Andrew Rieger
500+ Head-Fier
I'm curious to know what kind of sound changes I can expect as the tube burns in.
Its sounds pretty good after 10 or so hours of play. I'd say 65% to 70% of my music collection has benefitted greatly from tubes. The remaining percentage seems to react a bit more strangely, its hard to describe. Its as if the tube is causing reverberations within the headphone cup that makes the soundstage seem more vast but it also dulls the sound ever so slightly and makes the presentation a bit congested on some tracks that have a lot going on. Since the bass has a ton of extension, I guess the "bloom" could be bleeding a bit into the midrange. The other issue could be my Schiit Modi Multibit DAC which has been known to be a bit dark (some say veiled as well).
I'm hoping the brightness of classic mode on the iFi also flattens out over time since it sounds the best to my ears. I am using the DT1990 headphone which is known to be on the brighter side. I was hoping that the itube 2 would tame this and it has, just not quite as much as I was hoping. I'm going too be trying my setup with a ZMF Atticus soon. I will report back but so far, I'm liking what I'm hearing, I just need to fully adjust to the new presentation since I've never had a tube amp.
Its sounds pretty good after 10 or so hours of play. I'd say 65% to 70% of my music collection has benefitted greatly from tubes. The remaining percentage seems to react a bit more strangely, its hard to describe. Its as if the tube is causing reverberations within the headphone cup that makes the soundstage seem more vast but it also dulls the sound ever so slightly and makes the presentation a bit congested on some tracks that have a lot going on. Since the bass has a ton of extension, I guess the "bloom" could be bleeding a bit into the midrange. The other issue could be my Schiit Modi Multibit DAC which has been known to be a bit dark (some say veiled as well).
I'm hoping the brightness of classic mode on the iFi also flattens out over time since it sounds the best to my ears. I am using the DT1990 headphone which is known to be on the brighter side. I was hoping that the itube 2 would tame this and it has, just not quite as much as I was hoping. I'm going too be trying my setup with a ZMF Atticus soon. I will report back but so far, I'm liking what I'm hearing, I just need to fully adjust to the new presentation since I've never had a tube amp.