Silent Screamer Posted October 10, 2018 Author Posted October 10, 2018 1 minute ago, Ittaku said: Don't be so sure. You can still have very high quality caps without getting remotely close to the most expensive ones. A 1uF V-Cap CuTF cap costs $1000 each for example... Good point it just comes down to your particular pain point. Some people would cringe at $1000 others would consider it realistic.
aussievintage Posted October 10, 2018 Posted October 10, 2018 2 hours ago, andyr said: Tubes have high voltages - which is not really compatible with a 12v supply. I think the main output from the trannies Hugh supplies is 225v (there's also a 6v heater supply). There are ways and means. Back in the day, 12v dc was chopped up by an electro-mechanical component called a vibrator (I kid you not), and transformed up to necessary voltages for things like car radios. I had an old wireless transceiver from 'school of the air' days where germanium power transistors were used in a simple inverter circuit to get the required voltages.
andyr Posted October 10, 2018 Posted October 10, 2018 9 minutes ago, aussievintage said: There are ways and means. Back in the day, 12v dc was chopped up by an electro-mechanical component called a vibrator (I kid you not), and transformed up to necessary voltages for things like car radios. I had an old wireless transceiver from 'school of the air' days where germanium power transistors were used in a simple inverter circuit to get the required voltages. Sure, it's possible, av - but I'm talking about "hi fi" - not car radios! Andy
vwo60 Posted October 10, 2018 Posted October 10, 2018 6 hours ago, michaelw said: sell the halcro and buy something with musical soul I have a halcro MC 20 with a icon audio valve line stage and it has no lack of soul.
Silent Screamer Posted October 10, 2018 Author Posted October 10, 2018 31 minutes ago, vwo60 said: I have a halcro MC 20 with a icon audio valve line stage and it has no lack of soul. The BA3?
Brendon Foster Posted October 10, 2018 Posted October 10, 2018 For what it's worth I have one off the new gen Peachtree Nova amps (no valve buffer), all class d. I was suffering from the same problem. I have a MF X10D in the loop output, it has added some warmth and bloom to the vocals along with increases sound stage depth and width with minimal effect on the bass. I think it's a great piece of kit, added more musicality and soul to the system but you can still tell it's digital class d. There are other issues in my system, it's not just the amp but the X10 went a long way to adding what I was looking for, even if it wasn't the dial solution. Highly recommended bit of great for me but of course YMMV.
Silent Screamer Posted October 10, 2018 Author Posted October 10, 2018 Getting the impression from the various comments that it may help but certainly won't be a magic bullet... Not that I really need one as I am mostly happy now, so from mostly to happy is only a short trip. Is there anyone in the Ipswich / Brissy southside area willing to let me audition one?
vwo60 Posted October 11, 2018 Posted October 11, 2018 (edited) 12 hours ago, Silent Screamer said: The BA3? LA 4 MK 3 Edited October 11, 2018 by vwo60
georgehifi Posted October 11, 2018 Posted October 11, 2018 (edited) 21 hours ago, Silent Screamer said: It lacks musical soul. I'm using active xover which takes care of numerous things like xover points, DAC, source control, etc. I use big ESL's, that cross over at 150hz to the bass, the bass is great using an active xover with -24db at 150hz, but it didn't matter how good the active xover was, (even discrete) it sterilised the sound of the ELS's. So I just went back to using the passive (18db xover with good caps ect) just for the ESL's and all was natural and great sounding again. And leaving the active just for the bass. You can't band-aid fix, by just bunging in a tube buffer to fix what I heard using active xover on the ESL's you will loose out in other areas, I tried it with an MF X10-V3 buffer, all it did was stodgy everything up and blunted the transients. Cheers George Edited October 11, 2018 by georgehifi 1
Silent Screamer Posted October 13, 2018 Author Posted October 13, 2018 On 11/10/2018 at 11:38 AM, georgehifi said: I use big ESL's, that cross over at 150hz to the bass, the bass is great using an active xover with -24db at 150hz, but it didn't matter how good the active xover was, (even discrete) it sterilised the sound of the ELS's. So I just went back to using the passive (18db xover with good caps ect) just for the ESL's and all was natural and great sounding again. And leaving the active just for the bass. You can't band-aid fix, by just bunging in a tube buffer to fix what I heard using active xover on the ESL's you will loose out in other areas, I tried it with an MF X10-V3 buffer, all it did was stodgy everything up and blunted the transients. Cheers George Interesting that you preferred the sound of passive over active. But perhaps I should consider trying a passive xover before putting valves in front. 1
Beyond Triode Posted October 15, 2018 Posted October 15, 2018 what you might be wanting is a controlled dose of second harmonic distortion to add "bloom, musicality, 3D soundspace, organic " quality. you can get that from a tube buffer but the quality of it AND the selection of the tube is critical. You need 2nd harmonic not the other stuff (3rd and up). 300B is classic for giving that ratio in abundance and there are a few 300B tube buffers i think plus schematics on the web for DIY. Optimal in theory would be a system to be able to dial in the 2nd harmonic distortion to just what is needed, usually 1/2 to 1.5%. I read about a guy who built one and did tests on music quality. ill try to find the link. cheers 1
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