ASL HB1 is in DA House!

[papomaster]

Hey all!

During the FSI in Montréal last week, I bought a Antique Sound Labs HB1 during the silent auction, and finally recieved it today. It had to transit from the FSI to the Fondation des Étoiles' (Stars' funds, a non-lucrative group that helps children with uncurable diseases) desk, then to my home. Of course, all of the profits from the sale go to the fund, so it was quite a good deal for both of us.

This is my first tube amp, but I read carefully through most of the semi-recent tube amps threads about the basic care of the tubes : no touching without gloves, no plugging-unplugging while the amp works, etc.

I installed it in my setup, redid all the connections, plugged the headphones, set the amp to on for 2 minutes, put Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and pressed play. No long warm-up, no burn-in. Wham. Yeah, you love it baby!

The reason why I put a movie for my first listening is simple : it is the last thing I listened with the previous setup (in fact, I watched it three times this week - well, the best parts of it) before putting the HB1 in there, and the one I have the freshest memory of. Also, it is great to show how good the setup is at resolving soundstage information, especially the size of the room, height and distance.

My first impressions were quite positive : Imaging was more precise than the H5, bass wasn't bloated, midrange was as sweet as ever, highs weren't the most extended.

After a few minutes, I thought the HB1 was more laid-back than the H5, having a little less dynamics, less low bass, more upper treble, more 'shakiness' to vocals to give them a further away feel.

But then, after about 15 minutes, I realized that it gave a more realistic tracking of how distance varied in recordings. While the H5 always pushed everything closer from me, the HB1 gave everything the right distance and tone.

Then, putting some pretty diversified music confirmed my thoughts. It had great bass presence, weight and definition, warmish mids and flat, shimmering but not overly extended highs.

The only two nicks I have right now with it are :

1) Both sides are ringing, maybe it'll change with burn-in.

2) No pics!

More to come soon.

 

[papomaster]

Here is the second wave of impressions after about 3 hours of burn-in.


Fit and Finish, build quality: This think is quite strangely built. It has a separate power supply which holds the on/off switch on the back, making it extremely not convenient to use. The PS is quite beefy, weighting about 3 pounds on its own. The amp itself is quite small (about the same size as the headfive without the tube and tube cage, but about twice as big as the headfive with the cage) and light, about 3/4 pound with the cage. the umbilical cord is beefy and not quite twistable to fit in the amp's receptacle, so it bends in a very weird position behind my rack. I think its weight and cord makes it more sensitive to vibration than, lets say, a little dot X with its 1-box topology. Apart from that, it's a lovely amp to look at : black finish, industrial feeling, nice rugged touch to the metal and nicely rounded edges. The headphone plug locks very nicely, more so than the one on the headfive.

Tonal balance after 3 hours : same as out of the box, but with very slightly more lower bass.

Overall sound: Slightly thin, laid-back, very neutral tone. This is the best I can describe it. I think it fares well with the AD2000 because of its more forward midrange and slightly richer than normal tone. It has a very good ability to separate the different instruments and background noises, encapsulating them, making it far more easy to pick up detail elements than on the headfive. I know that if I listen went back to the headfive, I would be able to pick up the details, they just wouldn't be as apparent as they are now.

It also has a far more holographic soundstage than the headfive, and it gives more 3d information about every sound, making it easier for me to situate them inside the room. This is very apparent on songs like Moondance from Van Morisson, Blue in Green from Miles or any live show (Live at Folsom Prison from JC comes to mind).


Again, I think it is a great amp, and I'm eager to listen to it face-to-face with any of the LD family amps.