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Author Topic: Let's Have A Honest Frank Discussion About Home Rigs  (Read 6662 times)

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frenchbat

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Re: Let's Have A Honest Frank Discussion About Home Rigs
« Reply #20 on: July 28, 2012, 02:50:54 AM »
I'll agree with Anetode here, some DACs are purely utilitarian all rounders. The Benchmark is one of these, and they make a good stop-over when you can't or don't want to invest more for the moment, especially second-hand units like mine. It might not be for some people, as Currawong said, but what it does, it does well. That doesn't mean I'm not curious for higher offerings, but I know I won't settle for anything less that what I have already.

The only thing that seems to be half-assed, or not up to par is the channel tracking, as Ken Rockwell showed in his review. I don't actually perceive the channel imbalance with my HE500, so I'm not bothered.
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gurubhai

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Re: Let's Have A Honest Frank Discussion About Home Rigs
« Reply #21 on: July 28, 2012, 04:15:09 AM »
Quote from: sachu

Though might have an EHHA-1 with AMB S22(very minamalist looks) i built for a friend for sale in about a month's time..he is looking to sell it. Comes with Valvo 6GM8 as he bought a Liquid Fire. Probably 300-350$ shipped.

That's a really nice deal!

Is that the BJT version, Sachu?
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Marvey

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Re: Let's Have A Honest Frank Discussion About Home Rigs
« Reply #22 on: July 28, 2012, 06:12:48 AM »
Quote from: frenchbat on July 28, 2012, 02:50:54 AM
The only thing that seems to be half-assed, or not up to par is the channel tracking, as Ken Rockwell showed in his review. I don't actually perceive the channel imbalance with my HE500, so I'm not bothered.


Pots can be all over the place. You could have easily gotten a much better one. Besides, challenge imbalances of a few db or more, are extremely difficult to detect without trained ears.
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frenchbat

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Re: Let's Have A Honest Frank Discussion About Home Rigs
« Reply #23 on: July 28, 2012, 09:14:56 AM »
Quote from: purrin on July 28, 2012, 06:12:48 AM
Pots can be all over the place. You could have easily gotten a much better one. Besides, challenge imbalances of a few db or more, are extremely difficult to detect without trained ears.

Absolutely, that's why I don't loose sleep over it. Things like the Klippel test for THD, or the Harman training sessions are much more interesting to me anyway.
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Currawong

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Re: Let's Have A Honest Frank Discussion About Home Rigs
« Reply #24 on: July 28, 2012, 02:05:03 PM »
Really I reckon much of what is going to sound good depends on the music you like. I have stuff here that sounds a bit more mellow, such as the Metrum Octave and Stacker II (depending on tubes selected) and stuff that sounds dead-neutral and sometimes I wouldn't mind having a DA-11 for that cleaner-than-clean sound. 

The Metrum feeds my Stax rig when I listen to Chopin and I can have an epic time with the LCD-3s and pop music with the Audio-gd rig.

The funny thing is, I'm listening with a Dragonfly and comparing it to the Audio-gd NFB-16 to Radio Paradise (streaming radio, under Eclectic in iTunes) with the Magnums and enjoying it. Both are great for casual, but enjoyable listening where one doesn't care about a bit of soundstage compression or micro details.
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DigitalFreak

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Re: Let's Have A Honest Frank Discussion About Home Rigs
« Reply #25 on: July 29, 2012, 06:35:18 AM »
The pic of that Slacker amp is gorgeous. I've never even heard of it until now. Pardon the stupid question, is it possible to take a slightly warm sounding tube amp and roll tubes onto it that would make it sound dead neutral but still smooth? Right now I'm flip flopping between tubes and SS. SS amps kind of scare me because from my understanding some of them can be quite harsh. That's what made me put Burson on my short list. A lot of people have described the 160D as melodic which appeals to me because I generally ascribe melodic with smooth sounding. With tubes I like the idea of a nice smooth more vinyl like sound but I don't want to give up to much detail. I want the music to sound smooth but still crisp it that's even possible. My little ALO MKII pocket amp seems to be able to do the job nicely although I sometimes wonder if it's possible to squeeze more detail out of the mid range. I also like how hard hitting the bass sounds on it. I really should try out a tube pocket amp before I make a decision on a desktop tube amp. Any ideas guys and girls?
« Last Edit: July 29, 2012, 06:39:43 AM by DigitalFreak »
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The science of properly driving headphones is a mystery for me. For starters where the hell is the steering wheel?
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The only thing in this world that's truly neutral is Switzerland

Marvey

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Re: Let's Have A Honest Frank Discussion About Home Rigs
« Reply #26 on: July 29, 2012, 05:25:23 PM »
You may have some leeway in changing the sound of tube amps with different tubes, i.e. warmer, more neutral, or colder. It depends upon how the amp was voiced and what tubes it takes. I know lots of folks have had a lot of success tweaking the sound of the ECBA, WA5, S7, WA6SE, and even the Apex Peak (which only has one tube.)
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Elysian

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Re: Let's Have A Honest Frank Discussion About Home Rigs
« Reply #27 on: July 29, 2012, 10:45:28 PM »
Quote from: DigitalFreak on July 29, 2012, 06:35:18 AM
Pardon the stupid question, is it possible to take a slightly warm sounding tube amp and roll tubes onto it that would make it sound dead neutral but still smooth?

Depends on the tubes and how they're being used.  In 300B-land, there's a split between the modern sounding Eastern European tubes vs. the Chinese and vintage WE tubes which have a warmer sound but aren't quite as fast.  I've heard the WA6SE sound quite different based on the tube setup.  I haven't tube rolled the S7, but I suspect its signature will also sound quite different based on your 6SN7 configuration.
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particleman14

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Re: Let's Have A Honest Frank Discussion About Home Rigs
« Reply #28 on: July 30, 2012, 07:13:21 PM »
Just to chime in regarding the Soha vs Soha II, to me there is not too much variation in sound and it seems not too many people are building these nowadays.
 However, I have recently fallen in love with the CTH rev.a.  After rolling a few tubes (thanks for the recs. sachu!) I really am liking this amp. 
It may be my favorite of the Cavalli lineup, and I've built just about all of them:)  Definitely punches above its weight in price to performance once you find your tube of choice.
 I've heard both EHHA versions as well, and can't deny they are good sounding amps. But if I only had 1 recommendation, I'd start with a CTH rev. A.   :)p10 :)p10 :)p10 Pirates!? yesssss
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Marvey

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Re: Let's Have A Honest Frank Discussion About Home Rigs
« Reply #29 on: July 30, 2012, 07:17:29 PM »
We may have to throw the CTH in the Pirate's Booty.
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