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MG Head DT CDV

post #1 of 42
7/30/01 at 4:05pm
Thread Starter 
I guess there is a new version of the Head DT with CDV designation. Does anyone have this? Supposedly its $80 more, comes with the cage, upgraded power cord, and "better" electronics. Early reports are "it sounds better than the Head DT."
Any more insight? That's all I've heard.

Thanks.

Brian.
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post #2 of 42
7/30/01 at 4:09pm
Well, you can't leave us hanging like this!

Where'd you see reference to this?
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post #3 of 42
7/30/01 at 4:22pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by jude
Well, you can't leave us hanging like this!

Where'd you see reference to this?

Oh, the dealer I just ordered it from told me about it. For $80, I just went ahead and got the CDV version. It is still 12AX7/EL84 based, but he wasn't sure what the electronics upgrade was. I talked to the guy for a while and didn't feel like he was trying to make an extra $80. His impression was that it did sound better. Antique Sound Labs told him that they would continue to offer it and the regular Head DT in parallel, but weren't very forthcoming about what electronic differences there were. I figured I'll probably spend at least $80 in new tubes, so WTF. And from experience in my home system, power cords alone can make an audible difference.

Brian.
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post #4 of 42
7/30/01 at 4:26pm
Well I've got pictures of the inside of a stock MG Head DT (as well as a hot-rodded MG Head DT), so, if you're interested in posting pics of the inside of yours for comparison, that'd be cool. But, if not, I totally understand.

-- Jude --
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post #5 of 42
7/30/01 at 4:29pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by jude
Well I've got pictures of the inside of a stock MG Head DT (as well as a hot-rodded MG Head DT), so, if you're interested in posting pics of the inside of yours for comparison, that'd be cool. But, if not, I totally understand.

-- Jude --

Could I see your pictures of those? I will take pics with my digicam when my CDV version gets here, and post them. The guy said 1.5 weeks for delivery... So prolly a week from Thursday I'll have it.

So what all goes into this "hot-rodded" unit?

Brian.
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post #6 of 42
7/30/01 at 5:01pm
Quote:
Originally posted by briantf27
So what all goes into this "hot-rodded" unit?
Long story on the hot-rodded unit. Here's what was different about it:
  • Black Gate e-caps on power supplies
  • All low-tolerance non-inductive top-grade resistors in the signal path
  • Much better metalized poly coupling capacitors
  • One little re-wiring scheme on the circuitry
  • And a few other parts upgrade related improvements
Simply put, Divergent was thinking of offering an optional upgrade, so experimented a bit. This hotrodded unit was one of the test units (they eventually determined that it was too labor-intensive to offer such a unit as an upgrade at the time).

Here are the pics:

Standard MG Head DT:


Picture 1 of hot-rodded MG Head DT


Picture 2 of hot-rodded MG Head DT
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post #7 of 42
7/30/01 at 5:04pm
I hope they added another transformer tower in this MG Head DT CDV. If you look at most SET stereo amps, you'll see at least three towers on the unit (one for each channel's output tranny and one for the power tranny). Because there's only two on the MG Head DT, it has one of its output trannies in the tower, and the power tranny in the other tower. The other output tranny, as you can see in the pics, is sitting in the main part of the chassis. I'm of the opinion that both channels should be treated somewhat more equally.
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post #8 of 42
7/30/01 at 5:07pm
Thread Starter 
OK. This is more or less what I figured. I'll bet that if there are any changes, they'll be limitted to resistor and capacitors, not power supplies.

I'll post pics next week.

Thanks for those.

Brian.
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post #9 of 42
7/30/01 at 9:49pm
They've been offering the "complete with tube cage and detachable cord" package for a few weeks now. I wonder if this is what you have heard about. Prior to that the cage was an option and the cord was attached.

Never heard of the CDV designation however.
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post #10 of 42
7/30/01 at 10:39pm
briantf27, thanks for the info and update us when you get it. I plan on getting either an MGHead or a Corda amp when I get to school so any info on the new version of the MGHead would be cool. Thanks.
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post #11 of 42
7/30/01 at 11:09pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by mbriant
They've been offering the "complete with tube cage and detachable cord" package for a few weeks now. I wonder if this is what you have heard about. Prior to that the cage was an option and the cord was attached.

Never heard of the CDV designation however.
If this is all of what my $80 got me, I'm not going to be overly thrilled. The guy told me there was "upgraded electronics" as well, though. And he claimed that it sounded better. We'll see. I'll take pics when it arrives.

But I guess the detachable cord will be useful as I'll want to take it out during the day and lock it up at night in the office cabinet and I'll be able to do so without crawling behind stuff to unplug it. And with all the handling, a cage will prevent my precious expensive tube upgrades from getting broken...
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post #12 of 42
7/30/01 at 11:43pm
The MG head I got from Audiowaves last month came with the cage and detachable cord, and it cost $ 60 more than the old version. Allen, the owner, told me that all new Heads he could get from DivergentTech, the distributor, were new versions and he personally could not tell the difference of sound quality between the new and old versions, so I second Brian in that there could have very limited upgraded parts inside the New Head, if not nothing at all.
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post #13 of 42
7/31/01 at 12:19am
Whether they've ugraded the electronics or not, it's a great amp.
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post #14 of 42
7/31/01 at 12:22am
I bought my upgraded MG about 3-4 months ago. I had demoed the older MG w/c did not have the cage or removable and uprgraded power cord. The older MG has a click stop volume pot.

I paid $50 extra for the "upgrades". I don't use the cage, but I do like the fact I can upgrade the power cord down the road.

I can not recall if there was a sound difference between the older version or the newer one. I agree with mbriant that it is a great amp, especially once you start tube rolling, but IMHO the stock tubes are very good.

Regards - reynman
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post #15 of 42
7/31/01 at 12:41am
I agree with you guys, the Heads is a great amp. I compared both OBH-11 and Head for a month and found that I like Head more, so I returned the Creek.

However, to be fair, the build quality of the Creek is better than that of the Head though.
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