[Black Stuart]

Hi Art,
the Toshiba mosfets are great and as capable as tubes in portraying delicate top notes and in most cases way better bass and like you I hav'nt blown a single mosfet since buying the PH12 in 2007 but being a cautious Scot there is no way I'm going to sell my 2 spare sets of mosfets - better than money in the bank.
 
Here's the news - the PH32, the power version is quite simply a much better designed amp in every way and I would urge anyone that has'nt experienced a hybrid power amp to buy one of these. They can now be obtained from at least 4 different sources. The pre-amp section is almost the same but with an extra 0.10uF bypass cap before the 1uF coupling cap and the resistor values are much better set as well. There is also an inductor just before the mosfets to take care of any high frequency oscillation/speaker protection and 4 of the PSU caps have been bypassed.
 
Unlike the PH12 only a few component changes will give you an amp with a truly superb sound, take out the awful 0.10uF Wima MKP10 and the equally awful 1uF Solen coupling cap and replace with the excellant and ludicrously cheap Russian K73-16 mylar caps and you will not believe the performance of this amp. both of these amps benefit greatly by shunting the pot with  Z foil or Caddock resistors.
 
If only idiots had'nt been obsessed with tube rolling every 5 minutes I'm sure the Bada amps would have sold in great numbers.

 

[drarthurwells]

Never heard the PH32. Glad to hear your views on it. My unmodified PH12s sound great in my system. I really love my Eastsound E5 Platinum Reference CDP. I don't think any CDP made can be better. I sold my spare one to someone with much ultra high end experience and he raved about it. Would love to have one of my PH12s modified to your specs - too busy to do it myself.

 

[Black Stuart]

Art,
nice to hear from you - re. the PH12, there is one change that is easy to do without the hassle of removing the PCB and will hugely uprate the sound.The coupling cap is 1uF/250V - just cut away the cap leaving the legs and solder your replacement cap to these legs. I have made many changes to the PH12 using this method.
 
I am happy to send you a couple of these amazing Russian K73-16 caps Art - make this change and you will hear just how grey and lifeless Solen caps are, same goes for Wima MKP 10. When I replaced the 0.10uF cap with a K73-16 it opened up my whole system, the improvement was even more pronounced than when I first used Z foils for shunting the pot.
 
There simply is no comparison between an Alps Blue and one shunted or quazi-shunted wqith Z foils. The quazi shunt could'nt be simpler - just cut the wires about 1/2 inch above the PCB for Left & Right signal input to the PCB from the Alps pot, strip the dialectric and solder in series a Z foil or Caddock, value - 40-47K, nothing could be simpler and the beauty of this mod is that if for some weird reason you don't like the change in sound (very, very unlikely) you can just desolder the resistor and resolder the original signal wiring.
 
These two mods will stun you - like having a totally superior h/amp.
 

 

[drarthurwells]

Black Stuart, your mod looks easy - even I could do it - and very worthwhile.

 

[drarthurwells]

New tube set up - may be especially good for planar headphones:
 
 
Two Shugang 6SN7 tubes in the rear
 
One Ming Da 6SN7 globe shaped tube up front.
 
 
The Chinese Shugang is an excellent tube that is very accurate with excellent detail but does have a lean tone body and cn be harsh in the treble range with loud program material.
 
The Ming Da adds some tone body and richer timbre to complement the Shugangs quite nicely.
 
7/20/16 see added note below:
 
 

 
After a few days with the Ming Da tube  above, changed it out to a Sylvania W GT Jan. 6SN7 military tube.
 
With the W in front and keeping the two Shugangs in back I got slightly more richness in the tone body and slightly better midrange clarity, for the most realistic and musically pleasing sound I have ever heard on headphones.
 
Since the above I have tried new tube combos such as:
 
Still with two Shugangs in the rear and a different tube in the front where the front tube is:
 
Sylvania 6SN7 WGT - improves the Raptor or solid state sound buy adding some richness to the tone body but not timbrel coloration associated to all-tube amps, and more emotional drama projectsd than the Raptor or a solid sate amp
 
CBS GT or CBS Hytron GT - much too much tube coloration
 
RCA GT with the side getter - more tone body, more emotional drama, a tad too much tube coloration
 
Tung-Sol GTB - improves the tone adding even some richness to the tone body (but with natural timbre and not abnormal tube coloration), very nice more emotional impact and drama but also with good detail - my preferable tube set up at the moment
 
 
The Audeze LCD-3 greatly increased the resolution of my system so now I clearly hear big differences between tube set ups cable changes, etc. This tells me not only do I have a high resolution CD player but also that the Bada PH12 is a great amp (with the right tubes but can be a terrible amp with the wrong tubes).
 
Unless you have a top quality planar headphone like the LCD-3 or LCD-4, and a top quality source and cables and amp, you can not hear differences in comparing components that are there non-the-less right before your ears.

 

[drarthurwells]

State of the art performance achieved. The addition of the Audeze LCD 3 headphones in replacing the Senn. HD600 has tremendously elevated my system in terms of resolution, realism, and naturalism. I know my CD player is state of the art as is the Audeze LCD3 but believe the Bada PH12 ($500 USD new shipped anywhere) is also SOTA since it keeps right up with the CD player and LCD3. Evidence for this is the incredible high resolution of the system with the Bada PH12 - clear sonic differences are heard with different tubes and different CDs in a way I have never experienced. With a well recorded CD and the best of tube combos (usually with not the more expensive tubes used) the naturalness and realism is awesome. 
 
Tube summary with Bada PH12
 
all using 6n8p (6SN7 equivalent) Chinese Shuguang tubes in the rear and using these tunes alone in the front:
 
Solid state sound (detailed, good 3D images with instrument separation, little smearing of tones, but lean tone body)
Shuguang up front so all three are Shuguangs
 
GE GTB gray plates solid state sound but some slight smearing of tones, detailed and bright
 
 
Rich tube sound (seductive rich tone body but some image and tone blurring in a liquid sound which means reduced instrument separation in space)
 
order is in increasing richness and coloration where tubes listed first are less colored and more realistic but less rich (some describe as musical):
 
Sylvania 6SN7 GTW
Sylvania W also a 6SN7 but different from above
RCA 6SN7 GT side getter and clear upper body
Ken Rad 6SN7 GT VT231 - too much coloration at times but seductive richness
CBS 6SN7 GT - too much coloration
Electro Harmonix 6SN7 - too much coloration
 
 
 
Good combo of solid state with some tube tone body richness
 
TungSol 6SN7 "mouse ears" (may be the best but you may prefer one of these from below)
CBS 6SN7 GTB black (T or triangular) plates, side getter, short body
TungSol 6SN7 GTB
Sylvania 6SN7 GT bottom flashing and clear top, black T plates, rectangular mica with oval ends
Raytheon 6SN7 GT