I did. Fried my transformer. I was just giving a word of caution, he asked for opinions I gave mine. Bottlehead were excellent with their customer service. They fixed it for me because I refuse to do the checks again. I know, I'm a wuss. But the loud pop and fried tube were enough to convince...

I loved building the kit. The voltage checks I wouldn't do again for anything. That's why I put up with the channel imbalance and horrible gain spikes from the pot. I have a blue velvet and a very nice stepped attenuator setting on my desk but will never be installed unless my electrician buddy...

 I liked my 770s with the modi/magni. I want to marry them out of the bottlehead crack ;) They scale up extremely well. I think of these as slightly U shaped, the mids flattened out on mine rather quickly but they never reached the level of the bass or treble, just ruler flat. The v moda...

Figured I better show what's under the hood. Totally stock, for now. Don't think I'm gonna get speedball, heard tubes don't make as much diff with it but dunno   And a better look at the paint

Finished her a few weeks ago. Gonna re-do the base, I went too dark. Sounds AMAZING.           

I absolutely love my Siemens ecc85. It is a very dynamic and musical tube. I know it's totally superficial but I like the way the filaments glow through the holes in the plates ;) Couldn't agree more with your impressions

Deleted

 Even siemens would have a stamp. It's code would be a hashtag with only one vertical line intead of two. It honestly looks chinese to me but that's FWIW of course. The paint is a dead giveaway that it was manufactured recently at least, as Johan-71 said. I have 3 siemens 6922s and not one of...

 The red paint on the tip usually means an audiophile or someone thought it was special so that's it's mark. Usually tested high or sounded good. FWIW  A quick google search yielded this http://www.audiotubes.com/6dj8.htm  What he has to say about the fake bugle boys isn't good but like they...

  If your Amperex Bugle boy ECC88 has gold pins, I'm pretty sure it's a relabel or something. 6922 or E88CC have the gold pins and most were made in New York. Ones made in Holland have SQ on them I think. If they have the etched Delta code they're legit but I've never seen or heard of a real BB...

Save yourself lots of $ and pain...go solid state ;)

DT 770s are famous for being modded. Aren't darth beyers modded 770s?

  I would prob defer to someone who knows more about higher end equip. Of what I've heard first hand if you're handy with a soldering iron the bottlehead crack can't be beat but it's for high impedance cans only. Wouldn't drive anything else very good (sensitive cans). Project ember is a good...

Budget? I mostly use low end gear...jus something about finding a good product cheap. I like it ;) Plus Im a single dad so not alot of disposable income

Portable? Home? I'm partial to tubes but ymmv. Lots of good options....I have used a fiio E11, Bravo V2, Indeed G3, Project sunrise II, Fournier HTA2, Crack, and the magni. It likes power but isn't fussy about it IMO

troubling times in beyerdom ;)

Ha! My ocd was going strong last year but has since wained ;) I bought 8 80ohm frm amazon and returned em all amd on the 5th 250 i got my faves. I have tourettes tho so thats my excuse :)- All of them did sound slightly diff

Check this out...http://www.diyguitarist.com/GuitarAmps/SD-Convertible/patgf1.htm   12au7  19 12at7  60   Also very interesting which explains why I find 6v tubes far superior...IMO,FWIW,YMMV http://www.tubeaudiostore.com/suitof6dfora.html

FWIW i didnt like the 80 ohm. Too flabby in the bass and no mids. IMO of course

 Pearl Jam 2013 tour. Laptop>Modi>Bottlehead Crack. I use them with my project sunrise II a lot also 

Cool. Sounds like the crack is all I need. If I didn't have it the ember would be hard to pass up. Jeremy and Frans are onto something here ;)

@musicman2006 Yes I find the treble hot on the ge 5 star also. Really nice tube other than that. I've read the raytheon black plate windmill 5751 is amazing but no first hand experienceRCA 5751 is no slouch either, they're all expensive tho. I'm still using a sunrise II, does the ember sound a...

FWIW the modi is $99. I love mine :)

Bravo v2 or indeed g3 for tube. Magni for solid state. It drives them great. I like mine better with my sunrise but that's out of the budget. I'm not sure if they're still available but they pair really nice with a fournier hta 2. I think I paid $185 a little over a year ago. Prob get one used...

Artsi you are blowing my mind with all these builds.