Frihed89

Did anyone get a chance to listen to the DNA Sonett vacuum tube headphone amplifier? How was it?

The output sits between two transformers. The input (interstage?) drives the tube and the tube drives the output transformer. The designer, Cristoff, is a nice guy and does his best to answer questions. The first buyer - whose thread you can over on brand x - seems to be having €8000 (or was it 6?) buddhist-like audio orgasms over this amp. He's taking it to a messe (that's like a jam) in Finland, if you have the yen to go.

I corresponded with this guy some time ago. He was eager to build me an SET amp, but I can't find his email. Write him on Ebay or try [email protected]. Seemed like a down-to-earth guy. His home page was abraxasaudio.home.att.net/quicklist.html .

How about least favorite parts dealer? Steve and Angela.

When I read this, I almost died. I have never tapped the sides of MPX3. Can you believe that? What have I been thinking about? So, with much fear and trepidation, I tapped the left-side of the case, I tapped the right-side, I tapped the front, and I tapped the back. Nothing. No microphonics at all. So, then I tapped the right-side and the back, and then the left-side and the front, and then the left-side and the back and the front-side and the right. Wait, I think I heard something squeak when I tapped the right-hand side and the front. So, I opened up the case, and sure enough I found four grey Colorado titmice taped to the insides of the front-, back-, left- and right-hand sides of the case. One of them was still alive, so I set him free. Now only one side of my amp is microphonic! What a relief. Thanks for the heads up, dude.

I had this problem...several times, before I learned that the thing to do is call the preamp mfr and tell them what amps you will be using. Both Gilbert Yeung at Blue Circle and Kara Chaffee at deHavilland made sure the gain on their preamps (an SBT and a UV2) was OK for my 2 main amps. All the experience I had with attenuation was as described here. It choked the life out of my sound.

I was a CIC watch officer on a ship in the Tonkin Gulf in 1970 that was steaming meaningless around this buoy that was like 15 miles off the coast, when all of a sudden a radarman reported he had a contact coming out of China headed for us doing over mach 2 at something insane like 80,000 feet! I Reported the information to the OOD and ran over to a radar console and watched this "thing" make a big right turn about 500 miles in diameter and head East. It took about a minute. By the time the CO made to CIC, it was gone. Guess who?

Hopefully, they will be flatter than the K-701s, otherwise there is no reasons to get them. The K-701s are superb for monitoring, but the Mini-XLR let's you switch cables.

I use Audio Note Lexus ICs and speaker cables for all my equipment, except headphone cables. These are a bargain at their prices, and perform quite well even when compared to Audio Note AN-Vx at much higher prices. I also think that Drew Brewer is very good at building cables, but I have never heard his speaker cables.

So you guy are the "eaters". Who are the "eaten"? I can understand your motivation and behavour, but the "eaten" are a puzzle to me.

I just looked on my TDSL software and it tells me that the 12BH7A has the same pinset as the 12Au7, 12AV7, 12AT7, 5751, 12AX7, etc. It's the 6 volt equivalents to this tube (i forget which ones they are) that use their own adaptor. I don't want to get in a fight, here. I just want to find out which end is up. One of us is flying wihtout a full tank....and it could be me. But I have been using the 12BH7As in my SP rig with this adaptor.

Then maybe I am in trouble, because that is the adaptor ? am using and it works...or am i destroying something?

Over on an other forum, there are 210 pages of posts from people who are wiating 6-10 months for amps made by Xin and then sending them back to get modded and waiting another 6-10 months. I have these questions: 1. Has anyone heard an Xin and what do they sound like? 2. What do they cost? 3. Is this an amp for which there are no close substitutes at the price, and that explains why people are waiting so long? (Sort of the SP explanation for waiting)? 4. If not, then why are they (or you) waiting so long without doing anything about it?

I have added a review of the Blue Circle SBH on Headfi.where are my meds and it also contains a brief comparison of the SBH and my SP MPX3 SLAM SE. By the way, I have thoroughly enjoyed the posts on this board.

The 12BH7 works with the same adaptor as the 12AV7, 7062, etc. I am not so good at remembering names. I have found that some of these will drive 6SN7GTs and some will not, but all will drive the 5687s or the 6BX7GTs (I just got some) or 6BL7GTAs. I don't know the science behind this sorry.

He told me, just before tanksgiving, he was going to take a short vacation in Texas. I also have an outstanding tube order. I have no idea what he has. I don't think he really does either, there are so many tubes. His prices are 50% more than anyone elses, though. Lately, the market for NOS/NIB 6SN7GTs has dried up. Many are not even available. A pair of Raytheon Tupe 1s used to go for $80. Now Tube Monger wants $180 and doesn't even have any. Len is also dry. This tube is one of my favourites.

