Deutsche Elektronenröhren Manufaktur GmbH 8th Anniversary

Hi!

Today we are celebrating 8 years of producing ELROG tubes at Deutsche Elektronenröhren Manufaktur GmbH.

During the last year we developed some exciting new tube types called ONE, TWO and THREE.

These were first announced in a post in March. The goal was to achieve an entirely cylindrical arrangement of the electrode structures.

To reach this we loosened the requirement to match the electric parameters of existing tube types. Hence the new naming for these.

The three models were announced as completed in time for the presentation at the High End in Munich.

All three of the new models had been in use in our system in Munich.

All three of these new tube types are exclusively produced for use in amplifiers, preamplifiers and DACs of my Intrepid product line.

The ONE mainly for use as DAC output stage or line preamp output tube if less gain is required.

The TWO is meant for use as the output stage in the preamp or driver tube in the power amplifiers. 

While the ONE and THREE are unique new tubes which do not have existing equivalents, we managed to tweak the TWO such that it can replace a 801A or 10Y. This gave the chance to evaluate the advantage of the round electrode structure against the traditional construction in terms of sound. Here a description from an owner of a silver 10Y line preamplifier, and silver 801A drive 300B monos:

I had a marathon session yesterday with some record collectors. The whole evening was magical honestly. Gathering in my mind about what I heard with the TWO in the mono block position: They are REALLY silent, it's crazy..., at full volume I don't hear any tube noise/hiss. Really impressive, it's like more silent than a solid state amp... (not that I had many, but still...) They are fast/detailed. In that sense I used it in 2 configurations. With/out mono sub. With the sub it's the best results. The integration is very smooth and very textured. The extensions on both sides are amazing. Highs, mids and (very) lows are 1 working force...  When the sub is out of the picture, the system gest more force (I guess because if less sub power loss) and becomes even more textured. In my system it becomes very articulate, borderline a tiny bit too much. On the other hand, I fee it's my tweeter that has trouble with the energy flow that's liberated from the TWO. The dynamics are very impressive for tube gear. It's beyond tube sound, in the best way for my ears.

After introduction of these tubes under my own name, I decided to also rebrand the top tier variants of other models.

Here the TM801A and TM300B.

The standard and molybdenum plate version of each remain under the Elrog brand

Some sound descriptions from users of the different versions can be found in last year's anniversary post.

All of these types can be ordered as well as the 'big boys':

The molybdenum variants of 211 and 845 are also branded under my name now:

New wooden presentation box for the ER242 and ER284

Thanks to everybody who helped to make 8 years of electron tube manufacturing in Germany possible!

Best regards

Thomas

Differential Silver 10Y Linestage and EC8020 Phono in Classic Portrait Chassis

Hi!

After introduction of my new chassis style in the Conpactron, Heritage and Intrepid product lines I am often asked what about the classic chassis style? Of course these are still being built on request. As was the case with these recently finished line and phono stages.

An all silver differential 10Y linestage :

Which is accompanied by a match hing all silver differential EC8020 phono:

Both ready to ship to their new owner.

Both finished with graphite grey transformer covers on silver metal plates in smoked eucalyptus frames.

This combo contains a total of 36 silver wound transformers and coils.

All finished and tested and about to ship to their new home.

Best regards

Thomas

High End 2024 : wrap up

Hi!

After a few days of rest it's time to write a wrap up and show some more photos.

And explain a bit more in detail what we had at the show.

This year we decided to have a booth in the hall instead of a room in the Atrium. We liked it a lot and I must say I prefer it over the rooms upstairs. The inside is easier decorated to our own taste and the possibility of adding an open outside area gives more space to show equipment.

Like the Compactron line of amps, preamps and DACs which were shown in front of the booth.

The Compactron Preamplifier presented on a rotating platter grabbed a lot of attention:

Let's walk into the listening room:

The room was dominated by the gorgeous AA4 speakers from Admire Audio.

Between the speakers we had the phono and line preamplifiers as well as the Digital to Analog Converter and the wonderful Kinea turntable which was set up with the Gravity tonearm by Bernd Hemmen of PrimaryControl. The Mono power amps sat on the left and right side.

Tweeters :

Let's talk about the electronics.

The stack of 4 silver chassis is the preamplifier combination which consists of 2 signal chassis and 2 power supplies. The newly finished Intrepid Line on top of the Intrepid Phono. The digital part was taken car of by the 3 chassis Intrepid DAC (black).

The Intrepid Mono Amplifiers sat on top of their respective power supplies

My personal highlight was the presentation of the newly developed tubes exclusively for the Intrepid electronics. With the TWO driving a THREE in the power amps.

And a quad of ONE in each the linestage and DAC.

A 'fly by' video:

On the side wall an entire lineup of Heritage Linestage, Phono, DAC and power amps was on display.

On the last day there was also only little time to walk over the show since I was mostly tied up in talks. But I managed to stop by our friends at Lundahl transformers who spiced up their display with some of our tubes.

The time went by so quickly it felt we just started when it was already time to pack up.

And we had to say good bye to the room which became our home for four days.

Those four days were an unforgettable experience. I would like to thank the High End Society for hosting the most important audio show in the world and for offering such a diversity of exhibitors a great venue.

A big Thank You to Dani and Jacobo of Admire Audio for joining up and for hauling over their superb speaker. 

You can see in our faces how much fun we had. During the show and at the after show celebrations

A special Thank You to Gunter for all his help:

And most importantly to Hil for organising the whole event, for keeping the team on track and for taking up with me during all those years:

See you again next year.

Best regards

Thomas