Has anyone tried the Coincident Dynamo 34SE


8 Watts of Single Ended EL34 from Israel Blume? Beautiful appearance, few reviews. What's your impression?
mikirob
Rob,
I use the older Coincident cords and they are excellent with the family components. The TWL is also excellent with the same components. I have not heard the current Coincident cords which could be even better, who knows until you hear them.
Charles,
Thanks Charles,
I've been using a long in the tooth CCCP, Custom Power Cord, excellent cord, thought it time to try something new.
Hi Rob,
I had the chance to use a well broken in Triode Wire Lab(TWL)in my system for a while. A kind audiogon member loaned me the TWL and his Hi Diamond P3 cords(he was just curious to know my impression of them). The Hi Diamond was good but I preferred the TWL in my system. I believe you're going to be very pleased with this natural sounding power cord given what I know(or think I know) of your taste.
Charles,
Audioman 58,
Couldn't agree more. This is one great amp. I had my mind blown again
today listening to it. I bought, on Jeff Day recommendation via his Blog,
NOS Western Electric 16ga speaker wire (almost impossible to get
worldwide today) and Belden 8402 Microphone cable as interconnect
terminated with Switchcraft 3502AAU RCAs. The cost was a remarkable
$1.15 per foot for the WE 16ga and about $2.75 for the Belden. These are
both stranded tin copper wires. Jeff Day was alerted to these speaker and
interconnects by a Japanese builder of the SPEC amps, Yazaki-San, while
doing a review of the SPEC integrated for Positive Feedback. Yazaki-San
uses these wires as his reference; he stated they have the sound signature
of the WE 274B from the 40s with the old etch code, not any of the newer
models. YaZaki-San calls the WE 16ga an "artistic" speaker
wire, transparent, warm, natural, organic, full of color texture, right-sized
instruments and more. Day compared them to his Sablon $$$ cables, equal
but different. I couldn't agree more. Yazaki-San also builds some great
300B amps according to Day. My PS Audio Statments, various Goertz
99.99% Silver and Kimber are going to be sidelined. Really special stuff.

My Coincident Dynamo has Red Base, Shuguang Black Treasure 6CA7s,
Mullard 5AR4s from about '67, plus I swap in 274B at various times. It is
Killer good. Going for Triode Wire Labs power cables next.
Here is a bit of helpful information.this is a exceptional Amplifier.
There is no amplifier I know of with this build quality for even 2x the cost.
The build the only thing build overseas is the very well finished
Stainless steel case work ,made in Hong Kong. The most critical
Part of any Vacuum tube amp is the transformers .these transformers
Are made in Japan with 6-9s Copper usually called 0-crystal Copper
I no of any Company doing this at anywhere near this price.
The Tubes get rid off -China regular grade,and put good current made Or NOS tubes .
A huge jump in performance .Everything else is sourced mostly from
North America or Europe.i switched Rectifier to the classic Mullared 5ar4
Indirect triode.no flash on startup .direct heater does.
The current made Soviet Mullard EL-34 tubes very good.
6SL7 driver tubes NOS Tungsol or red base RCA are great. Or even current are good. Buy a good power cord over $200 if possible you will be rewarded. Also a 3 A slow 20 mm Hifi tuning Supreme to top off the sonics.
8wpc SET power sounds much much more powerful and excellent 3 d imaging and resolution with solid Bass. Use a powered sub Xover high around 90 then you can can use with many speakers at least 88db.
Also this is point to point wired using the Excellent star grounding methods.
Any hum chances are it is in your system down stream.
Well, finally got the Emotiva CMX, but the hum is exactly the same. Nothing I've tried has made any difference. So, it's back to Coincident in Canada for service. Hopefully, they'll be able to diagnose the issue quickly and get it back to me relatively soon. Shipping took three weeks to get here (Oregon), so at that rate it will probably be a couple of months before I get the unit back. I guess I'll just pretend that I like my solid state amp in the meantime :)

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I'll let you know when I get it back and how it works out.

