The muting isn’t really a protection of the amp blowing up but you forgetting to lower volume. Macintosh and alike will have muting circuits and soft turn ons. But that’s more about saving the tubes. The microprocessor that control such things in my mind is the long term failure point. When it...

Relays can be used for a wide variety of purposes. The the Willsenton R300 imagine having 2 line level sources playing at same time, it happens that even when switched to one input you hear music from the other... relays make that not happen. Re new stuff... The Red October XL is our Red...

Touche Im not so sure... We are pretty obsessive re our builds. There are features we won't include as we worry about failure points. re: relays: I didn't see them on the Willsenton R300 or Feliks Audio Elise. The relays on the Willsenton R300 are muting for the input switching but not a...

As an aside, OTL designs present a greater risk to divers in the event of adverse outcomes. (Maybe an upside of transformers ). Again, most amps have aspects of a circuit that are sacrificial in the event of a bad outcome.

I think you're offering a few over simplifications. Amps don't blow up... tubes fail, power supplies could but haven't. Most headphone amps in the market at large don't have startup relays. If there are ones that do, the question of how the relay is controlled becomes an independent variable...

Yes it is.

The Gen 4 outputs are really special there a few owners... some of who had a Nautilus or RO first and seem super pleased with the step in performance. All that said, I am hoping to pull one new model out in time for CanJam SoCal. Something really new for the big power crowds.

The 274 needs to be a modern version... some arnt. I know it's tempting but there are other really great GZ based choices as are there many variants of the5 5U4.

Yes they are

274 is not a compatible tube reacquires a really small input cap. The 5AR4/GZ34s are in fact compatible and sound great.

6889 can work on a Nautilus. 5R4s. Nope. Not so much.

Thanks

Used as a back, very very light to no use. Looks and performs as new. Comes with everything in pics. Frequency response (speaker) 4 Hz - 51,000 Hz Sound pressure level (SPL) 102 dB (1 V) Impedance 300 Ω Total harmonic distortion (THD) < 0.02 % (1 kHz 1 Vrms) Cable length 3 m Cables stereo jack...

incredibly kind... pleasure to have meet you! Now starts the headphone collecting journey :-).

That’s been my experience. Modhouse, lcd5, sus, either2, stealth, 1266 all rock. But chose tubes accordingly.

Hey guys… but too exhausted to fully comment tonight but will count back in am. Input transformers are for sonic improvement. A few examples of the agartha are out there with custom input transformers that provide step up. With all these super hot dscs it became less desired. The pre does a...

That's a lovely picture!

El37s are pin compatible but it's almost like a 6L6GB but as a pentode. Its Max plate is 400v for which the Bigger Ben/Mogwai SE and Nautilus exceeds. Use at your own risk! It's very similar to 807s with an adapter. Mil Spec 807s handle the voltage without issue... but not all NOS 807s are...

It’s not just a question of voltage but of the drive func. More voltage lends to more better dynamic range but not whole story. Gain/drive is where dynamics live. Too much gain and you have noise. Not enough and there is not life. Pre amps should give gain…. That all said every system is...

Just read this. Super kind guys. Thanks a bunch.

The Bigger Ben fully supports a 5U4, the EML is being used without issue.

Sorry for a late chime in but on I’m vacation currently. We don’t go into breakdown of how we load the output stage… That said, there’s lots of variables to be considered, pri impedance vs (selected output) sec impedance, tube choice and impedance of VC which is not constant. The Forge is...

That’s a really good looking setup.

Have a bad case of food poisoning so Im loopy, but... 15lbs lbs for the amps... 20-22lbs with case.

Wow that’s super cool looking.