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Esoteric Audio Research 516 + photos of the EAR 802 (mm) and EAR "The Preamp" (mm/mc)

Mr. Underhill and Mike.
I paid a trifle more than 4100£ for the 912 in Norway. A very good price. Then I swopped it for an 868PL and 509 v1 which I sold and got a little more than that out of it. Our of that I paid for the 508 and 516. The balance went to cover part of the hifi loan I took out to fund my flight towards audio nirvana.
 
Hi Mike,

At £4,100 I would be there. I put bounds around these things as I feel there needs to be a balance.

Peter,

So having lived with all three, if in different systems, how would you compare and contrast the 802 with the 868 and 912?

M
 
M.
The problem is that my systems have changed a lot. I think the biggest change has been both the Quad ESL 57s and the EAR 516. But in my tiny room I had a hard time telling the EAR 868L/PL and EAR 912 apart. I did not detect very much between the 912 and 868L/PL when I had them in my house. Probably because of the 47 Labs 4722 "Lens" speakers and the various power amps that I went through (Sugden and Amcron). I now have more bottom and a better fleshed out tonality across the range with my EAR 516 and Quad ESL57s. But that is almost a given thing.

I like the basic clear and realistic tonality of the EAR pres and power amps, and with the 802 at the very least I have enough of what I had with the EAR 912 and 868 not to miss those two. Of that I am sure. This is when I listen through the line stage. I simply haven't listened to enough vinyl to be able to be as definitive. But when I first got the EAR 802 I tried listening to my MC cart straight into it, and it was dead quiet. No noise whatsoever.

When I swopped the EAR 912 for the EAR 868PL/EAR 509 mk. 1, the new owner was very happy with the improvement it brought to his set-up. He had his main listening rig set-up in a big room which would most likely allow for improvements to be more apparent than in the cramped space that I call my study.
 
EDITED to reflect another round of checking:

Re. EAR 802 phono stage:
I have ordered some NOS Brimar valves at a good enough price from the Bay. They should be very neutral-sounding I have read.

The arm/cart + interconnects + the SUT have all been ruled out because the fault stayed the same. Switching the valves [EDIT] DID NOT move the fault the fault to the left channel. So NO ECC 83 valve is down.

There are 2 x Valvo valves in the MM stage now - one with the sloped top, one without. NONE is faulty. So now I can compare NOS Valvos with NOS Brimar.

Later I may take a punt at some NOS Tesla valves that I have found at a fair price.:cool: I also found some NOS Telefunken valves that were priced at more than three times the price of the NOS Teslas :eek:.
 
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Oddly, Peter, when my 912 came to me from E.A.R. after a service, one of the two m/c stages wasn't right. The sound was down on one channel and I got leak-through to the other stage (but not the converse). I was a bit annoyed when I'd isolated the problem, and suspect it is a faulty valve (which may well be ECC83). They changed one, but didn't tell me which !

One of these days it'll have to go back to E.A.R., I s'pose, but as I don't have my Urushi on the other arm at the mo', it doesn't bother me unduly. Easiest thing is to open it up and try another valve, but I need the CD input attenuating anyway and I really don't seem to have the time or inclination to investigate as long as the music flows so well from all sources.

I have a valve guru friend and an accomplished DIY hifi 'manufacturer' friend, so help is at hand if I asked. However, I bought the 912 so that I could have two arms/cart's in situ at the flick of a switch, and haven''t been able to avail myself of that facility yet after 20 months. Too much tennis and house/garden maintenance along with declining investigative energy. :)
 
Well, BOTH the NOS Valvo valves are good - this time I was very careful and when I switched valves the problem stayed isolated to the LEFT channel. I also checked the interconnects to the TT and the problem is isolated to the LEFT channel when I use the phono stage. From my DAC there is no problem.

Good thing is that I have a mono switch ...

Tomorrow I will change the 802 line stage valves from one side to the other - like for like - just to make sure that they are not involved in the fault in any way. If nothing gives, I will have to have the darn thing looked at. This time I will try my local "expert" first, then send it on to EAR if it is a major thing.
 
Hi Peter,

I LIKE the thought of the 868 being on a par with the 912. A review I read said they were very close.

That said when i bought the 868 the chap who was selling it said he couldn't get it to work ell in his system, he had even returned it to base to make sure it was OK. Works brilliantly for me. So, as always, these things depend on multiple factors.

As I will only be buying a 912 second hand there will be no opportunity to try it first.

M
 
Got my 912 new after tried a loan one from Ear. Absolutely never regretted it.
Never heard anything that comes close particularly the phono stage.
 
Mr Underhill said:
Hi Peter,

I LIKE the thought of the 868 being on a par with the 912. A review I read said they were very close.

That said when i bought the 868 the chap who was selling it said he couldn't get it to work ell in his system, he had even returned it to base to make sure it was OK. Works brilliantly for me. So, as always, these things depend on multiple factors.

As I will only be buying a 912 second hand there will be no opportunity to try it first.