Best, Scott
i have one of these purchased March 2015, very impressed with the sound! no issues
am in the process of ordering teflon film foil coupling caps
message if any questions?
cheers,
Martin
Israel suggested that it's a ground loop problem, but I'm getting the hum even when there's nothing plugged into the circuit. Keep you posted….
Smrex, I had some ground loop problems initially when I fed my coincident csl to the dynamo. I think Mikirob also had some issues at first. One of the reviewers had hum due to DC offset. That could also be an issue. Let us know what Israel says.
Send Israel Blume an email or call him, he'll help you out. This is a uncommon complaint for this amplifier.
I just got mine today, and I'm having a hell of a time with hum from the amp and through the speakers. Tried everything I can think of, but nothing seems to help. Headphone listening isn't possible due to the severity of the problem. It sounds like a great amp when it's turned up, but at lower levels the hum is really distracting. Have any of you come across this type of problem?

Thanks, Scott
Brownsfan and Mikirob,
FWIW, TAS is supposed to be coming out with a review of the Dynamo 34SE in their February issue.
In the meantime, I wait for my Audio Note Kit 1 to be shipped tomorrow. :-)
I agree with Mikirob. The dynamo is a superb piece at its price. My tube rolling so far has been confined to rectifiers. I have tried a variety of 5AR4s, including NOS Mullard late 60's, but I prefer an early 60's GE 5U4 GB (pretty cheap tube) to all the 5AR4s I have tried. No rolling on the driver or output tubes yet.
As it burns in, the top end smoothes out as Mikirob stated.
I'm using the dynamo to drive 92dB efficient deCapos. No problems at all, especially with the 5U4GB which has better dynamics.
I can't compare it to the Decware 34.1ss, but I did purchase the Dynamo 34se, which is phenomenal. So far I've tube rolled the rectifier tube to Mullard late 60s 5AR4, plus Sylvania JAN 6SL7 WGT, EL34s from stock Shuguang (sounded good) to RFT Siemens, Gold Lion KT77s, and now, Shuguang Black Treasure 6CA7s (still breaking in) but I can already say they are the best of this grouping. The Black Treasure has a long break-in period (200 hrs) and over the past two days they have really opened up and are beginning to sound fabulous. The stage in my 14x16 room is wall-to-wall, deep beyond the back wall. Instrumental tone is beautiful, well saturated, full, accurate, detailed, clear. A small edge on violins and horns have disappeared. This tube amp, with the tubes I have used is neither too Yin or Yang, just right for me, it has the best tube amp attributes as well as never being fatiguing, with the surprising quality, too me, of being very dynamic. This amp plays everything well, large classical, chamber, Jazz, modern as well as big band, rock folk, you name it, it plays it wonderfully.

I' ve owned many top-notch systems, yet this small Dynamo is special.
I noticed Dick Olsher had one in his 'Associated Equipment List" when he was reviewing the AVA FET Valve CF preamp .. so maybe a review in progress?

Ken Kessler also mentioned his experience here ..

http://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/international/soundstage-uk/662-nothin-against-china-but
Ya Dennis Had is the real deal and does this for passion only at this point. You can contact him through his Ebay ad and ask questions.
You have some great choices it seems.
Swampwalker, primarily the Dynamo 34se, but I am eventually going to go for the 300b. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Grannyring, I've looked at the Inspire and it is intriguing. As you can see I have bought Dennis Had's products, for me they have been stellar, with no problems. Dennis was easy to work with. I also own the Cary SLP98 Pre.
Charles, I'd likely purchase one of Israel's speakers. At the moment I have Tekton Lore, Tekton 4.5, as well as Infinity Prelude Compositions, 96db, 4 Ohm/with built in 300 watt amp driving the 12 inch woofers. I currently own a Cary V12, Cary 300SEI, and Primaluna One. I'd sell some of this other gear assuming the Coincident 300b is better, which I believe it is. Especially set up as you have it.
Mikirob,
I don't believe a home trial is available. I'd feel very confident buying this amp given the pedigree and the builder's stellar track record. I've had nothing but excellent service and follow up with Israel Blume.
Thanks you for your kind comments.
Charles,
Another great tube amp is made by Dennis Had.He is now retired and the man who started Cary Audio. Boy he makes killer amps for around $1000 that just can't be beat. He hand makes each one and they point to point wired with good quality parts.

The line is called Inspire and trust me when I say they sound first class in every way. Nice guy also.

He makes several amps and all lifetime kinds of amps!
In the meantime I believe purchasing the Dynamo 34SE might be a good move, but don't want to jump just yet, would like more info and impressions from the A-gon community. Does Blume give in home trials?
Charles1dad, you have a great system. I think I'm going to go in that direction over this next year. Need to wait a bit until the new house is finished.