[GermanGuy]

Thanks a lot ! and i agree, i will definitely buy one mini amp when available, too!

 

[GermanGuy]

okay, inofficial first sneak preview of the arrangement of the components = top side of the amp:
 

 

[bmichels]

My TU-05 should get à little brother soon: my TUR-06 is in production now

 

[xplosive]

Hope you get the tur06 soon. You'll love it bmichels. The tur06 will make your roxy sound much better.

 

[GermanGuy]

bmichels - great news, so everybody here is waiting for your direct comparison / review !!!

 

[bmichels]

  bmichels - great news, so everybody here is waiting for your direct comparison / review !!!

 
The set-up will be :  AK100 optical out -> HUGO -> TUR-06 -> TH-900 or Roxane.    
 
I will klet you know if it improve over my curent : AK100 optical out -> HUGO -> TH-900 or Roxane.   

 

[Klonk]

Looking forward to your comparison. 

 

[bmichels]

my ordered set-up.  
 
Position of the input jack is to match the HUGO that will be on top of the TUR-06 (HUGO & TUR-06 have SAME footprint
 

 

[xplosive]

Call me crazy but the mahogany wood base is part of my setup. It makes music sounds much better..
 

 

[ianmedium]

Its not crazy at all, early on when I got my 05 myself and smial1966 experimented with bases and came up with a few different solutions. I ended up with a thick piece of wood to which I added four large blobs of blu-tac and then topped those of with discs of cork and it made some not insubstantial improvements in terms of resolution, tightening of base and better soundstage. I still use this to this day!

On tubes I have now settled down to the Marconi DL92's and Berlin Made Telefunken DF91's. The "TEN" DL92 are stunning sounding tubes but the Marconi's just round the sound off in terms of warmth a touch which is more to my preference.

Last night I was listening through my Piano Fortes to some high resolution Brahms and then Sibelius symphony number 2 and the experience can only be described as transcendental.

This amp was, along with the Piano Forte's my best ever purchases as far as headphone HiFi is concerned.

 

[bmichels]

... I was listening through my Piano Fortes to some high resolution Brahms and then Sibelius symphony number 2 and the experience can only be described as transcendental.

This amp was, along with the Piano Forte's my best ever purchases as far as headphone HiFi is concerned.

 
Ianmedium, recently at a trade show I had the opportunity to listen to the Piano Forte.. They are indeed very adictives !   (despite the lack of isolation which was not optimal for a trade show listening cession ! )
 
But... I was under the impression that I prefered the IX to the more expensive X !  is it possible ? does it make sense ? 
 
which version do you have ? 

 

[ianmedium]

Hi, I have not heard the X but from what I have read it is even more esoteric than the IX. From what I have read of those who have heard both then ended up buying both for different uses.

This is a very esoteric earphone and is not for everyone. Especially those who feel that listening to music is all about numbers and statistics. These fail miserably in those respects but for people who simply want to get every last ounce of emotion out of a performance and are prepared to trade deep bass or exaggerated high notes then these are well worth a listen.

For me its a bit like listening to a moderate sized but well designed horn speaker. You might not get the full spectrum of range but in its place you get something that just makes you forget your listening to HiFi and get lost instead in the ethos and feeling of the music, least thats how it feels to me!

You also need a deadly quiet space to listen to these in. Think wanting to listen to a pair of speakers when it comes to the environment to use these in. I simply have to put them away from May through to now as its warm here in those months and I have to have my window open.

One of the reasons I look so much forward to the colder days is that I can put these in again. Yes, its madness I know, owning a pair of very very expensive headphones one can only use 6 months of the year but that should tell you how intoxicating these are!

Another great thing about the is the incredible comfort. They simply rest in the ear and once the metal has warmed up you feel more like your listening to a pair of near field monitors rather than headphones. These give the most out of the head musical experience I have ever heard from a pair of headphones!

They are also a perfect match for the ASP amps I feel.

If you wanted to dip your toes into these I think the IX's are probably going to give you the most rounded experience of all of them. I highly recommend them with strongly noting the proviso's I mention!

Me? I am just so glad the cooler weather is here!

Oh, and many say these are only good for acoustic or small scale classical music. I disagree with that. I listen to everything with these. Yes, you don't get bass extension when listening to rock but you soon forget that as you get instead a really tangible feel of the music.

This evening I have been listening to the high resolution Elvis Stereo '57 volume 2 album, this is a sublime album of Elvis singing and recording, there are outtakes, fluffs and everything else in this recording, its about as close as anyone now can get to being with Elvis in the studio. The best I have heard it has been through the 05/PF IX's/ AK120!

 

[GermanGuy]

Welcome back Ianmedium !!!
 
just to mention, as the Marconi DL92 were never seen on eBay, you can buy the OSRAM DL92 instead, should be the same as OSRAM in fact was OSRAM / Marconi (i bought the two sets that were availabe some time ago, but ... ).
 
 
Did a lot of work in the meantime, but really occupied with my job at the moment (XPLOSIVE - haven't forgotten your tube).
 
 
For my "Highend TU-05" mod i spent months
 
- designing and optimizing the interface for the battery modules and the front panel, in fact changed the interface 11 times until i was satisfied.
 
- completely changed the arrangement of one set of modules to one PSU module, now they will have a backplane, each module can be exchanged separately.
 
Many ideas in my head i want to test or implement, so i postponed working on my "highend TU-05" at the moment, instead going the next steps starting to design everything else i need for a complete tube amp
 
- test of the input transformers
- design of the discrete voltage regulators for anode and filament voltages,
- mini modules with standard PCB connnector for the different voltage regulators
 
 
Made some test equipment needed:
 
- a four channel charger for small (4x up to 4 cells) Li-Ion battery packs,
 
- a test power supply for tube modules with 4x anode voltage PSUs (up to 80 volt) and 6 filament voltage PSUs, of course completely separated, no gorund to ground connections, to test all the tube modules i have or will build
 
 
For my portable "Dream TU-05" rebuild (original extended case):
 
- a really compact new double mono tube module
- reworked the two original TU-05 PSU boards to reduce the height
 
- larger but fitting output transformers to have more bass and more variable impedance settings (made them out of the disassembled and then recombined parts of my existing two original tu-05 output transformers and the two ones BMichels had sent me (thanks again for that) , the larger output transformers are a real improvement, not only somewhat deeper bass, but better matching the impedance of my DIY grado style headphones resulting in more detail, texture and better imaging)
 
- two 67,2 volt miniature anode voltage Li-Ion batteries made out of 2x16 Apple Ipod 1 batteries and 2x4 balancer boards with about the same size as the original tu-05 PSU boards so that they can be used instead of the original PSU boards (!)

 

[GermanGuy]

To speak of Final Audio Piano Forte, there is a great synergy between the PF VIII and the Colorfly C3, it is a real small dream set, together with my AKG K3003 this is my Music Survival Kit i always carry with me, the PF VIII has become my mostly used headphone when in my office or on the road.

 

[xplosive]

Its not crazy at all, early on when I got my 05 myself and smial1966 experimented with bases and came up with a few different solutions. I ended up with a thick piece of wood to which I added four large blobs of blu-tac and then topped those of with discs of cork and it made some not insubstantial improvements in terms of resolution, tightening of base and better soundstage. I still use this to this day!

 
glad to hear that Ian

.. also glad to have you back!