My cherished Welborne Labs Starchief 'imperial' up for sale and on eBay also.My cherished, loved and looked after Welborne Labs Starchief 'Imperial' are now reluctantly for sale. I have owned this pair since purchasing direct from Ron Welborne, built and signed by himself. Bubinga wood finish too!
It is a rare, possibly unique example called Imperial as it has in addition to the already high spec of the Starchief the following:- Electraprint Silver output transformers ($1000 upgrade and not the newer partial silver), Vcap TfTf cap, Vcap CuTf cap, Vcap OIMP cap, Sonicap Platinum cap, Vishay 'nude' resistor, WBT nextgen Ag RCA sockets, WBT Nextgen Ag 'floating' speaker binding posts and correctly wired for 240V UK voltage and not the standard 230v wiring as most European Starchief have that stresses the tubes. Owner can easily rewire for other voltages. Carefully selected Black plate 6n1pEV,and audiophile fuses also included. Currently wired for 8ohm output but easy to change to 4 ohm or 16ohm with a little soldering. Thorough manual and schematic/build instructions included. Sound quality is fantastic on high efficiency speakers and bass is incredible due to the stiff solid state power supply (PS10). Tested against a Yamamoto A-08s which it bests easily making the Yammy sound clouded. This is a remarkable pair of amps and only bettered by a self build costing $10K. Realism, presence and dynamics are its strength. The amp will be supplied with Arcturus 45 tubes, however the amp will sound better with EML 45 solid plates . The amps are available for demo on a modest system to prove they work should you wish to hear them first. I have stated pickup only, however I may be able to ship within the UK or USA but would quote first and could not guarantee their safety with shippers. You know what shippers can be like when not looking. Should you have any questions, please ask and I can also supply more pictures if needed.
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