[me2621a]

So over the past week, I have been listening to a special amp on loan from Ampsandsound, their Stereo 15. Now I know what some of you may say: "wait that is a speaker amp...", and you are right, but it is a very quiet push pull speaker amp, capable of 15 watts into 8ohms, making it a good match power wise for the lovely Hifiman Susvara and other low efficiency headphones.

How does it sound...well to be honest really darn good. Justin was able to add a quarter inch headphone jack next to the speaker taps connected to the 8ohm taps. Dynamics, tone, and bass are excellent. Highs are nicely extended and the Ampandsound house sound is in full swing. For those with lower efficiency headphones (likely sub 95db), and have a pre-amp, or a DAC with volume control, the Stereo 15 is worth considering, if I did not have something else coming form Ampsandsound the Stereo 15 would be staying in my home instead of going back to Southern California.

 

[55Powers]

Hey guys,
Just wanted to let everyone know that I will be posting my Mogwai SE (8/32/300 ohm taps) for sale in the next few days. If you are interested please reach out to me through a PM as I think it will go fast once it is posted. I will be using the money to purchase something else from Ampsandsound

Hey man,

Thought you had gone mono block mode a long time ago, and now also Stereo 15 loaner?
Whaaat is going on? You getting A&S for speaker amplification?

 

[me2621a]

Hey man,

Thought you had gone mono block mode a long time ago, and now also Stereo 15 loaner?
Whaaat is going on? You getting A&S for speaker amplification?

Haha,
I am just an A&S fan. But to answer your question, I currently have the Suolo Monos which are awesome, and they are not going anywhere.

However they are not the most powerful amplifier (more then enough for the Focal Utopia, Stellia, ZMF Verite, and HE1000SE), which caused me to look at other options when I acquired a Hifiman Susvara.

I was powering my Susvara with my Mogwai SE which sounded great but I was not sure if it would benefit form more power, as when you read about the Susvara people are using everything from 5 watt amps all the way up to 100 watt speaker amps.

After talking to Justin, he offered to send me a Stereo 15 with a quarter inch jack next to the speaker outputs to asses performance with the Susvara.

The combo was awesome, however I did not find a significant difference between the Stereo 15 and the Mogwai SE. The Stereo 15 had slightly more sound stage and was a little more dynamic, but the Mogwai SE was a little more transparent and pulled a bit more detail (all pretty much expected given push pull vs SE). Because I did and I found the SE to have a bit more transparency (single ended is just special). Couple that with the fact that I do not have a set of speakers to run off of the Stereo 15, the 15 just didn’t quite make sense.

So I sent the loaner back to Justin, sold the Mogwai SE, and Justin is now building a special version of the Mogwai SE with no volume control (have that with the DAVE), and bigger output transformers for me, which I will be sharing once it arrives around the Holidays.

I have now heard most of the A&S line now though which has been a fun adventure.

 

[55Powers]

Haha,
I am just an A&S fan. But to answer your question, I currently have the Suolo Monos which are awesome, and they are not going anywhere.

However they are not the most powerful amplifier (more then enough for the Focal Utopia, Stellia, ZMF Verite, and HE1000SE), which caused me to look at other options when I acquired a Hifiman Susvara.

I was powering my Susvara with my Mogwai SE which sounded great but I was not sure if it would benefit form more power, as when you read about the Susvara people are using everything from 5 watt amps all the way up to 100 watt speaker amps.

After talking to Justin, he offered to send me a Stereo 15 with a quarter inch jack next to the speaker outputs to asses performance with the Susvara.

The combo was awesome, however I did not find a significant difference between the Stereo 15 and the Mogwai SE. The Stereo 15 had slightly more sound stage and was a little more dynamic, but the Mogwai SE was a little more transparent and pulled a bit more detail (all pretty much expected given push pull vs SE). Because I did and I found the SE to have a bit more transparency (single ended is just special). Couple that with the fact that I do not have a set of speakers to run off of the Stereo 15, the 15 just didn’t quite make sense.

So I sent the loaner back to Justin, sold the Mogwai SE, and Justin is now building a special version of the Mogwai SE with no volume control (have that with the DAVE), and bigger output transformers for me, which I will be sharing once it arrives around the Holidays.