Right "Muntz" is rebranded and I am not familiar with it. Go to the tube mongers website and on it he has the NOS tubes pic library. Look on there if your model is a 6SN7GT.

6BX7 tubes. Thanks. I haven't heard of these. The 6BL7GTAs are getting pricey. I just wonder if my version of the MPX3 Slam SE isn't a bit different than some others. I have a number of upgrades, but not the Plitrons or the enormous rails, but i do have the Supra power supply. I wonder because: 1) The 6SN7GT on my rig is a fabulous output tube and I can drive it with almost anything in the 12A_7 family including the 12AT7 and its EU brothers 2) the 5687 and 7119 are also well driven by these same tubes. Oh, a possible exception: some 12BH7A (esp RCA long black plates) will work well as input to 6SN7GT and others won't. I get static. I don't know any electronics, so I am not sure why. Anyway, it's good trading ideas. Thanks again for the tip on the 6BX7 series.

Yes, and actually the ones that do the best to produce a non-fatiguing sound (to me) are the "bad boy", the Raytheon and NU VT-231s, but the RCA's do do this, too. I don't listen to a lot of music that sounds good with Slam. Ok, Ted Leo, Arcade Fire, peppy stuff - that doesn't sound that bad on the 5687s, but I can't listen to these bands for very long anyway. I was lucky enough to go to an Arcade Fire Concert recently in Copenhagen. That was something!

Thanks. I have NOT heard this tube, but all of the 5687s i have are a little too much in my face and sound "edgy" and bright as well (an artifact of my operation, I think). That makes them fatiguing for me. I always appreciate suggestions for new tubes to try in my SP. Thanks again.

Thanks for all the replies. I have been at this tube rolling thing for about a year, now. I have no electronics background (which would help me a lot) so I do everything by ear. Unfortunately I was virtually totally deaf in one ear until I had an operation in May that restored quite a bit of my hearing. I have metal prosthesis (es) in both middle ears that have a tendency to make things sound bright and edgy (like the 5687 tube). The RCA, GE, Sylvania, Tungsol, and Raytheon 6BL7GTAs are too warm for me. I really don't use the high power option any more. I like the Pinched waist amperex 7062 to drive various 6SN7GTs or the pinched waist amperex 7119. I do use the 5687/7119s as outputs, but find many makes/types of these tubes to be a bit bright and edgy in my sick ears. It may not be the gain of the 12AT7WAs or 5751s that drive the 701s to much higher levels, but these tubes really do drive the 701s very well. I think it's Ohms law at work inside the tube! I have a large collection of WWII era 6SN7GTS (but no Tuungsol round plates). But I generally do not use 3-in-a-row any more because they can't drive the 701s that well. (Except for the older 100Ohm+ HD 595, I haven't found a high impedance headphone I like). Thanks again.

I very much like the "truth" of the K-701s and I also love the smooth sound of WWII era 6SN7GT tubes as outputs in my SP MPX3 Slam SE. So, I have needed to find hi-gain input tubes. The 12AV7 family of tubes work pretty well as inputs, but they lack the gain to drive the 701s really well, I think. So, in my experimentation I have gone up as high 5751s with good success, but recently settled on the 12AT7WA (Brimar, Sylvania, and Raytheon) as an input with Raytheon 6SN7GT flat black plates, NU Grey Glass, and Sylvania Bad Boys as outputs. Try this tube as an input with the 6SN7GTS. The various models all sound very different, but this combo sounds very good with K-701s. You can also use 5687s, but you lose the smoothness of the 6SN7 and the 12AT7 adds some Slam to the flavour. Got to take my pills. Bye.

I don't know about Rudi and Ray, but I am with Philodox on McAlister. These are good circuits and they sound very good. But it's like they are made by drunken trolls. How could a man who is so sensible about circuits deliver this low quality construction? Anyway.............I like Canuck products, and I am very partial to Blue Circle.

I'm so sorry. I thought this was the bi-polar support group site. But that's over on headfi.

I think you are right. I also think i saw those pictures you talked about and if I remember correctly, it looked "interesting". The layout on my equipment may have been neater, but it was very poorly built. I hate to think waht would have happened if one those caps had come in contact with the case (and me at the same time). Well, it looks like headfi is back up. I'll post my listening notes for the SBH on both sites, both about the head amp and pre-amp sections. What is a Rudistor any way? These guys have no shame when it comes to hijacking threads so i geegeled on Rudistor and sure enough i found this website in Italy where i was immediately drawn to the RP1000 and its use of intelligent tube biasing, no doubt using the intelligent chip. Are you really sure there are really "four mono Class-A single ended amplifiers, two on each channel working in opposed phase to get a full balanced output, or bridged for the single ended output in unbalanced operation?" How about 8? So, I don't fit in here and i don't fit in on headfi but I still got a bunch of headamps and i have to go somewhere to find some hostages to take.