[jeust0999]

Yes, please post some pictures and give us an impression. Very good choice, thanks.

 

[disgruntleddave]

Anyone expecting shipments in the next couple days?

 

[popa]

I received mine today. Doing a 24hr bun-in right now. Sure looks  good. Tubes sure make the new paint smell. Hope the smell goes away soon. Already ordered other tubes to swap.Will get back to give my impressions of Garry's latest.

 

[disgruntleddave]

Cool...

 

[Greeni]

The amp arrived.
 
The piece has a subtantial feel to it not common at this price level. The volume knob and on/off switch looks and feels like from products from higher classes. One minor blemish has to do with fittings, there is a small bump with the chasis intersecting the back panel, looks like caused by trying to house the oversized transformer within the limited space of the chassis, but I am mentioning this just for being complete. Just don't expect standards from Italy furnishing. Overall it is well built. Garry needs to make sure the Chinese workers in your factory are paid adequate wages.
 
Now this is my first tubed headphone amp and it happens to hum with the phones I have on hand. It was most noticable with the Sony MDR 900ST, followed by Grado RS2i. It was noticable with volume turned all the way down and also during quiet passages. With the Sony MDR 7506 the noise floor was reduced to a neligible level and it seems also that the amp sound tightest with the 7506. This leads me to suspect that the amp works best with more demanding / lower impedence loads but none of my phones on hand are these. And the amp apparantly has quite some drive to handle these loads.
 
I would be interested in the tube rolling experience of others and if that would lower the noise floor.Because of the hum issue with the particular phones I have on hand, my listening was done with a small pair of efficient bookshelf speakers. No complaints, the amp has a sweet sound and effervescent quality you expect from a good tube amp.
 
 

 

[disgruntleddave]

I always thought that a higher impedance meant it's more demanding, power wise...

 

[jeust0999]

More impressions, please. I'm interested in how syrupy or tubey this amp is.

 

[Ultrainferno]

 
Quote:

The amp arrived.
 
The piece has a subtantial feel to it not common at this price level. The volume knob and on/off switch looks and feels like from products from higher classes. One minor blemish has to do with fittings, there is a small bump with the chasis intersecting the back panel, looks like caused by trying to house the oversized transformer within the limited space of the chassis, but I am mentioning this just for being complete. Just don't expect standards from Italy furnishing. Overall it is well built. Garry needs to make sure the Chinese workers in your factory are paid adequate wages.
 
Now this is my first tubed headphone amp and it happens to hum with the phones I have on hand. It was most noticable with the Sony MDR 900ST, followed by Grado RS2i. It was noticable with volume turned all the way down and also during quiet passages. With the Sony MDR 7506 the noise floor was reduced to a neligible level and it seems also that the amp sound tightest with the 7506. This leads me to suspect that the amp works best with more demanding / lower impedence loads but none of my phones on hand are these. And the amp apparantly has quite some drive to handle these loads.
 
I would be interested in the tube rolling experience of others and if that would lower the noise floor.Because of the hum issue with the particular phones I have on hand, my listening was done with a small pair of efficient bookshelf speakers. No complaints, the amp has a sweet sound and effervescent quality you expect from a good tube amp.
 
 

I can't speak for the tubes in these amps, but there are tubes like the 6AS7 that sometimes take 30hours to get rid of the hum.
As this is only your first day using the amp, I would just burn it in some more and see what happens. Skylab's the expert, most likely he will confirm what I said or correct me I wouldn't worry just yet if this is tube related
 

 

[Skylab]

The 6SJ7 is one of the worst tubes in the world in terms of needing break in. New 6SJ7's when used in the Darkvoice 337 would hum LOUDLY for 12-24 hours before becoming quiet.

 

[Rockyhill]

The MK2 has arived in Maine. Very impressed with shipping time!
 
Tubes plugged in, speakers connected, sources connected. Power cord plugged in. Turned power ON. Immediate hum through Nova 8's (with "VL mod" see AK thread). Low level, but noticeable. Waited 5 minutes before turning up volume and starting source.
 
First song played was "Come Together."  Bass unbeliveable. Mids substantial and clear. Highs satisfactory (a trait of these speakers... for another day and thread). Initial impression: this only cost $250!? Holy *&^$% Batman, what will it sound like with tubes burned in, better tubes and better speakers?!
 

 

[KuKuBuKu]

Quote:

I always thought that a higher impedance meant it's more demanding, power wise...

nope. not at all. Look at speakers. they are only 4-8 ohms, but require a hell of a lot more power. More impedance just means more voltage swing, not more power. lots of people get the impression that high impedance phones are hard to drive because lots of hard to drive headphones just happen to have high impedance.
 

 

[disgruntleddave]

Would you describe the HD600s at 300 ohms as hard to drive?
 
I know they aren't hard compared to something like the akg 70xs, apparently..

 

[d8n0g]

Could someone in detail explain to me ho to connect this to my pc-that's my main muzac source....I would really appreciate it!!

 

[disgruntleddave]

Do you have a DAC? Specifically a USB DAC?
 
If not, then you'd basically be plugging it in to another amplifier that's a lot crappier than this one - your PC's sound card. In this case you'd need a single stereo jack to separate L/R (white and red) cables, and plug it in that way.

 

[blackzarg]

 
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