I have not heard most of the A&S line now though which has been a fun adventure.

Holy schmokes,

So you're kinda getting a Mogwai "VSE" one might say.
Still 88s, or will you be able to do 120s / 150s with the bigger transformers?
What kind of output will you be looking at here?

Also... DAVE! Been DACing up i see!
Verite and Susvara too, you sure are on top of the all aspects of the game.

Been out of it for a while, working mostly the speaker game these days. But lately I've done som sessions on the good ol' Mogwai.

 

[me2621a]

Haha,
I have been calling it the Mogwai ESE (Extra Special Edition), though I like VSE. I will still be running 88s, the transformer change is purely output transformers to give more bandwidth. I do have a pair of NOS GEC TT21s on their way to me so I am pretty pumped to see how they sound, as I have never run GEC tubes. As far as the headphones go, yah the Susvara is special, I did end up selling the Verite, great headphone but was not using them enough to justify keeping them.

Not to go off topic, what are you doing speaker wise, and have you run the SE into your speakers?

 

[55Powers]

Haha,
I have been calling it the Mogwai ESE (Extra Special Edition), though I like VSE. I will still be running 88s, the transformer change is purely output transformers to give more bandwidth. I do have a pair of NOS GEC TT21s on their way to me so I am pretty pumped to see how they sound, as I have never run GEC tubes. As far as the headphones go, yah the Susvara is special, I did end up selling the Verite, great headphone but was not using them enough to justify keeping them.

Not to go off topic, what are you doing speaker wise, and have you run the SE into your speakers?

ESE looks better tbh, symmetrical.

Whoa whoa, some serious tubes comming in here, exciting. Never dared move past the TS 6550s myself. :S
I am acctually running a pair of Kef R300s nearfield on the Mogwai SE nowadays. Gets em driven "well enough" for my small office and listening postition to like productive listening levels. Very enjoyable to be honest.

Moved most of the other stuff (the good ol' Vega, TT and amp) downstairs with another Kef pair, Reference 5, the floorstanders.

Been a while since i heard the Susvara, but i remember liking it a lot...except the price tag.
I thought the SE was pretty decent at driving its older brother, the HE-6 when i had it over as a loaner, will be interesting to see what results you get from ESE.
Make sure to post back when it's up and running!

 

[me2621a]

So, A&S just completed the build of my new amp, and it is now off to bench testing, and should come to me by end of next week.

I am calling it the Mogwai ESE but @ampsandsound may end up calling it something different. Built on the Agartha Chassis, the Mogwai ESE features a single input, no input transformers (my request, to this day I go back and forth on if I enjoy them of not, and have several outboard input transformers to no need for internal ones), no volume control as my Dave or any future pre-amp will play that role, a massive 8H choke (instead of 5H choke in the base SE), and Justin's new 20 watt output transformers (instead of 10 watts on the base SE) featuring output impedance taps for 8ohms, 16ohms, 32ohms, 100ohms, and 300ohms. Finally on his recommendation, we replaced the standard coupling caps with lovely factory broken in Jupiter caps.

The genesis for the build was my request for a quieter Mogwai SE that shed anything that was not necessary (for me that was the volume control and input switch), and to extract the flattest output response possible, hence the wish for bigger output iron. Once Justin and I discussed his newly developed 20 watt output transformers and the ability to add a bigger choke, the parts were ordered and my original Mogwai SE was sold to make room for the new one.

Obviously I will update everyone on how it sounds when it arrives, but a few pictures from the build will have to do for now. Soon it will be sporting some nice NOS tubes. Thank you Justin! Really pumped about this one, I think my Susvara will be quite happy haha.

 

[exdmd]

Wow, just wow Five impedance taps: were those transformers custom wound for just this amp? Impressive build quality looking forward to your review.

 

[omniweltall]

So, A&S just completed the build of my new amp, and it is now off to bench testing, and should come to me by end of next week.

