[R.Thompson]

I recently got an email from AudioAdvisor with the tracking number for my MKIII order. I placed it about a month ago. I only recently found this forum, has anybody used this amp before? I briefly used the MKII with my HD580 headphones and purchased the MKIII based on that. Should I expect an inprovement or is it just going to be more of cosmetic upgrade?

 

[go_vtec]

MKIII has a more soild power supply so performace should be improved little bit over MKII. More dramatic improvement can be achieved by tube-rolling. Try a pair of NOS RCA cleartops for 12AX7's, you will be suprised how much it improves the sound.

 

[R.Thompson]

I think I have a pair of mullard tubes left over from my monoblock stereo HiFi days... I need to check my stuff and see what I got.

You say "Great Midwest-Ohio", I live in Cincinnati, what about you?

 

[go_vtec]

You've got PM...
Hmm, for a moment, I thought I was at for sale forum

 

[Born2bwire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by R.Thompson I think I have a pair of mullard tubes left over from my monoblock stereo HiFi days... I need to check my stuff and see what I got. You say "Great Midwest-Ohio", I live in Cincinnati, what about you?

I just got a pair of Mullard EL84's, couple that with my Raytheon/Westinghouse 5751 blackplate and you got a combo that you can't beat. A great alternative to the Sylvania and Raytheons are the GE's and it's hard to beat a pair of Ei EL84's, the real stuff is changing the 12AX7 out.

 

[Sovkiller]

Antique Sound lab produces a lot of amps, when you say "MKIII" I supposed it is the MGHead, are you talking of the MGHead ASL right???

 

[R.Thompson]

Yeah, I was talking about the MG HEAD DT/OTL MKIII headphone amplifier. They have not updated their website yet as it only lists the MKII. If you CLICK HERE you can look at it... but you probably already have.

 

[go_vtec]

Which headphone will you be using with ASL DT/OTL MK3? I remember MK2 version sounded awesome with Senn HD580/HD600. It will sound even better with improved power supply and Mullard. Congrats on your purchase and will look forward to reading your impression.

 

[kunwar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Born2bwire I just got a pair of Mullard EL84's, couple that with my Raytheon/Westinghouse 5751 blackplate and you got a combo that you can't beat. A great alternative to the Sylvania and Raytheons are the GE's and it's hard to beat a pair of Ei EL84's, the real stuff is changing the 12AX7 out.

Hey, what about getting the legendary Telefunken ECC803S circa 1960 NOS.
the only problem they cost like 300 upwards and they are hard as hell to find.

 

[Born2bwire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kunwar Hey, what about getting the legendary Telefunken ECC803S circa 1960 NOS. the only problem they cost like 300 upwards and they are hard as hell to find.

I haven't heard any real recs on the Telefunken tubes. I've seen one or two people use them but given their high prices it doesn't surprise me that only a few use them with the MG Head.

 

[tbdoah]

Let alone finding any "s" super tubes is next to impossible. Tubeworld only had a few 12ax7 variants the last time I checked.

 

[R.Thompson]

Well, I got the amp today and have been burning it in for the last few hours. First off, it is different from the description/pictures at Audio Advisor. I don't have a camera available but I will tomorrow. So for now I will try and describe the differences.

1. The black metal cover that protects the tubes has been replaced by one like this... but chrome... and with small spaces between the bars.

2. The MKII had a set of inputs and a set of outputs on the back.(which I assume was to let the signal pass through to a amp or receiver). The MKIII, on the other hand, just has two sets of inputs... but no way to switch them.

The instruction manual does not help. In fact, there are several sections where the manual is clearly referring to another product completely... it talks about speaker binding posts etc.

It also has several spots that are in completely different sized fonts (like right in the middle of the paragraph). I am going to fire off an email to Divertech tomorrow and see if perhaps I got a pre-production one by mistake; or at the very least I got a rough draft of the new manual.


I don't know what is going on with this sucker... but I can say that aside from these confusing items, the amp sounds wonderful!

The build quality is wonderful all around with the new power supply being identical in quality to the amp itself. So now, thanks to the new power supply, there are two nice blue LEDs. I have not had a good chance to listen to it for any length of time so I should not go into the details of the sound... but I will soon.

 

[LeasingGuy]

Quote:

The MKII had a set of inputs and a set of outputs on the back.(which I assume was to let the signal pass through to a amp or receiver). The MKIII, on the other hand, just has two sets of inputs... but no way to switch them.

What? That can't be right. Is it mislabled?

 

[R.Thompson]

Yeah, I thought the same thing. Instead of input/output it says input/input. So I took the left cable from my CD player and put it into the other left input... sure enough, it is an INPUT!

So it is labeled correctly. I just don't understand why they did it that way. The only thing I can think of is that they wanted to give you multiple inputs without adding a switch. I guess they want us to make sure that only one source is playing at a time?

 

[LeasingGuy]

Thats odd. I sent an email/PM over to Joe Lau (ASL CEO). Hopefully he will join our discussion.

Now, Go get a screwdriver and a digital camera and start posting some pics.