My Elise has been sitting dormant for some months. I got used to using a Schiit Magni 1 which, while I know isn't as accomplished an amp, was very convenient and was a nice match for my old Arcam rDac. For some time I've been on the verge of selling the Elise. Then my rDac bit the dust, which I...

Well I don't know if I've become less judgemental in my old age, or easier to please, but I'm STILL using the Mullard 6080/smoked glass RCA VT-231 combo I was using a while ago, and still with my old HE400. I've just adopted a policy of leaving the amp switched on for a least an hour before...

Still loving my Elise. Not using any particularly fancy or weird setup - Mullard 6080 and RCA smoked glass VT-231 keeps me very happy these days. Once that combo has warmed the amp up over a couple of hours, and I've had a couple of beers, I forget about the amp and just get off on the music...

Hi @Scutey I should have said "home office".... where I work mainly. I think if I'd brought the Elise into the office in town they'd have me locked up! EL12N + RCA VT231 working well with the HE400.

Been neglecting my Elise for a long time because got a Croft Micro 25L to use as a preamp for my stereo... but recently decided to relocate the Elise to my office. And I'm glad I did - had been thinking of selling it, because as a preamp, the Croft is in a different league. But now I'm...

Yeah, totally wrong thread for this :)

PS, using the Massdrop HE4XX - a big step up from the old HE400

After a few months running Chatham 6AS7G and some Sylvania 6SN7WGT, I plugged in my Valvo EL12s as drivers and suddenly remember what the fuss was about. Really lovely. That's about it for me with tube rolling for a while. Another update in about June.

Hi @antimatter I'm sure that the ARS and its kin are wonderful pieces of equipment, but certainly for the ARS weighing in at ten times the price of the Loki mini, the price is prohibitive for me at the moment. That said, I'm genuinely impressed by the level of transparency the Schiit offers -...

....aaaaaand, it's really good. Just think it needed to warm up. Haven't twiddled with it much, nor do I imagine myself do so except for really old jazz recordings. My system is slightly forward, with slightly over-polite bass, and it's sorted both of those things out very nicely. I find I...

Mine just arrived and it's up and running. Maybe a little bit of burn-in going on, maybe my ears getting used to it. But I've also recently been using a Quad 34 preamp recently specifically for its EQ. That thing is like a bull in a china shop sonically, but I do love it. The Schiit is certainly...

Ordered! And I'd only just bought an old Quad 34 because I wanted quite precisely this kind of facility. Looks like I now either have a Quad 34 for sale, or one more component towards a 'vintage' setup.

Update. Putting my transformer between the Elise and my power amp stops this issue. But since I got the Cyrus I prefer to not use the transformer, since it does audibly degrade the sound. I've come a way since the Quad 909 days, when the transformer made the whole setup sound better. The Quad...

Hi folks, hope all's good in Eliseland. I have a question if you don't mind. Since I changed my power amp (again!) I've been using my old Chatham 6AS7G power tubes a lot, since with the Cyrus Stereo 200 they come alive in a way I'd not heard before. Full of body and plenty of 3d imaging... and...

Hi @angpsi it's hard to put an exact figure on it. I think initially they went from sounding very closed in and nasal, to being very pleasant, maybe over the course of 50 hours. I've probably got another 200-300 hours on them now. That's through 5 months of intermittent use. The improvement is...

How are things in Eliseland? I've not stopped by in ages. I stopped using my Elise for a long time, just using my Class D monoblocks and a volume pot to drive my speakers. I've been enjoying the crazy clarity a lot, but started to get a bit of a craving for lushness once more, so have gone back...

I've had an unexpected shift in my relation with the Elise recently. I bought a pair of the new 70w temple audio monoblocks to power my speakers, and it turns out that they are so astonishingly good that unfortunately, putting the Elise in the signal path as a preamp, seems like a real step...

Love for Sale by Cecil Taylor. Keep coming back to this album. http://www.allmusic.com/album/love-for-sale-mw0000038935

Hi Mordy... yes, my EL12Ns have been used for probably 100 hours or so. I'm fairly sure that it's just down to my system sounding fairly lean - or neutral depending on your viewpoint.

Well I got my replacement Valvo EL12 tube yesterday and ran with EL12 as powers and EL12N as drivers for the whole day. While it's a combination which is capable of dizzying transparency, I'm afraid it just lacks body on my system. It was a bit more tolerable with my Quad amp than when using the...

  Hi Frederick, I've never had the good fortune to hear the GEC 6AS7G. Obviously it's all very subjective, but I've heard it stated that the EL12 STs are in a similar league, with the EL12N not coming far behind. I know for sure that my EL12Ns are gradually improving, becoming slightly more...

Right now a playlist off Youtube of various pieces by Andy Stott in collaboration with Miles from Demdike Stare.      https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRZIkEk362AAK4tQ4-cGR0ft1ilj8qtVH

EL12N and Ken Rad VT-231  has turned out to be a surprisingly good combo. I thought the air of the KRs would tease out any sharpness from the EL12Ns, but quite the opposite seems to be the case. Wonderful clarity - not really the usual hole in the midrange that I associate with the KR VT231...

One of my EL12 tubes gradually failed over the weekend - the one which didn't come from Wege High Fidelity. Almost no sound on that channel now. I'm going to take it up with the seller, since he claimed it measured well - I don't have access to my gmail from the work network - but I think it was...

Hi HP, I was tracking my first pair for quite a while via Hong Kong mail, and it constantly said they'd not left HK. But when I tracked them with Royal Mail, it said they were actually in this country. So it might be worth trying your tracking number with your local mail service. Good luck, hope...