2359glenn | studio

[Nayyte]

Amp is warm after an hour of use. It's actually not super duper hot.

EDIT: Yeah, my GE 12SN7GT isn't anything special. It's definitely quieter, but the Sylvania 6SN7WGTA (sort of a Bad Boy clone, 3 hole plate) has it beat in overall control and clarity. @Nayyte any suggestions for a good 12SN7 tube that's of similar quality? I see that the green label Bad Boy Sylvania 12SN7WGT sells for quite a bit less than the 6SN7 version. For now, I'll give this a bit more time.

This is the one I have : https://www.ebay.com/itm/267139460637

When I went from my toshiba 6sn7gt to the sylvania 12sn7gt, the difference was night and day. The tonal balance of the sylvania is far more pleasurable and "correct" sounding. I believe our ears notice irregularities in tonal balance very easily and when you have a sound that lacks these irregularities, there is a cathartic experience from that. That is my experience with the sylvania 12sn7gt. Whether it's an enphasis to all frequencies or not idk. The 6sn7gt toshiba was dry and vocals sounded shrill when compared to the sylvania. And the 6336A in the glenn just gives me such a wonderful image of detail, more than anything else I've heard.

Again these are just one day's impressions, I have yet to keep the glenn on for longer than 10 hours total.

 

[gibosi]

Speaking of 6336, every once in while, Thomson-CSF 6336A's popup on eBay.

Shown below with a Cossor 53KU rectifier and a pair of Holland-made EL42 drivers. The Thomson 6336A is noticeably brighter than the Chatham and as you might expect, it is quite similar to the Thomson 6080.

 

[spanyam]

This is the one I have : https://www.ebay.com/itm/267139460637

When I went from my toshiba 6sn7gt to the sylvania 12sn7gt, the difference was night and day. The tonal balance of the sylvania is far more pleasurable and "correct" sounding. I believe our ears notice irregularities in tonal balance very easily and when you have a sound that lacks these irregularities, there is a cathartic experience from that. That is my experience with the sylvania 12sn7gt. Whether it's an enphasis to all frequencies or not idk. The 6sn7gt toshiba was dry and vocals sounded shrill when compared to the sylvania. And the 6336A in the glenn just gives me such a wonderful image of detail, more than anything else I've heard.

Again these are just one day's impressions, I have yet to keep the glenn on for longer than 10 hours total.

Nice, I was eying another of the mil spec bad boys. I may jump on it.

 

[Nayyte]

Rolled back some tubes, Toshiba 6080 HI-S and Toshiba 6sn7GT.
The 6336a tube was good but coming back to the 6080 was the right choice. Soundstage is deeper and vocals are more precise, more WOW factor. Less heater noise as well.
Who knows, maybe the power station is burning cleaner tonight /s -(or the other night?)

12J5's + Deyan adapter coming soon

Edit: I remebered that I swapped out my 12v driver this morning in prep for tonight. I have the 12v sylvania and the 6336As back on and chuggin. Pretty much as good as I remember the first time. The 6336A with the 6sn7 was very very noisy with my Auteur while with the 12sn7 its like a -40db reduction in noise. Insane really cause the auteur is extremely sensitive to hiss. Now I am even more excited for the 12j5's! The toshiba 6sn7gt is a great tube but these 6336A's need the 12v DC from the glenn.

 

[whirlwind]

I have been doing most of my listening on the go lately, but I fired up the OTL for the release of a new cd.

After not listening for a while then coming back to the OTL....there is just that magic .

After listening to this new Samantha Fish album ....it took the third listen and now I am hooked and can't stop listening.

Listening with ZMF VC / Samantha Fish - Paper Doll

 

[Nayyte]

@whirlwind I'm so jealous of those Chatham coke bottles. Gorgeous, and I bet they sound even better .

Anyways here's what I'm trying tonight. Adzam 12j5GT with adapter from gentleman @Deyan, thanks a bunch!

This combo sounds really interesting. With the HD600 at first listen I thought it was super uppermid forward. But after a couple songs I'm starting to feel like this is the most tonaly controlled I've heard these headphones. A lot of times with the HD600 I can hear the hard peaks of sounds at every frequency and I just thought that this was normal. These 12j5GTs are very calm and content, with excellent timbre in the guitar range. Vocals are extra intimate and soft, but still projecting all their edges and swings. Bass has zero bloom and it reminds me a lot of just having a subwoofer 20 feet away from you in a large room. Really interesting combo; I will listen with more cans soon.

Oh and did I mention 12v drivers are the noise kings with the 6336a? If I was in a treated room, I don't think I could tell the difference between the ambient hum of the amp vs whatever hum was coming through the headphones. Really nice!

 

[whirlwind]

@whirlwind I'm so jealous of those Chatham coke bottles. Gorgeous, and I bet they sound even better .

