[R Scott Ireland]

Rtc's are nice with hd800, I prefer them over Mullards

+1. I did not like the Mullards with the HD800. I like the RTC's and the Cifte's are also very good. The best of the best (to me) with the HD800 are the Telefunkens.

 

[a-widodo]

How is the soundstage of HD800 with pan am? I've read somewhere before that pan am is not able to show HD800's best potential. 

 

[TontonJoK]

A friend of mine have a audio gd master 8 amp + a sugden A21 SE + a dac metrum and a pan am and we compared

We used both : pan am + metrum dac + hd 800
Master 8 + metrum + Hd 800
pan am + ifi micro idac + hd 800
pan am alone with hd 800
metrum + sugden speaker tabs + hd 800

We did the same with : Lcd 2 fazor and Lcd2 old pre fazor
HE 6 + He 400 + denon 7100 + EM 32


The pan am have a very nice sound stage and sound very good with all set up, the difference is more related to the dac section ( timbres and details, decay and less about sound stage )

The built in dac from the pan am is not bad but not the best, the amp section is very nice

 

[a-widodo]

Do you mean that pan am's performance still excellent even when compared to the more expensive one?
Is the tube able to tame the peaky high?
Thank you for your response.

 

[TontonJoK]

definitely YES

 

[TontonJoK]

The improvement was more obvious when upgrading the dac section from the pan am, more expensive amps was better but not a lot

I think the P.Am amp section is very very good and the built in dac good

After upgrading the dac for a ifi micro idac I noticed a good sonic difference from pan am, the metrum was better but the price also :rolleyes:

About highs and HD 800 I did the DIY tweak explained in innerfidelity web site and the result is really worth the hassle

 

[TontonJoK]

For tubes and highs, the Mullards will tame the treble but my favorites are RTC or Telefunken
The Voshkod 6ZH1P-EV was very good but IMO emphasizing trebles (or high medium) more than others

 

[a-widodo]

Lots of people say that with amps that have bad synergy with HD800, the sound will be too dry and lifeless. How is the pan am with HD800?

 

[TontonJoK]

It's not dry at all, lot's of bass and lively, I sold my Lcd2's since I was so impressed by hd 800

With hd 800 get some with serial number after 20000 (more bass and less dry)

 

[TontonJoK]

The hd 800 have sub bass may be a little less than pre fazor lcd 2's but way more than fazor one
The rest is so much better, it is just my opinion and what 2 others friends noticed

 

[JoeDoe]

Just pull the trigger on some NOS Telefunken tubes. Will post impressions by the end of the week!

 

[TontonJoK]

Did the same, I found some printed telefunken on ebay

 

[JoeDoe]

Any Pan-Amsters out there savvy to the Burson Conductor amp? Any comments or comparisons would be very appreciated!

 

[TontonJoK]

I received the 6ak5w telefunken and so far I'm very impressed by the soundstage and how it let you perceive height-width and depth
The bass is bigger than from RTC and very closed in amount to the russians tube but being more punchy and with more slam
I need more hours to compare all the tubes I have but those telefunkens are very addictive

 

[JoeDoe]

I received the 6ak5w telefunken and so far I'm very impressed by the soundstage and how it let you perceive height-width and depth
The bass is bigger than from RTC and very closed in amount to the russians tube but being more punchy and with more slam
I need more hours to compare all the tubes I have but those telefunkens are very addictive

Your impression seem promising. Still waiting on mine!

Unrelated topic: are any of you Pan Am users using some kind of socket saver? One of my sockets has become a little loose but I want to make sure that I can fit a socket saver in the tube opening before pulling the trigger.