My preamp takes 6DJ8 and I settled on Amperex PQ. These are a toss up with Telefunken but a good batch of these Amperex are probably the best I have heard for music. I was considering the Ah 4000 but I found someone to fully mod out my Cal audio player which is why upgrading is so complicated.
Review: Tjoeb 4000 CD Player
Category: Digital
WITH UPSAMPLER, ALL ADD ON MODS AND AMPEREX TUBE UPGRADE
Please see the reviews at Audio Review.com. They are all glowing and the reviewers love this machine. I will say that this CD player with full mods, upsampler and upgraded tubes is the way to go at this price point.
Why screw around? If you are buying this player because of the quality and tube sound you may as well cut to the chase and make it the best sounding player for its price. You won’t be disappointed.
I A/B’d this player with the similarly priced Rotel 991 audiophile edition (thank you to the nice folks at Spearit Sound). The Rotel is a fine player no question.
I had completely burned in the Rotel and was happy with it. I wanted, however, to give the Ah! a try before a final decision. I called Kevin at Upscale Audio and he offered to send me the Ah! with a generous return option. I received the Ah! a day later (boy that’s service) with all of the upgrades and the upsampler but without the tube upgrade. I really tried not to do a comparison without a proper burn-in. After 48 hours though I could not contain my curiosity. The differences with the Rotel were readily apparent even after 48 hours.
The details were much finer with the Ah!. The sound stage slightly wider but the dynamics were sooo much better. I ended the test early even though the Ah! really needs about 250 hours of burn-in (Kevin recommends leaving the Ah! on for at least a week).
I did not compare the supplied DACs and only did a comparison between the two with the Ah!’s upsampler so I cannot tell you how that would have turned out.
The upsampler seemed to do as promised. That is; move all of the digital artifacts and noise, which is normally just beyond hearing frequency, but may not be completely, to a truly supersonic level. This, it is said, explains the benefit of upsampling even though the 24/192 upsampler does not have any additional information to derive from standard 16/44 red book CD’s. The realism of all types of music was phenomenal.
I was not completely satisfied however. I still was bothered by the usual digital “glare” of CDs and digital distortion on “Sss” sounds of female vocals. After consulting with Kevin (at 8:00 PM that evening) about this he suggested warming things up with an Amperex tube upgrade. I received the tubes the next day (how does he do that?). Oh, by the way, Kevin recommends putting a sheet of Dynamat (a damping material obtained from Car Stereo dealers) inside the case to reduce case resonance.
After a quick install of the tubes and an hour warm-up I popped in a CD and.... WOW!
What a difference.
The sound was sooo much warmer and analogue. Record like. The glare was gone. The Ssss problem had almost disappeared. This is a world class player and at about $1000 all-in a great bargain too.
Highly recommended.
Strengths:
Detail, Sound Stage, Warmth, Dynamics. Customer service
Weaknesses:
None if you go all the way and buy/do all the mods and upgrades suggested and available
Associated gear
Audiomat Apgege, JM Reynaud Twin MKII speakers, DIY power cords and speaker cables, Austrailian interconnects
Similar products
Rotel CD 991
WITH UPSAMPLER, ALL ADD ON MODS AND AMPEREX TUBE UPGRADE
Please see the reviews at Audio Review.com. They are all glowing and the reviewers love this machine. I will say that this CD player with full mods, upsampler and upgraded tubes is the way to go at this price point.
Why screw around? If you are buying this player because of the quality and tube sound you may as well cut to the chase and make it the best sounding player for its price. You won’t be disappointed.
I A/B’d this player with the similarly priced Rotel 991 audiophile edition (thank you to the nice folks at Spearit Sound). The Rotel is a fine player no question.
I had completely burned in the Rotel and was happy with it. I wanted, however, to give the Ah! a try before a final decision. I called Kevin at Upscale Audio and he offered to send me the Ah! with a generous return option. I received the Ah! a day later (boy that’s service) with all of the upgrades and the upsampler but without the tube upgrade. I really tried not to do a comparison without a proper burn-in. After 48 hours though I could not contain my curiosity. The differences with the Rotel were readily apparent even after 48 hours.
The details were much finer with the Ah!. The sound stage slightly wider but the dynamics were sooo much better. I ended the test early even though the Ah! really needs about 250 hours of burn-in (Kevin recommends leaving the Ah! on for at least a week).
I did not compare the supplied DACs and only did a comparison between the two with the Ah!’s upsampler so I cannot tell you how that would have turned out.
The upsampler seemed to do as promised. That is; move all of the digital artifacts and noise, which is normally just beyond hearing frequency, but may not be completely, to a truly supersonic level. This, it is said, explains the benefit of upsampling even though the 24/192 upsampler does not have any additional information to derive from standard 16/44 red book CD’s. The realism of all types of music was phenomenal.
I was not completely satisfied however. I still was bothered by the usual digital “glare” of CDs and digital distortion on “Sss” sounds of female vocals. After consulting with Kevin (at 8:00 PM that evening) about this he suggested warming things up with an Amperex tube upgrade. I received the tubes the next day (how does he do that?). Oh, by the way, Kevin recommends putting a sheet of Dynamat (a damping material obtained from Car Stereo dealers) inside the case to reduce case resonance.
After a quick install of the tubes and an hour warm-up I popped in a CD and.... WOW!
What a difference.
The sound was sooo much warmer and analogue. Record like. The glare was gone. The Ssss problem had almost disappeared. This is a world class player and at about $1000 all-in a great bargain too.
Highly recommended.
Strengths:
Detail, Sound Stage, Warmth, Dynamics. Customer service
Weaknesses:
None if you go all the way and buy/do all the mods and upgrades suggested and available
Associated gear
Audiomat Apgege, JM Reynaud Twin MKII speakers, DIY power cords and speaker cables, Austrailian interconnects
Similar products
Rotel CD 991