[UntilThen]

I am awaiting Glenn's reply with anticipation whilst eating popcorn.

 

[2359glenn]

SQ wise the EL3N is close not as much power of course but at $20 a tube the EL3N is the better choice.
I was going to get rid of my 300B amp due to unreliable 300Bs sick of them burning out. And will not
pay the price of the TAKs. Was going to build myself a SE EL34 amp with four paralleled EL34s per
Channel for 21 watts. Now I might forgo building that. Had no problems with my WE300B reissues
but sold them when I was told by my doctor that I only had 18 months to live. That was 5 years ago
and am kicking my ass for selling them now. The price of these WEs are not bad and can't wait
to get a pair.
I mostly use the 300B amp for driving speakers and they are on every day. They are different from
your 300B as they use a #10 globe driver tube. I had these amps for 10 years and have the original
globe 10s in them and went through lost count of burned out 300Bs. Recently lost a KR globe 300B
Looked nice next to the globe 10 it was about a year old. Now have cheep Chinese 300Bs in there
Until the new WEs come out was going to give up on 300Bs after this KR failure.

 

[whirlwind]

ZMF Eikon, Atticus and LCD-2f sound great on the GOTL. The added bass is infectious but HD800 on the GOTL is more my kind of tone. It's super clear, more airy and instruments separation is first class.

I've 2 persons over at my place to listen to my head-fi. My speaker designer, John Reilly, prefers the Audeze LCD-2f. That's a surprise to me and I can assure you he has the best ears for sound.

2nd guy is an audiophile who loves good 2 channels stereo system. He was quite shocked by the clarity from HD800 on GOTL and the HD800 is his favourite too of my 4 headphones.

At some point I am going to get an LCD headphone...not sure what one yet. I can understand someone picking a planar headphone over a dynamic one, just because of the way the planar cans do bass.
It is just a different sounding bass than all of the dynamic cans that I have heard.
It is addicting for sure. The ZMF Ori bass is the best bass of all of my headphones to my ears, from top to bottom. I am thinking an open planar is something that I would much enjoy.

 

[attmci]

And it has been a long time since I listened to the 6SN7W, the NU 6F8G or the TS-RPBG so my memories are somewhat foggy.... For the time being, I remain charmed and captivated by the 27.

The best tube is the one that sounds the best in your amp (your circuit) and your system, to you.

 

[whirlwind]

Not sure why we have not tried this before, I think I asked Glenn about it at one time and he said it would work...but the wife and I just listed to the new Kid Rock album together...she had the HD800 and I used the Ori.
Works wonderfully.

Tonight we are going to listen together again....her choice for the music tonight.

 

[2359glenn]

That is fin to do if the 2 headphones are highish impedance the combined lower impedance might
even come down to the 32 ohm output impedance of the amp.
As long as one is not much louder then the other with different phones.

 

[whirlwind]

That is fin to do if the 2 headphones are highish impedance the combined lower impedance might
even come down to the 32 ohm output impedance of the amp.
As long as one is not much louder then the other with different phones.

I let my wife set the volume as my normal listening level is higher than hers.
She had HD800 dynamic 300 ohm
I had ZMF Ori planar 50 ohm, I believe

Volume pot at about 10 O'clock....I could have moved the pot up a little for my liking...but still very nice.

Probably even better with
ZMF Ori 50 Ohm
Grado RS1 32 Ohm

HD800 300 Ohm
ZMF Atticus 300 Ohm

Think we will try this tonight.

 

[2359glenn]

The lower impedance phone should have been louder if the efficiency is the same.

Burning in a OTL using Svetlana 6H13 driven by a 1633. These cheep output tubes sound good
And lower noise then any of the 6AS7s I have. Have to get more of these they can't be beat for the price.

 

[whirlwind]

Cheap is good.

I don't own any of these , but I know you can get them for $5-10 ea.
I am guessing cheaper than any other 6AS7G.

You are listening to it and only using about $25 worth of tubes...at most.
Pretty darn hard to beat that!

Every time I put the HD800 on, even if it has been for some time since I listened to it.
The first thing that pops in my head is just how damn good the headphone is, especially through the whole spectrum.

 

[TonyNewman]

SQ wise the EL3N is close not as much power of course but at $20 a tube the EL3N is the better choice.

I'm reading that as a small win for the 300B on SQ. I'm totally unbiased, of course

... I was going to get rid of my 300B amp due to unreliable 300Bs sick of them burning out. And will not pay the price of the TAKs.

For absolutely longevity nothing I know of beats the vintage WE or Tak. These things keep going and going... Not so sure about the re-issues. There were some reports of reliability issues. I hope the new WE facility gets the reliability of the vintage WE.

...Was going to build myself a SE EL34 amp with four paralleled EL34s per Channel for 21 watts. Now I might forgo building that. Had no problems with my WE300B reissues but sold them when I was told by my doctor that I only had 18 months to live. That was 5 years ago and am kicking my ass for selling them now.

Very glad you are still with us.

The EL34 concept sounds interesting. Combine that with speaker outputs for the 21W. Could be quite something.

The price of these WEs are not bad and can't wait to get a pair. I mostly use the 300B amp for driving speakers and they are on every day. They are different from your 300B as they use a #10 globe driver tube. I had these amps for 10 years and have the original globe 10s in them and went through lost count of burned out 300Bs. Recently lost a KR globe 300B. Looked nice next to the globe 10 it was about a year old. Now have cheep Chinese 300Bs in there. Until the new WEs come out was going to give up on 300Bs after this KR failure.

After some bad experiences with 300Bs I now only purchase EML / Tak / WE re-issue (when available). The new Elrogs work fine, but the tonality is a touch off to my tastes. A little on the bright side and they don't get much use from me. For a less expensive, rock solid 300B for speaker duty I would look at the EML 300B XLS (or 320B XLS if your amp can take it). I run the 300B EML plate quite a bit and enjoy it very much. It is no Tak, but it is a very nice tube and very, very well built.

 

[whirlwind]

I'm reading that as a small win for the 300B on SQ. I'm totally unbiased, of course

I would say you are reading it correctly

 

[ru4music]

I let my wife set the volume as my normal listening level is higher than hers.
She had HD800 dynamic 300 ohm
I had ZMF Ori planar 50 ohm, I believe

A combined total of 43 ohms (nominal) using simple Ohms Law.

Volume pot at about 10 O'clock....I could have moved the pot up a little for my liking...but still very nice.

Probably even better with
ZMF Ori 50 Ohm
Grado RS1 32 Ohm

A combined total of 19 ohms (nominal) using simple Ohms Law.


HD800 300 Ohm
ZMF Atticus 300 Ohm

A combined total of 150 ohms (nominal) using simple Ohms Law.

Of course the headphones themselves will interact somewhat with each other as well to change the overall impedance at perspective frequencies.

Think we will try this tonight.

 

[ru4music]

Cheap is good.

Every time I put the HD800 on, even if it has been for some time since I listened to it.
The first thing that pops in my head is just how damn good the headphone is, especially through the whole spectrum.

X2

 

[UntilThen]

X3

but I've to qualify it - with Glenn's OTL amp of course.

 

[ru4music]

The lower impedance phone should have been louder if the efficiency is the same.

Burning in a OTL using Svetlana 6H13 driven by a 1633. These cheep output tubes sound good
And lower noise then any of the 6AS7s I have. Have to get more of these they can't be beat for the price.

I should try the 6H13 out in my Woo WA2 just to see how they sound on the cheap. I've got 3.5 amps (per output tube) of heater current available and I like to run my TS 5998s with my '74 6N23P Reflektors in that unit.