Any tube heads here?

Here are some more.
Taboo MKIII


BHSE and Taboo MKIII


Shaguang Treasure EL34

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Surprisingly well. Theyā€™re fully enclosed, so thereā€™s no ports directing sound into the corners. The cabinets are about 25mm MDF, internally braced and on spikes into little cups, so they donā€™t reverberate much. The bass is active with 300 w plate amps hanging off the back, so I can tune gain and cutoff manually. I also convolve a Room EQ Filter developed with a microphone through REW that straightens out the bass response. The room in front is about 10m long with a rug, bookshelves, lots of soft furnishings and a blind over glass doors.

The result is enough to persuade myself that having the speakers where they are is OK. If I pulled them forward then Iā€™d block some doorways.

Ideally Iā€™d prefer a renovated old church in the country, but I donā€™t have one of those (yet :blush:).

Yeah. I live in a small space. My speakers are not that big at all. KEF LS50s. Mine but not too bad. Sound good.

I canā€™t imagine why anyone would look down on Miniwatt amps. They are incredible. Having that tiny little thing driving my huge imposing Klipschorns makes me laugh every time I use them together.

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Just a Sonic Frontiers Line 1SE pre (with JJ E88CCā€™s) driving an old Adcom MOSFET amp on a pair of KEF R300ā€™s.

In active use, I have a Woo WA22 and a Bottlehead Crack headphone amps. I also still have my Audible Illusion Modulus 3 preamp and Dynaco ST70 amp, FM2 tuner, PAS3 preamp that I havenā€™t used in awhile.

The late author, Charlie Kittleson who published the famous ā€˜Vacuum Tube Valleyā€™ magazines in the 90ā€™s and early 2000. It is most read tube magazines at that timeā€¦it contains so much information about vacuum tube amplifiers you ever read on other books. Download for free!

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/diy/0414/vacuum_tube_valley.htm

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Nice resource. Thanks for sharing!

I use a Woo Audio WA22 in my bedroom setup, sometimes with a Wavelength Brick DAC. Heavily tubed there.

My main rig tube gear is in storage at moment, waiting for itā€™s liberation (long story!). That consists of a pair of Rogue Audio M180 monoblocks and a Rogue Athena preamp. Itā€™s a gorgeous match for my speaks (Focal 1027be). In the meantime Iā€™m using a Pass INT30A in the main rig, and loving it (sounds great, very simple and clean).

Hi I use a pair of LD91 MK2 300B mono blocks (Kits from DIYHK) and Quiksilver Mid-Monos (EL34). I also have a pair of Quicksilver KT88s monoblocks.
Im using a passive preamp for now ( Dave Slagle autoformers) but will assemble a Akido preamp kit in the coming months, using 4x6CG7s.

For headphones I use an Elekit TU-8200 amp mostly with various 807 tubes and Valvo E80CC driver tubes.
I also have a Schiit Saga preamp which use 6SN7 tubes, but itā€™s in front of my speaker amp for now.

Iā€™ve rotated between tubes and solid state in my audio journey. My current setup is as follows:

Headphones listening

Woo Audio WA5LE

Near field listening / Headphone listening (I drive my HE-6s right off the taps)

Firstwatt J2 & Schiit Freya


1110

Iā€™ve owned a Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum in the past. Iā€™m now looking at a PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium.

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Hi Jeff

Is the shiit tube preamp really that good?
Not only considering price?
I read it sounds really very goodā€¦

The verdict is still out on the Schiit. :wink: I just installed it into my audio chain this last week so I need a bit more time to listen and compare to my current / previous gear. Here are a few impressions / caveats about the Freya that Iā€™ve foundā€¦

Plus

  1. The killer option to run it as a passive, JFET, and Tube gain preamp. This is hard to find in one unit. This is why I took a chance on it.
  2. The well executed relay-stepped volume control equals perfectly balanced sound at all levels.
  3. Height is excellent. A lot of time with tube gear you have to put it on the top shelf of your rack or separate it from all your other gear. The Freya fits great on all of the shelves in my rack.
  4. Sound is excellent. It is on par with my Musical Fidelity M6si, but throws that tube flavor into the mix, so more to my liking. Iā€™ve only owned integrated amps, and not separates, at the higher end of the audio food chain, so I canā€™t speak on a comparison to the likes of BAT, Audio Research, and VAC. But it competes with the best of the gear Iā€™ve had before.

Minus

  1. Noisy tubes really kill the overall sound. Iā€™ve had tube gear that does really well with noisy tubes and the Freya is not one of them. I listen with HifiMan HE-6 headphones and Ascend Acoustics Sierra IIs. Noisy tubes make it unlistenable with the HE-6s and I can still hear tube noise with the Sierras. The tubes Iā€™ve used are various NOS 6SN7 (and variants) tubes that work without noise in my WA5. So I went on a hunt for tubes that are not noisy with the Freya. Iā€™ve only found the Shuguang Treasure CV181Zs to have no or little noise depending on the tube. All other tubes kill the sound. Maybe Iā€™m just unlucky with my tubes?
  2. Clicking that you get when changing volume can be less than optimal.
  3. Interference pickup. The Freya is an interference magnet. You have to tailor your listening space to the Freya. I had to move my wireless router out of my listening room because of the constant drone that was present when I was listening.
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Hi Jeff

Thank you very much for your initial assessment of the Freya :+1:
I hope you can get rid of the annoying tube noise.
All of my big lot of tube gear is dead silent :sunglasses:

As the thread starter I should contribute as well :wink:

Tube amps:
KR Audio Kronzilla SX poweramp
KR Audio 350i poweramp
KR Audio 350i integrated
Ayon Crossfire III integrated

Hybrid amps:
Lamm M1.1 monos
Sphinx Project 14mk2
Sphinx Project 14mk3

Preamps:
Silvaweld SWC 1000 R Line Pre
Silvaweld SWH 450 Phono Pre
SymphonicLine Die Erleuchtung

DACs:
Lampizator Golden Gate
Lampizator Golden Atlantic

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Christoph, we demand selected photos. Preferably with mountains.

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I was look into a Freya, but that kills it for me. I have none of these issues with my Woo, although I have experienced bad tubes (usually microphonic effects and if I tap the glass it goes away).

One thing that I didnā€™t mention is all of these issues go away (except the clicking on volume change) when you switch to passive and JFET mode. :grinning:

The Freya is not perfect, but it sounds amazing with the right tubes and the right surroundings. The relay-stepped attenuator does make that clicking when changing volume though and that will always be there. The big plus is Iā€™ve been able to rectify all of the issues that Iā€™ve mentioned, except the clicking.

Anyway, I didnā€™t want to steer anyone away from the Freya. In the end the sound is amazing and that is I what Iā€™m looking for.

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@Christoph you are very welcome. Iā€™m starting to warm up to the Freya after my listening session last night. With all of the troubleshooting over and issues resolved, the Freya has turned into a very adept preamp. It just needed some extra TLC. :sunglasses: It will stay in my chain for a little while. Iā€™m sure Iā€™ll move on to another preamp in the not to distant future, I always do.

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