M
Click to expand...
Mr Underhill.
In my very small room I doubt that I would be able to hear a difference. - I just had my hearing checked, and my hearing is good on my right ear and just a little down on my left. - Then again, if I had used the EAR 912 with my Quad 57s, I may have been able to hear a difference. As it was my system was in a state of flux at the time. If you can afford it by any means try it out, you can always sell on and not lose much if anything in the process. You may need patience to sell sell it on, too. And there will always be the odd bugger who tries to make you sell at too low a price. If I see an EAR 912 over in these parts, I will let you know.
Kind regards,
Peter
 
I have been a bit busy, what with the World Cup, end of the school year "stuff" and all that holiday I am able to take because I am a teacher - we actually work 42,5 hours a week when school is in session so that we may have extra time off during summer, around Christmas etc. The stipulated working hours are 37 hours a week in Denmark unless you are some kind of (middle) management - a thing to be avoided like the plague during these years of austerity in the educational sector where we are asked to cut back 2% every year, year after year.

I have listened to very little music these past months because of the fantastic weather here and for that reason I have decided to postpone having my EAR 508 repaired locally. I will have that done in the autumn and later in the year I will send it to Tim for a general service. If I can make him add MC functionality to it, I will. But I doubt that he will. And why should he change what was perfect in the first place ...:)
 
Well, on October 3 the EAR 802 will go to EAR c/o Olivia de Paravicini for a full service including repair of a fault in the phono stage and a noisy balance pot. When it comes back, with it will be a set of matched valves for the EAR 516. When the EAR 516 was serviced half the matched valves arrived back crushed to shards in their separate box.

My EAR amps will then be almost as new.:cool:
 
Having just packed up my EAR 802 pre for the journey to pre-Brexit UK, I remembered a list of EAR Yoshino amps I gathered a while ago:

Power amps: EAR 509 (1x100) + Mki + Mkii (1x110) + Jubilee (1x100), EAR 510, EAR 511 (1x100), EAR 516 (2x50), EAR 518 (?), EAR 519 (1x100), EAR 521 (1x500), EAR 529 (1x500), EAR 534 (2x50), EAR 549 (1x220), EAR 861 (2x32), EAR 890 (2x70), EAR Yoshino 30A + 30B (2x30), EAR G32/G34, Paravicini M100 (1x100)

Integrated amps: EAR 8L6 (2x50), EAR 834 (2x50), EAR 834T (2x100), EAR 859 (2x13), EAR 869 (2x15), EAR 899 (2x70), EAR V12 (2x50), EAR V20 (2x24)

Preamps: EAR "the Preamp", EAR 802 mk. I +Mk II, + Mk III, EAR 834L (+ Deluxe), EAR 864, EAR 868L/PL, EAR 912, EAR G88, EAR P52 (with 52 valves in the circuit), Paravicini 312.

Phono pre-amps: EAR 324, EAR 834P Signature + Deluxe, EAR 88PB

Headphone amp: EAR HP4
 
My EAR 802 is back and is waming up gently with s/h "Black Market Clash" by The Clash which I bought in Amsterdam last week when I was there with a group of students. The vinyl looks unplayed and there are absolutely no pops.

With the EAR 802 I got a partial copy of the owner's manual WITHOUT the most interesting pages:
Circuit diagram ...................... 4-5
Layout and service Information .....6
P.S.U. Circuit ...........................7

Would anyone here have these pages on file?

The cost of repair of phono stage and noisy balance pot came to a decent 235£ including shipping back and forth to the UK.
 
So in conclusion, both my EAR 802 and EAR 516, which I bought in Munich, have been serviced and sound wonderful. The total outlay for service of the two s/h amps have been around 800£ on top of the purchase price. Would I have bought the two amps if I had known that within 5 months I would have to add 800£ to the price I paid originally? Probably not.
 
Tim de Paravicini writes that he never produced a user manual for the EAR 802 originally, and understandably he does not want to make up a complete one just for me.

He kindly sent me 2 Edicron PL508 valves and I just ordered 2 more in order to have a complete set of new output valves for the EAR 516.

Today I found very good photos of Tim's first preamp, "The Preamp" which looks just like the EAR 802 on the outside but is a different beast altogether with a beefier power supply and a valve MC only section + a gain pot on the backside. The photos also show the underside of the pre-amp board.

Earlier in the thread I posted some photos Sent to me by a current owner of "The Preamp."
 
Post #35 will show you the 3 photos of al2000's "The Preamp" I posted earlier on in the thread:https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/thr...r-the-preamp-mm-mc.213212/page-2#post-3343524

Here are the most interesting photos of Esoteric Audio Research "The Preamp" (front + back with small black gain pot and cut out vents not present on my EAR 802 + inside from the top + underside - preamp boards):
s-l1600.jpg

s-l1600.jpg


s-l1600.jpg


s-l1600.jpg
 
Looking at the rear of that, Tim presumably regressed on the distance between inputs. The 912 is a pig in this respect, it being virtually impossible to loosen/tighten those increasingly prevalent RCA plugs in the centre bank. Even fixed RCAs are difficult to access ! A bit more forethought in design..............
 
Yes that is easy to see. But you have plenty of better quality XLR + RCA inputs available and a choice of MM/MC. Did I mention the remote control function?
EAR-912-preamplifier-13.jpg
 
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