Anyways here's what I'm trying tonight. Adzam 12j5GT with adapter from gentleman @Deyan, thanks a bunch!



This combo sounds really interesting. With the HD600 at first listen I thought it was super uppermid forward. But after a couple songs I'm starting to feel like this is the most tonaly controlled I've heard these headphones. A lot of times with the HD600 I can hear the hard peaks of sounds at every frequency and I just thought that this was normal. These 12j5GTs are very calm and content, with excellent timbre in the guitar range. Vocals are extra intimate and soft, but still projecting all their edges and swings. Bass has zero bloom and it reminds me a lot of just having a subwoofer 20 feet away from you in a large room. Really interesting combo; I will listen with more cans soon.

Oh and did I mention 12v drivers are the noise kings with the 6336a? If I was in a treated room, I don't think I could tell the difference between the ambient hum of the amp vs whatever hum was coming through the headphones. Really nice!

Nice to see you enjoying your new amp.

Deyan make wonderful adapters. enjoy.

I have never heard the HD600 but I have owned the HD650 on three different occasions and loved it. I should have kept one of them.

 

[terryri]

When I went from my toshiba 6sn7gt to the sylvania 12sn7gt, the difference was night and day. The tonal balance of the sylvania is far more pleasurable and "correct" sounding. I believe our ears notice irregularities in tonal balance very easily and when you have a sound that lacks these irregularities, there is a cathartic experience from that. That is my experience with the sylvania 12sn7gt. Whether it's an enphasis to all frequencies or not idk. The 6sn7gt toshiba was dry and vocals sounded shrill when compared to the sylvania. And the 6336A in the glenn just gives me such a wonderful image of detail, more than anything else I've heard.

Again these are just one day's impressions, I have yet to keep the glenn on for longer than 10 hours total.

Anyone else find the Sylvania 12SN7GT a huge improvement over the Toshiba 6SN7GT in terms of balance and vocals?

 

[spanyam]

So I sort of had the opposite experience. I have a fairly good Sylvania-made (Raytheon branded) 6SN7WGT (chrome top, 3 hole plates, brown base), and switching to the Sylvania Bad Boy 12SN7GT lost some of the control on the sound. This is paired with 6336As. It actually lost some bass presence and slam, and almost all sounds turned a tad harsher. Like rough edges around notes. I didn't lose any detail, but the smoothness and cohesion of the presentation took a noticeable ding.

Went back to the Sylvania 6SN7WGT, and it's a marked improvement for me. I do use a Verite Closed as my main headphone, so maybe it's a bit less forgiving of the sharper edges in the 12SN7GT presentation.

 

[Nayyte]

My Sylvania 12sn7gt sounds very good and so does my Toshiba 6sn7gt, but I didn't love the sound of the Toshiba with the 6336a. The Toshiba did sound very good with my various 6080 tubes. Interestingly my Sylvania 12v didn't lower the noise of my 6080s as much as it did for the 6336a.

My GOTL and @spanyam's GOTL are not the same as I have hexfred and more power slots. Also our sources/headphones are different.

A lot of impressions with tube rolls are greatly reflective of your source and DAC. Since a tube amp is such a pure form of amplification.

 

[spanyam]

My GOTL and @spanyam's GOTL are not the same as I have hexfred and more power slots. Also our sources/headphones are different.

A lot of impressions with tube rolls are greatly reflective of your source and DAC. Since a tube amp is such a pure form of amplification.

Yep agreed here. With the Verite Closed off my current chain and the older 4-slot glenn (without hexfred, using the stock 3DG4 tube), the Sylvania 6SN7WGTA sounds better than the Sylvania 12SN7GT. It may sound altogether different with a new headphone, even.

 

[Nayyte]

I have rolled all three driver setups I have for 6+ hours each the past week and I have new impressions. Mainly this is because I consolodated my dac collection down to 1, the PCM1704 based Audio-GD Reference-5.

My new favorite is the adapted 12j5GT made by ADZAM + 6336A Chatham power tubes. Without getting into my impressions too much, this is a combo for the music lover, instrumental lover, overall SOUND lover's dream. High resolution, detail, intimacy, and lushness. I can get through whole albums now due to the addictive presentation of every instrument, like it's given me more patience.

Toshiba 6sn7gt comes really close overall. Slightly less lush and intimate. But it doesn't come close at all in intrument separation and fullness of the stage. These 12j5's are amazing here and sound like a entirely new beast. I wish there was a similar toshiba 12j5 to compare but I'm not sure of it's exsistence.

Sylvania 12sn7gt was very good with my previous dac because it lacked a lot of bass energy and this tube elevated it well. With the PCM1704 this tube is way too bass forward and not in a good way because it lacks the resolution to control it. Still a great tube but not with my chain currently; 12j5 is just better. Headphone chains are really easy to be picky with sound so I bet that this tube in a preamp for a speaker setup would shine more.