Hi, folks. I'm back among the living again. Managed to "acquire" COVID back on 7/16, spent about a week with what felt like a bad case of the flu followed by a few weeks of feeling like warm dog poop. Spent this past week getting caught up on everything except for Head-Fi. 188 pages on this...

I see a whole lot of sockets with no tubes. Where's the tubes? How do you like the Bottlehead stuff? And is that a DIY Dyna Stereo 70 in the big aluminum chassis upper left?

The only "normal" I know about is a setting on my washing machine.

Coming up for air..... Sorry for the radio silence, it has been a busy holiday week and weekend with family and non-audio stuff. Folkvangr - I'm with @ArmchairPhilosopher on this. An astounding amplifier that can deliver beautiful performance with the right headphones. Which is causing me some...

FedEx just delivered my Folkvangr! Fun for the evening! More later.

IT'S HERE!!! More later after I get it set up and give it a listen.

That would be fun! Thank you!

Lisst kinda weird?!? Oooohhhhh!!!! You have my attention. Now I'll have to try them.

Well, FedEx says it's out for delivery. Again. At least this time it started at one of the "local" depots in New England. Unlike before where it was in the middle of Ohio someplace. So there may just be a chance it shows up today. Nothing yet as of 1 pm.

IF FedEx makes their originally scheduled delivery date, which is what their tracking page says is going to happen, my FV will arrive tomorrow. Then the fun begins!

So I checked FedEx's tracking page today (twice - once this morning, once just now) and it says my FV is out for delivery. In Girard, OH. Considering that I live in Vermont that's gonna be one hell of a delivery route. I'll be surprised if it arrives tomorrow, and happy if it arrives as promised...

Oh, that she is. We support and encourage each other in our respective hobbies and activities. She's got me playing softball and turned me into a hard core East Coast skier so she has someone to ski with. We both love music, our musical genre Venn diagram has a 98% overlap. Might be possible...

Conversation in my house earlier today: "B" is my wife, "A" is me... I've been adding to my vacuum tube collection lately so there have been more than the usual number of deliveries here. * Sound of a delivery truck coming up our dirt road, dogs perking up at the sound * B: "Who's that?" A...

It's FedEx. In my imagination I think they see the Schiit packing tape and deliberately screw with the tracking data just to play head games with us audiophools. My Gungnir was originally scheduled for Wednesday delivery, then updated to delivery last Saturday, then tracking showed it...

Gungnir arrived a few minutes ago. Need to get it set up and warming up so I can listen to it. Folkvangr will be here any time from tomorrow (Wednesday) to Friday. It'll be here when it gets here. And not a moment sooner. Right? Time to rearrange the equipment pile.

That looks delish - well except for the okra. Never been a fan no matter how it's prepared. So what are "pork scratchings"??

Of that I have no doubt. Seriously, I really enjoy your reviews and posts. Even the 3K+ word length ones. Loved your review of your Tyr purchase, which sealed my decision that when I have a listening room/space to support real speakers (don't ask what I live with now - my wife bought them before...

I can concur based on my experience with my Valhalla 2. I heard minimal differences between different 6n6p tubes in that amp. I'm expecting similar behavior with FV (when mine arrives). My focus will be on the 6n1p, rolling those will make the biggest change/improvement/degradation of the sound...

HAH! I'd rather buy a couple red base RCA 5692s. I bought 50 pretested 6n6p for less than that, including shipping from Ukraine.

Are those yours?

Tracking says it will be here on Wednesday, two days earlier than originally promised! YAY!

Checked my e-mail this evening, there's a note from Schiit that my FV has shipped! Tracking says I'll have in on Wednesday, 7/6, upgraded from the original anticipated date of 7/8! The Gungnir I ordered is supposed to be here on Saturday so I'll have time to let it warm up a bit before the big...

No idea. I'll have a better idea once mine arrives and I've played with it a bit. I received an e-mail earlier today saying it shipped! Won't be long now!

Vacuum tubes are high voltage low current devices and tend to work best into higher impedances. Ultimately the lowest reasonable load impedance is circuit and tube dependent. The 50 ohm value is really just a guide value I use knowing from experience that below 50 ohms my choice of headphone is...

One of the intriguing things about this amplifier is the fact that it is a direct drive amplifier. Tube -> headphones, with NO transformer (OTL) and NO capacitor (OCL) between the output stage and the headphones. Every other tube amplifier that I have ever listened to has had one of those...