|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 21, 2017 8:46:17 GMT
The popping and sizzling is like the 1940s version of hip dubstep sounds. Not as popular as it once was when wireless meant something far away and exotic rather than a flaky wifi router 5 feet across the room that keeps dropping the connection. Mention 12SN7 on purpose? That wouldn't be polite - probably just a lucky coincidence or something. Good to hear your rig is coming together with the sonic promise that we, but mainly, Frans, promised and has passed the most rigorous objective subjective test known to men (married men) - the wife listening test. I remember fondly that night when my NOS RCA 12SX7 had warmed up and biased itself to perfection in the Solstice, slipped the phones over my wife's ever-so-sensitive ears. The sweet sonic details flowed lavishly like a river of vintage electrons across the 12SX7's perfectly formed plates and kissed Mrs Lobal's lobes with the most exquisite rendering of Bach's Cello Suite No.1 she'd ever heard - her face glowed in bliss, basking in the luxuriant incandescence of pristine NOS 12SX7 cathodes. As she took the phones off, her eyes as large as 12SN7 micas, she said she'd married the smartest, most aurally astute man in the world. I nodded vacantly and asked for the phones back so I could get back to scrutinizing Frans' Exclusive 12SN7 Sweep Tones Anthology - the 1.25Khz to 2.1Khz Utrecht Extended Edition.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 21, 2017 4:23:27 GMT
Cool. I'll prep the grant application in case we need a few cases of TS RPs to develop a statistically valid paper - For Science!
Good point about the vacuum not being as vacuous as most audiophile mythologies - not that I'm saying anything bad or impolite about any mythologies or audiophiles - that myths the point.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 21, 2017 1:47:57 GMT
One of my TS RPs needed about 10+ hours to reduce noise too. The other one was quiet within a few minutes. We're listening to snowflakes. LOL! I've been told that old NOS tubes need some gentle wake up time (like their owners) of the cathode to strip off the oxidized layer of barium on the cathode and get down to the strongly emitting layers of cathode emulsion. (like their owners). Altho...there shouldn't be much if any oxygen in a 'vacuum' tube. Otherwise it's a leaky tube and the magic electron cloud can't work it's magic. But...tubes are electro-mechanical and electo-chemical devices, so they get special narratives compared to those boring, unchanging solid state devices.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 21, 2017 0:12:22 GMT
In my Solstice, all my NOS 12BH7s (RCA chrometops, Sylvanias & CBS) after 20-30 hours were only marginally less harsh. Don't have the patience to wait any longer. Not when my NOS 6SN7s/12SN7s/12J5s can be lush, spacious and sweet in only a few hours of 'on' time. Maybe I'll leave them running for a week when I'm away and return to discover a sonic miracle of round plate proportions. Or they sound the same but have tufts of cat fur on them, because all audio devices of merit are meant to serve the feline listeners nappers.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 20, 2017 23:55:42 GMT
Different. Just old fashion politeness from a slightly older generation. Who you calling old, you little whippersnapper?!
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 20, 2017 23:54:48 GMT
Waiting for someone to tell me how wrong I am - you all are so polite! What kind of forum is this? It's a civilized forum from a different era. No worries tho - in 15-20 years expect it will have caught up to the mainstream internet noise forums of circa 2010. We ask you, politely, to please wait another decade or so to receive a politely insulting barb about your subjective viewpoint which is only wrong if the viewpoint no longer serves your auditory preferences. Besides - it's not like you have waxed poetic about the virtues of the 12BH7 tubes which to my ears are hard, harsh and make listening to music a joyless task compared to the sublime natural sound of the 6SN7 family. Unlike luckbad who extols their sound without consideration to my delicate sensibilities ;-) I joined this forum, not only because it is civil and informative, but because most here are in the headphone hobby for enjoyment, not to win silly arguments about personal preferences on the internet. We have Head-fi & SBAF for that.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 20, 2017 6:10:23 GMT
the LPS for the DAC will work fine. The Horizon needs a more beefy one for sure to accomodate for the start-up current. HD650 and warm, not very tight bass/mids .... check. How the hell did lobalwarming end up with prototype shots of the never to be released power supply ? From the foreign looking gentleman with the glowing briefcase.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 20, 2017 1:28:25 GMT
Is that 450 gram weight correct? A super low mass driver surrounded in a lead frame? Same weight as the HE-6, which were a pain in the neck after ten minutes.
Maybe because I'm a pencil-necked geek, but the 280 gram 650s are my upper weight class limit.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 20, 2017 0:02:35 GMT
Great idea. Tube rolling fixes everything.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 19, 2017 23:14:08 GMT
Sony MDR-V6?!! That's a huuge sonic culture shift. You may want to seek 3rd party auditory counseling - if it's not too late. Used those in the studio for tracking - brutal elevated mids with no highs and no warmth. Can't imagine selecting those for 'pleasure'. LOL!
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 19, 2017 22:33:52 GMT
Thanks for the reply - Basically I'm pretty happy with this SMSL Sanskrit - I don't have any issues with the USB input and the sound quality seems fine. (The mids in my music seem a bit muddy, but I'm breaking in some new HD650s... ) When you say it's muddy...in comparison to what? With what source material? Muddy Waters tracks are supposed to sound like that. While there is some break-in with the 650s...not much change in the mids. Perhaps in comparison to other phones with high frequency peaks, the 650s can be perceived as dull/muddy(ish). But it's just a perception. Take two placebos and call us in the morning. The beauty of the 650s is that despite the seeming 'dullness' or veiled or as I hear it proper smoothness, they resolve low level detail extremely well - and allow one to hear 'into' the music in a relaxed natural way. As opposed to many other phones with unnatural peaks and dips that smack the ears with unpleasant artifacts - that seem at first hear as detailed, but long term are just bright and unnatural. Having a 2nd DAC to compare the muddyness with would be interesting - I suspect the mud is from further up the chain tho. Or at the very end. Subjectivity is just too subjective sometimes.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 19, 2017 21:26:59 GMT
Thanks for the reply - Basically I'm pretty happy with this SMSL Sanskrit - I don't have any issues with the USB input and the sound quality seems fine. (The mids in my music seem a bit muddy, but I'm breaking in some new HD650s... ) There is one other thing I was thinking of getting myself for Christmas - a Breeze Audio 15W Linear Power Supply for $50. I've read that getting an LPS is a good idea - would you recommend it? What benefits would it bring? (Thanks to Lobalwarming for advising on this, too) Just to keep my tarnished reputation for misleading info intact, I didn't specifically recommend a measly 15W power supply. Altho I may have implied this G1217 LPS prototype for future expansion needs.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 16, 2017 6:09:05 GMT
Can't speak for Frans, but getting a regulator to be say...125% efficient is going to run into tough opposition from the laws of physics. But...if we could hook up our G1217 amps to our perpetual motion DC generators we could bypass the issue.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 15, 2017 23:20:17 GMT
Gonna be a nice way to start the new year Maybe a nice start to the year...but if you purchase from thomman be aware that the phones will only playback Wagner operas. It's a good thing the record labels didn't extend DRM right to driver - imagine having a different set of phone for every artist? Ok, us phone phreaks would like that, but others...not so much.
|
|
|
Post by lobalwarming on Dec 14, 2017 0:15:01 GMT
Forgot to mention - the 12AU7 is the ideal gateway drug to tube rolling ecstasy.
Perhaps we could petition Frans to design and Jeremy to release a G1217 Octal amp for 6SN7 rollers. One with auto-bias, 12V tube support like Solstice, super-charged 1A+ heater supply with a discrete class A output.
|
|