@mattrudy80 you Sir, are brilliant! It appears to be the (red) 'amp in' connector that is bad. I was wiggling the cables and the hum started to go in/out when I wiggled the (red) SilverStreak. I pushed on the side of the connector housing and the hum immediately went away. There must be...

Mattrudy I have been running the SilverStreaks in my chain since August without a hitch. The only problem I had was when I was messing around with the different 6n6p-IR power tubes in my amp. That was when I had the horrible hum the first time. I re-seated everything on the amp - no hum...

Tried to narrow down which SilverStreak went bad: Two different Kimber PBJs -> no hum 1 (red) PBJ + 1 (white) SilverStreak -> no hum 1 (white) PBJ + 1 (red) SilverStreak -> no hum (red) SilverStreak + (white) SilverStreak -> horrible hum The SilverStreaks are only bad with each other. How...

Hey @mattrudy80 turns out the hum is coming from my Metrum DAC. Even more specifically: one of my KimberKable Silverstreaks... I noticed that the hum was missing when I just had the amp plugged into the mains (I disconnected the DAC interconnects). I found another pair of Kimber PBJs and...

That darn HUUUMMM is back! I did the same thing as last time: pull all the tubes, pull the power, pull the DAC interconnects, re-plug - HUUUUUUMMMMM. I even tried with different power and driver tubes (not the 6n6p-IR). Hum!! Any ideas?

Yikes - had me a bit of scare. I pulled the noisy 6N6P-IRs and replaced with the 6N6P and... HUMMMMMMMMMM.... I thought I had borked my beloved Brimar E88CC!! I had me sit and a think. I pulled all tubes and all connections (power cable and line in from DAC), took a breath, and re-seated and...

Update on power tubes: just got me some 6N6P-IR and it is a big NOPE. Horrible hum and everything sounded very thin and tinny. Back to the 6N6P! I think I have satisfied my curiosity about power tubes for the time being. I don't have the itch to shell out $600 for the 6H30-DR. Still very...

Ares burn-in has entered the 4th day - and everything is sounding closer to what I recall from my Metrum! I know that 'sound' can be subjective (I also have some tinnitus from some silly choices I made when I was younger), but what is your go-to track for being able to say: yep - I can...

Thanks for looking after me @alvin1118 ! I know I'm going to have fun with this lil box!

Having a play with the Ares and Espressivo II. Hiccup was that the right 'out' post was incredibly tight, but Alvin over at Vinshine answered immediately: just shove harder! Initial sound impression is that it feels tight and muted vs my Metrum. Metrum prolly has 300+ hours, so: Burn-in time...

@Wes S I love my Espressivo - and heavily invested in 6922 tubes, so I see where you are going with the Decware and WA3! I also have a WA3 on order. That Decware kept turning my head tho... The Espressivo II was a real deal when I got it. At the time, Feliks did not have any dealers in the...

@lentoviolento that is good to know! I fretted over the DAC - went back and forth between Areas and the Pontus. Figured that since it was for work to just stick with Ares *but* test at home as well. I figure if I see a difference between the lowest level Denafrips and a mid-level Metrum, then...

@tracyca I initially started with a Pre Box S2 Digital (which worked fine, albeit, you cannot turn it 'off'), and then moved to a Metrum Onyx. Two different types of DACs: Delta Sigma vs Ladder. I found the Metrum to be more.... hate to use the word: holographic and open. That does not mean...

@mattrudy80 wow, that was a deep cut into the forums - much appreciated. I found this gem: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/little-dot-tube-amps-vacuum-tube-rolling-guide.563884/page-201#post-9823694 Reading that post and also reading @OctavianH above, it would appear that IR and DR are where...

I've found some 6H30P "DR" - I say "DR" because the supplier says that they look like the DR and test like the DR, they are just not labeled "DR". They think it is a mislabeled batch, so they are about half as much as the "DR". Still expensive which is why I would rather hear someone say: Oh...