Okay, I thought I'd post a follow-up from my 2015 Ember review. I just purchased a new Ember 2.1 because my son is now the de-facto owner of the 1.0. Since the 2.1 Ember can roll tubes that require higher heater power I thought I'd give them a shot. I'm damn glad I did. After trying my...

The 712 should perform well with any high quality amp with sufficient power.  I've worn enough headphones that I can say that the 712 is *very* comfortable.  YMMV.

Depends what you mean by reasonable price.   I've found Raytheon 12AX7 Organ tubes to be especially nice for the price.  On my Ember they give excellent bass and very nice air.  My supplier has them for about $50. YMMV.  Ebay can be useful,but its hard to know how reliable the suppliers are.

I was just at the 2015 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest and auditioned the Lyr 2.  The very nice peeps at their booth discussed a number of the issues.  I have the AKG K712Pro and Project Ember built by the guys at Garage 1217.  We brought the K712 along to the fest to test it with amps.   Somehow our...

Thanks for the recommendation.  I did originally look for a Raytheon 5751 Windmill Getter, but at the time they were really hard to come by, even on ebay.   It seems that it's now available from a few of my favorite vendors so I think think I'll try it.      You're right.   None of the good...

Just thought I'd toss in my experience, admittedly limited with the Ember.   I use the ember with AKG K712 Pro cans.  The K712s are 62 ohm phones and the ember drives them easily.  In fact most other low power amps and default headphone jacks just make the K712s sound anemic.   The Ember makes...

I don't have them yet, but the general consensus on the 7308 variant of the Mazda 6DJ8 is that they are sweet like the Amperex, but with more headroom (dynamic range) and "punch".  They are not cheap.  Prices from the better dealers for the 1960s version is around $150 each.  The 1970s version...

Thanks Bilson.  My top two 6dj8 tubes right now are the 1960s Amperex Orange Globe from the US or the Mazda 7308/E188CC variant of the 6DJ8.  I have access to the 1960s and 1970s version, it just depends on how much I wan to spend.

30 Days With The K712 and Project Ember   ... and still going.   The K712 is supremely comfortable, transparent and when paired with Project Ember and a decent tube the results are just staggering, lose-yourself-in-your-record-collection-where-did-the-time-go awesome.   The tube I'm...

The Baldwins are just OEM Raytheons, but handpicked for replacement of organ tubes in Baldwin organs.   If you're concerned about channel imbalance, have you tried the 5751s? They're 12v and there are a number of excellent 5751s which would be internally matched and have lower gain so you...

manbear: i've not listened to the 12au7 variation, but many reviewers say the 712s really benefit from the extra headroom provided by the 12ax7s.  ymmv of course based on your headphones.

My son and I run an indie film production studio.  He has a big head (physically) and one of the only headphones that felt comfortable for him was the K712 Pro.  I normally run with a pair of ATH M50s in my backpack, but it's the K712 for him.  Fine.  I was aware of the fact that it needed a...

For Christmas we received a new Project Ember for our AKG 712s, so I purchased a couple NOS tubes just to start things rolling.  Here are my thoughts on the tubes:   First the AKG 712 while an extremely revealing monitoring headphone doesn't really show it excellent character until driven by a...