[ianmedium]

Oh my goodness! Now this is something I want to see! Crickey!

 

[woodcans]

Gentlemen. Enjoying the amp, the conversation, and the music.
 
I need to catch up. In the meantime, cheers:
 
 

 

[ianmedium]

Another stunner mate! What tubes are working in this shot?

 

[woodcans]

Quote:

Another stunner mate! What tubes are working in this shot?

 
Thanks Ian. They are Sylvania mil spec & Siemens:
 
 
 

 

 
In action:
 

 

 

[ianmedium]

Wonderful!
After reading your thoughts on them I looked to see if the seller had any more of the DL92's but he only has one left now. Mind, he does seem to find others so will keep an eye out!

 

[woodcans]

Quote:

Wonderful!
After reading your thoughts on them I looked to see if the seller had any more of the DL92's but he only has one left now. Mind, he does seem to find others so will keep an eye out!

 
I have noticed some microphonics with this combo when using the PFIX's but not with the Kaede's. I will need some more time with them as well as some more burn in on the tubes.

 

[ianmedium]

If that is Ting Ting sounds it was explained to me that those are not microphonics but quite normal for such light filaments. Apparently some are more prone to it than others. Does it happen say if you turn the volume knob or tap something or is it there when listening without touching anything?

How many hours have you on the tubes right now, I find a lot of the noises go away after 20 hours or so but there is no set standard for that. For instance my Marconi's still ting when the volume knob is turned but it never interferes with the sound when listening.

More worrisome to me is a sound that sounds like tissue paper being scrunched. It goes if I gently tap the tube but sometimes comes back. I have had that with Mullards. I should plug a pair in again and give them some decent hours and see if it goes away.

This is what Microphonics sound like! (though I am not much of a fan of the guy showing this it does clearly show what microphony is!)

[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEXjQgWyUhg[/VIDEO]

 

[ianmedium]

One other thing, with the tinging sound. What I have found is that the tubes that ting a little are some of the best sounding tubes I have! I have no idea why but there it is!

 

[woodcans]

One other thing, with the tinging sound. What I have found is that the tubes that ting a little are some of the best sounding tubes I have! I have no idea why but there it is!

Thanks for the info. It's tinging then, not microphonics. And no paper crunching, thank goodness. I am familiar with that.

 

[ianmedium]

Oh thats great! Not sure what that paper crunching sound is but that is most certainly heard whilst music is playing and it is really annoying!

 

[GermanGuy]

here are the wood pieces for my carrying pocket after the first time applying the mahagony wood stain with different paint techniques. will then polish them and then painting again, polish... paint ...polish ..... until they all look more similar and a little darker:
 

 

[ianmedium]

oh my goodness GG, This is looking good! I cannot wait to see the end result!

 

[ianmedium]

A new combination for this coming weekend. Marconi/Tungsram. I will have a proper listen tonight and report back later.

Knowing the Tungsrams are very very similar to the Lorenz it will be interesting to compare!
Bmichels, has your amp arrived yet?

 

[ianmedium]

SOME GOOD NEWS ABOUT TUBES FROM SHIKADA SAN!

I wrote to Shikada san today about the possibility of using DF96 tubes in place of DF91's, this is his response..


"The DF96 is a little big μ factor and half the power of the heater. However, the bias voltage is no problem at 4.5V, and there is a possibility that you can use no problem."

So it looks like we have another choice now! Let the hunt begin!

 

[ianmedium]

Well, that has been an interesting evening!

I decided that I did not care for the Tungsram/Marconi combo. It felt a little glassy to my ears. I think this shows how important it is to make a good match with pairing tubes as GG has shown. Both tubes are on their own excellent, the Marconi's paired with Lorenz and the Tungsrams paired with Mil-spec Sylvanias work so well together, just wonderful.

So, I thought I would do something radical and two surprises came from it and I am very very happy with both surprises!

I got the Phillips 3S4's out and.. The Mullard DF91's! I have not listened to the DF91 Mullards in months for two reasons. One is they felt a little too warm matched with all the 3S4 tubes I had at the time and two, they had that tissue paper rustle kick in occasionally and that was really annoying.

Getting the Mullards out of their boxes I noticed the pins were not up to my usual standards. These were early days tubes,before I had refined my cleaning regime. So I set to with the nail buffer and alcohol and the pins looked much better!

Plugged them all in, burned them in for an hour (more for the Mullards benefit than the phillips!) and started to listen to my test tracks..

Wowsers! This is now one of my best combo's. Gone was the tissue paper rustle so hopefully that noise is down to less than clean pins.

And now what were once slightly dark and warm tubes are now detailed, rich, creamy, detailed (yes, I know I am repeating myself!) Full of texture and atmosphere. Strings on a violin are waxy on the high notes and so textured on the lower notes.

Micro details abound within the sound stage, Saxophone takes on another level of breathiness on the 24/96 take five track. On the Waltz with Debby 24/96 recording the first track has some wonderful brush work on the drums, it feels three dimensional, the texture of the brushes changes as the stroke pass is completed, its like a wave.. Wonderful!

These Mullards lose perhaps a tiny amount of air compared to the Lorenz's/Tungsram's and Siemens but it is so small and what the Mullards bring to the table is so nice that I can live with the slight lack of air (we are talking minuscule here!)

What a shock this has been for me!