As internet posters, we are very guilty of overemphasizing differences and describing small changes as if they seem like huge transformations. But, I can say that I've rolled my Vali 2+ quite extensively, and my ears can pick up on differences between tubes. I think part of the issue for those...

1960s GE 6CG7. You could do a lot worse for a lot more money. They are under $15 shipped to your door from eBay.

Better is subjective, but in dual mono, L and R channels are completely independent amplification pathways so you get fewer issues. Many issues are inaudible, but some are audible, including crosstalk. Also, independent channels have their own “pools” to draw power from and aren’t bogged down...

Not surprising at all since it’s dual mono and therefore has a lot less crosstalk.

Very well said! I'll also add that Jack Wu seems to supply his amps with various collections of stock tubes that vary from manufacturing run to run. To me, this means he trusts his amp designs to portray the sonic characteristics fairly consistently regardless of which tubes you roll into them.

There are still mountains of cold war era Russian and Chinese tubes.

Something must have been wrong with the HA-501 that you heard because I assure you there is nothing foggy about it. It's very clear and detailed, but it does impart a hint of class A warmth. You will never confuse it with a tube amp.

Vacuum tubes are obsolete but they can still sound amazing. I assure you there’s nothing obsolete with the HA-501 except the meaningless SINAD obsession from ASR that implies anything from Topping is the most advanced technology ever.

On my amp, as soon as the muting relay disengages, the DC goes from a few mV and then spikes. The first time I measured it, I had my multimeter set to 200 mV sensitivity, and it maxed it out and couldn't even give me a reading. The next time I set it to 2 V sensitivity, and I got readings above...

PSA: Absolutely do not leave your headphones plugged in when you turn the Vali 2+ on. In fact, I wouldn't even plug them in for several minutes. My new Vali 2+ developed a static scratch sound when adjusting the volume. Schiit wanted me to send it in and they replaced the volume pot. However...

You want to pre-amp into a preamp, and then run that into a power amp? Not ideal. Why not just get a tube preamp to drive the power amp?

Mike Moffat himself called it cheap assed balanced. Gungnir balanced is on another level.

I read his entire website before I ordered to vet him a bit. He wrote this under his business principles: "Yes, it would be much cheaper and easier to ship our cables to you in a non-recyclable, plastic bubble envelope, but we choose to use a reusable and recyclable cardboard box. Yes, it costs...

I thought the same thing, but when I checked my spam box, boom, it was in there.

But also consider that Mike Moffat goes to the opera to hear how music truly sounds. I'm sure he uses a good dose of speakers when tuning his DACs.

It's not that I'm thin-skinned or take my ball home when people have different opinions. That's an incredibly shallow view of what just happened and you know that. The issue here is this entire thread is based on opinions. I offer up mine and I'm basically being told I'm not allowed to use the...

Oh no! Subjective thoughts in a subjective thread! How stupid of me!

A tube rolling thread: a play three acts: Act 1) Tell me what you think of various tubes in your amp. Act 2) You can’t list opinions because they’re too subjective. Act 3) You’re wrong, here’s why, followed by my opinions.

Tube rolling threads are subjective. How do you objectively analyze tubes? An oscilloscope? We go by what we hear and how it matches our preferences. For me, the three tubes I mentioned are better than another, especially since they are dirt cheap. I didn’t make any claims beyond that. It makes...

It depends who handles your claim, I think. You could ask again and then if it comes to it, threaten to contact your credit card company. Many years ago I had terrible channel imbalance in the pot in the original Valhalla 1. They also charged me a restocking fee. Since I also thought the amp...

Translation: you’re looking for another opinion to affirm your current tube of choice without actually rolling any of the other suggested tubes in this thread.

I've climbed up and down the head-fi ladder many times. I've convinced myself that I can only listen to flagship headphones driven by tube amps with NOS tubes from the 1960s. I've convinced myself that I can only have said tube amps if they have point-to-point wiring and hand-wound transformers...

Unless you like bright, I don't recommend the Lion paired with the Vali 2+. The Vali 2+ leans to the bright and aggressive side, and the Lion is a bright tube. Plus, it's expensive. Better starter tubes are the JJ E88CC, GE 6CG7, and the Voskhod rocket 6N1P-EV. These are all better and cheaper.

A $45 Sony DVD player and a Schiit Magni and Modi stack. All for under $300 tax and shipping. The only way to go cheaper is a portable CD player.

Everything I've read is the HD 650s aren't enough headphone to make use of all the extra detail the Yggy provides. If you plan on using a speaker system or the 800S exclusively, then the differences are quite audible.