent design and output transformers, it will drive electrostatics such as Quad 57's, 63's etc without even a blink ( to reasonable levels of course ), unlike many other so called powerful tube and many solid state amps....Obviously the easier the load (i.e: impedance curve) the speakers present the more linear the power delivery, having said that the 859 does have 4,8 and 16 ohm speaker taps for optimum matching... Allay your fears of muddled bass and rolled off highs, this amp featured neither with several pairs of speakers I have used with it, it suprised the hell out of my hifi store owning friend when we compared it to a pair of 28 watt per channel push pull Audion Silver Night 300B mono blocks he was selling, his genuine quote: "Man !..it sounds far louder and better than the Audions, my god, thats the best single ended amp I've bloody heard !!!)
Trust me this is a very special amp so go buy your own, 'cause you'll never pry this out of my sweaty palms

 

..then don't buy the EAR 859 if you have similarly inefficient speakers.

thats the short answer.

the ''efficiency wars'' of the 90's led to many 'optimistic' efficiency figures being provided by manufacturers as you no doubt know.

why not look at a push-pull amp that provides more power. EL34, 6550, KT88 etc.

 

The 6DJ is not a 6922 although quite similar..although it may work. You are correct with regards to the slightly lower voltage ~ 5% difference in the case of 7DJ and 6DJ heater voltages...but each valve design and brand contributes to a variation in the sound quality irrespective of this also....

 

Had an EAR 869 for a while last year (£699 in pristine condition from Oxford Audio Consultants, oh how I love a bargain ) and thought it was glorious - both aesthetically and sonically.
I used it with a pair of Red Rose Rosebud monitors which were hardly an obvious partner at only about 87db and although I don't play at Bottleneck type levels I never felt that it was struggling for power.
I also recently had an EAR 8L6 integrated which is about 50 watts per channel but it didn't thrill me in the slightest and I'd definitely choose the 869 despite the lower power.

If you alredy have speakers what are they? If not then obviously choose some with decent sensitivity (Living Voice etc).

In terms of price I wouldn't pay any more than £900-1000 for a mint 859/869, even from a dealer, and privately (ebay etc) I'd guess £800 is nearer the mark for a mint boxed unit.

 

i have no intention to use it with passive speakers i have at home so this is not an issue - i will look for the proper speakers in a case i buy the amp.

i am just curious about this amp due to interesting design, rather untypical SET circuit, i do like valves but i dont like when they behave badly at fr. extremes and i've just thought if there is anyone to make it tight it might be TdP. i think this amp shouldn't cost more than 1000 quid s/h so the question what else (and better and easier for maintanence) is out there.
cheers g

 

There is not a lower maintenance single ended tube amp in existance to my knowlege....alternatively you may feel more comfortable with a class A solid state amp, a Sugden or perhaps Pass Labs Aleph series (single ended solid state), full bodied, smooth sounding and around twice the power in either of their smaller models of similar price compared to the 859 along with no glass to fret about...

 

thanx, very useful info. btw what amp you've upgraded to?

 

No problem glad to help.

Since I sold the 869 I've been using a solid state Perreaux integrated amp - initially a 200i (200w) which was seriously impressive, and now, after selling most of my gear at the start of the year due to financial circumstances, a smaller but still very nice Perreaux E160i (160w) - not an upgrade as such, more a sideways shift dictated by my Revel speakers and room layout.

 

just wondering (theoretically) how's about coupling EAR 859 with a high impedance, low sensitivity speaker such as a 15ohm version of LS3/5a?
22m2, 3 m ceiling room

 

The combination of 859 and LS3/5 would work fine I'd imagine, in fact I bought my 859 from a gentleman with LS 5/9's which share more than a few similarities with the 3/5's....he used the 16ohm tap and the result was room filling in his large lounge with them set up on the long wall.

 

aah. If you are going to get new speakers, then that's a different kettle of fish.

you could try them with Audionote speakers - available built from Audionote dealers, or as a kit from www.hificollective.co.uk if you have DIY woodworking skills.

Alternatively, a used pair of Living Voice Avatar/Auditorium can be had for not much. I used to clip mine with an 8w amp, so not as sensitive as first glance would make you think. I am one who is not scared of the volume control however

There are many other efficient speakers you can have for not too much, but Audionote and Living Voice are a damn good place to start IMO.

 

strangely, from the pic on internet it seems that 859 has only one pair of speaker taps, could it be that 869 introduced multiple taps along with a pre/power split or i am unable to figure it out???

could it be it has only 8ohm speaker taps?

 

yep it is definitely just 8 ohm terminal

 

The 869 added another post, but on either to get all tap positions (4-8 or16) you need to move a tap on each transformer, easily done after you unscrew the bottom cover...