decooney raises an important point
with covid, many manufacturers are not manning the land lines into their offices as most if not all staff work remotely
for example, one person in another thread complains that audio research doesn't answer the phone - but i email greg c (arc service manager) and he answers me in 2 hours |
Hard to get through 145 responses.... life is hard, then you die... |
the odyssey’s are very high input sensitivity -- makes for the need for super quiet tubes if feeding it with a tube pre (or tubes that wouldn’t sound noisy with another amp seem noisy going into it) - klaus’s amps are very nice sounding but they are certainly finicky for a solid state unit |
@gochurchgo
first of all, glad you have quiet tubes in the unit working now... that’s good
second, brent is a good guy, good vendor, bends over backwards to get it right... bear in mind tubes get shipped in little boxes that usps etc love to throw around like nerf footballs... i seriously doubt brent would send a noisy tube on purpose if the customer was buying quiet ones...
viva guys are ok, they are commodity vendors (with decent prices) - they get stuff from tube factory xx and yy and they fill a customer order - but they don’t do extra value-added testing in house - like upscale, brent, andy and jim do in their shops as far as i am aware |
@tvad That said, I have tried most of the available new production tubes from JJ, Shuguang, etc, as well as dozens and dozens of premium vintage NOS tubes.
Without question, JJ have been the poorest sounding tubes in all my components. There isn’t a close second. Shuguang have been the best sounding new production tubes.
For vintage tubes, my best resources have been Andy at Vintage Tube Services, Upscale Audio, and Brent Jesse. I am interested to try tubes from RAM Labs http://www.tubeaudiostore.com i agree with the above 100% -- jj's are just downright poor in sound i believe the op has either: a) a sensitivity mismatch between the QS pre and Odyssey amp (as I said earlier, the Odyssey’s are very sensitive, too sensitive) b) a malfunctioning QS pre c) noisier than normal tubes this also reminds use why there is a longstanding market for really good solid state preamps like ayre, pass etc etc |
@gochurchgo
i can strongly recommend the don sachs unit - aside from the superb sound, he can specifically use the correct capacitors to do proper gain and impedance matching to your amp
don likes tubed power amps though... in one recent exchange i have had with him he (semi) jokingly says 'well ya know all solid state amps kinda suck, right?' hahahaha |
@larry5729 I have always wondered why people go with tube amplifiers rather than going with more up to date technologies. There must be a reason why. I wonder what the sound difference is? larry - we are not deaf :) |
i am not a home theater guy, but if i were, i would agree that HT should be run with solid state gear to deliver the clarity oomph and reliability/low maintenance over long stretches - tube equipment makes a lot less sense here, as to me tubes mainly provide better tonal on acoustic instruments and voices, and also imaging - much more valued in 2 channel music reproduction... |
for a truly deep black silent background, tubes just cannot match top notch solid state
ayre gear is what i think of when i think of deep dark black background, from which the music emanates - it is magical, almost eery, hegel comes close to that too with their amps
but you get something from tubes that ss just doesn’t give you -- so like everything else, there is a tradeoff involved... |
@gochurchgo
an obvious point perhaps
but if your tube preamp has too much gain for your power amp then slightly noisy tubes in the pre get highlighted moreso than if the gain match were more appropriate, right?
so the issues are inter related which is why we have been talking about both - ’’component synergy is the lifeblood of a truly well performing system’’ |
nos small signal tubes are fine - they can sound excellent and are still worth it even at current prices, if your gear doesn't run them too close to the edge
playing with nos power tubes at current prices is not smart unless you truly have money to burn
otoh, i have gaggles of true uk gec kt77’s mullard el34’s hoarded from the 1980’s... they are fun to listen to and sound wonderful! |
yes, tubes are noisier than solid state, quite often the case
but the tube gear noise level can be managed so that it does not interfere with listening pleasure
as with many good things in life, you have to work at it a little to reap the rewards
if one is unwilling or not equipped to pursue, then there are alternatives, also able to deliver listening pleasure |
