Little Dot MK VI - Page 9

How long, in general, do tubes last for?

In the past when using tubes for amplifiers for speakers, I had to replace them every 3 months or so, and the shop I got the amps from said this was so, and they did need frequent replacement (but maybe these were low quality tubes or something?). But reading online it seems like tubes normally last for a much longer time, like 2000-5000 hours or something... What's been your experience?

Also, with balanced, I have an existing DAC that is not balanced... I am considering balanced amp and headphones, but DAC is not... Will this mean that the main advantage of balanced is no longer there? In other words, is it more important that the DAC is balanced?

I thought I would throw in my tuppenny worth because there seems to be so little information on the mkvi and would like to contribute something to the discussion on this fantastic amp having been helped by forum members previously. My set up is: PC>FOOBAR>USB to TOSLINK>CHANNEL ISLANDS AUDIO BALANCED DAC>ALO AUDIO SILVER COATED COPPER RCA'S>LD MKVI+>AUDIO TECHNICA ATH AD2000'S and SENNHEISER HD600's. I'm going to go ahead and assume this is the correct thread so here goes!

Previous to the mkvi I owned a mkiv se and always loved it with the standard power tubes and Tung Sol 6ak5w driver tubes which gave a much clearer warmer and less overpoweringly tubey sound than with the original m8100 driver tubes. The only upgrade I could think of from there was to go balanced to get the next step in up in SQ therefore I went for the mk vi a year ago. So far I've only used it single ended due to financial constraints! Since owning it I wanted to get the mkiv sound back which I loved and came close to it with raytheon vt231 6sn7 tubes. However I liked the slightly more tubey sound that the 6sn7 driver tubes gave me over the mkiv sound whilst still retaining the detail, it is a tube amp after all! This is why I like the amp so much, but if any one wants to know how it sounds then refer to the mkiii or mkivse review for close approximation as the sound signature is similar according to others, with the mkiii slightly warm and the mkiv slightly clearer but taking the sound up a notch again.

TUBE ROLLING. What follows are my observations from memory on the other tubes I've tried, and how they affect the sound of the amp. There is a good choice with the 6sn7 tube family which are suited to this amp and are all great tubes. The rca 6sn7 gtb are beautifully rich, detailed and balanced, whereas the vt123 grey glass tubes are musical, very balanced and exceptionally smooth and easy to listen to. The sylvania 6sn7 gtb are warm, detailed, balanced, crisp and slightly solid state sounding. The tung sol 6sn7 gtb sound clear, detailed and analytical. Brimar cv1988 tubes are very dynamic, punchy, tubey and fantastic for mid range vocals, especially female. Finally the tung sol oval plate tubes are about the best I've tried with a beautiful balance, detailed base and magical silky treble and 3d soundstage. If anyone wants any further elaboration please let me know as I have had to find most of this out for myself with a little help and I would be pleased to respond with my own observations. I've also tried some tung sol 7236 power tubes which are very clear, detailed and analytical sounding. The only tubes I would like to try now are the sylvania 6as7g power tubes which are supposed to be warm, detailed with a good soundstage and I would like to contrast these with the rca 6as7g power tubes that I've been using up to now. I've tried examples from the main tube families so I would think that within these families the tubes all have a similar sound signature eg sylvanias are all warm and crisp sounding whereas rca's are smooth and rich sounding etc. I've also tried all the main construction types eg flat plate, round plate, t plate etc so have got a rough idea of these sound signatures. Anyone can get an overall picture from various tube sites.

I hope this gives and indication of characteristics of the mkvi. I love it and for the value and also the customer experience I am really impressed. I can't see me ever changing the set up - possibly!  In the future I do want to go balanced however with some HiFiMan HE500's which can be easily recabled unlike my Audio Technicas. It they are as good as the reviews say then I will have the perfect set up - great sounding amp with no faults that I can detect, and one of the best sets of headphones around!!!