I am calling it the Mogwai ESE but @ampsandsound may end up calling it something different. Built on the Agartha Chassis, the Mogwai ESE features a single input, no input transformers (my request, to this day I go back and forth on if I enjoy them of not, and have several outboard input transformers to no need for internal ones), no volume control as my Dave or any future pre-amp will play that role, a massive 8H choke (instead of 5H choke in the base SE), and Justin's new 20 watt output transformers (instead of 10 watts on the base SE) featuring output impedance taps for 8ohms, 16ohms, 32ohms, 100ohms, and 300ohms. Finally on his recommendation, we replaced the standard coupling caps with lovely factory broken in Jupiter caps.

The genesis for the build was my request for a quieter Mogwai SE that shed anything that was not necessary (for me that was the volume control and input switch), and to extract the flattest output response possible, hence the wish for bigger output iron. Once Justin and I discussed his newly developed 20 watt output transformers and the ability to add a bigger choke, the parts were ordered and my original Mogwai SE was sold to make room for the new one.

Obviously I will update everyone on how it sounds when it arrives, but a few pictures from the build will have to do for now. Soon it will be sporting some nice NOS tubes. Thank you Justin! Really pumped about this one, I think my Susvara will be quite happy haha.

Whats fhe power output on this guy?

 

[me2621a]

Whats fhe power output on this guy?

In theory it should be the same power output as a regular Mogwai SE as the power supply has not been altered (~3 watts with a 5u4g and ~ 6 watts with a 5AR4), but Justin would have to confirm if I am right about that.

 

[omniweltall]

In theory it should be the same power output as a regular Mogwai SE as the power supply has not been altered (~3 watts with a 5u4g and ~ 6 watts with a 5AR4), but Justin would have to confirm if I am right about that.

That is powerful. Hopefully it is enougjh for superbly inefficient planar.

 

[ampsandsound]

Hey guys sorry for the delay. Sam is right re power. I was burning it in last night with KT66s and 5u4 and 5ar4. I had more than/ way more power than needed for my HE6. I had great results with HE6, LCD2 closed, Eikon, HD650, Ether C.
This amp was built as a custom order but will be followed up as a bigger Mogwai Se called the Bigger Ben.
The intended purpose was to give access to Huge iron, multiple impedance and super sized power supply.
In my listening, the scale, micro derail retrieval And total slam were my standouts. This amp is not more powerful than a Mogwai Se but feels for sure. I attribute it to the Freq response with in much lower in absolute and subjective terms.
Of note is that the size had to increase. This is a desktop amp at 15.5” x 11.5” (it’s a better Agartha).
The draw isn’t it’s power per se for me. It’s tighter impedance matching and even nicer transformer. These things are huge. 2x bigger than the Mogwai.

 

[Bonddam]

I need a tube amp for my HE6 and 1266 phi tc. Currently running gsx mini and pendant but more power is needed for above headphones. The Abyss does really good on the two amps but I feel because they are not efficient enough.

 

[vonnie123]

I need a tube amp for my HE6 and 1266 phi tc. Currently running gsx mini and pendant but more power is needed for above headphones. The Abyss does really good on the two amps but I feel because they are not efficient enough.

I have HE6se and my GSX-mini works fine, albeit, High gain, and higher volume is required.

AMPs and Sound should have something to fit your needs.

 

[omniweltall]

Hey guys sorry for the delay. Sam is right re power. I was burning it in last night with KT66s and 5u4 and 5ar4. I had more than/ way more power than needed for my HE6. I had great results with HE6, LCD2 closed, Eikon, HD650, Ether C.
This amp was built as a custom order but will be followed up as a bigger Mogwai Se called the Bigger Ben.
The intended purpose was to give access to Huge iron, multiple impedance and super sized power supply.
In my listening, the scale, micro derail retrieval And total slam were my standouts. This amp is not more powerful than a Mogwai Se but feels for sure. I attribute it to the Freq response with in much lower in absolute and subjective terms.
Of note is that the size had to increase. This is a desktop amp at 15.5” x 11.5” (it’s a better Agartha).
The draw isn’t it’s power per se for me. It’s tighter impedance matching and even nicer transformer. These things are huge. 2x bigger than the Mogwai.

It's beautiful, Justin. Kinda like a monster Mogwai.