[Wes S]

The current tube combo I have landed on this morning is sounding incredible with my VC's. The rolling of the rectifiers took things to yet another level, and the detail and nuances coming through is even more stunning than before. This amp has so much potential and once you start tube rolling it really starts to strut it's stuff.

Driver - Ken-Rad VT-231 Black Glass
Power - Elrog ER300B
Rectifier - Tung Sol (V5,V6) & Raytheon (V7,V8)

Clarity, impact and presence are all in full effect, and I am left wanting nothing but more time to listen.

 

[krude]

The current tube combo I have landed on this morning is sounding incredible with my VC's. The rolling of the rectifiers took things to yet another level, and the detail and nuances coming through is even more stunning than before. This amp has so much potential and once you start tube rolling it really starts to strut it's stuff.



Driver - Ken-Rad VT-231 Black Glass
Power - Elrog ER300B
Rectifier - Tung Sol (V5,V6) & Raytheon (V7,V8)

Clarity, impact and presence are all in full effect, and I am left wanting nothing but more time to listen.

Lush af

 

[UntilThen]

I have only used my VC's, and there is a slight hum (varies depending on the tubes) when no music is playing. The VC's are very good at picking up noise if it's there, and I would imagine with less sensitive/harder to drive planars there would be no noise whatsoever.

Thanks.

 

[brokemember]

Still waiting for them to arrive! Brexit what were they thinking?????

They weren't!

It it's any use while you are waiting, I can confirm that the CV181-tII sound better than the stock tubes and also lower the noise floor decently. Definitely worth switching out the stock ones with these.

 

[tdx]

Got two new sets of tubes for my Mk2: a pair of Takatsukis TA-300B and some Linlai Elites E-6SN7. Both are obviously a nice improvement over stock tubes although I have to admit this is prob the only amp where I thought stock tubes were more than just ok. I'm feeding the Cayin from a Holo Spring 3 KTE with preamp and for headphones I'm using Susvaras.

The Linlais have way more extension in both directions, and bring added definition, soundstage and definitely improve the bass. Whereas with stock tubes the bass was strong but not very well defined, with the Linlais it is super sculpted and it's easy to discern all bass levels and nuances. For someone like me who doesn't want to deal with the complexities of getting NOS, these are a great buy.

The Takas are also extremely nice and bring most of the above attributes, though the effect is not as pronounced as the 6SN7s, as is to be expected. The most obvious differences are a larger and better defined soundstage, also better bass, and a more pronounced treble, which I'm actually not sure I prefer. Don't get me wrong, these are amazing tubes and they are deserving of their large price, but I purchased this amp to get an impactful yet non fatiguing SET tube sound, and while the Takas add to the impactful part, they also take away from the effortlessness that is present with the stock tubes. I will give these some more time to settle and for my brain to get used to them, as I do like them overall. But if I can't get used to their relative brightness I might have to let them go and try the PSVANE Acmes, which from what I read are more in line with what I'm looking for.

Oh and both fit with the cage on, as per the pictures below.

Cheers!

 

[mfgillia]

I have only used my VC's, and there is a slight hum (varies depending on the tubes) when no music is playing. The VC's are very good at picking up noise if it's there, and I would imagine with less sensitive/harder to drive planars there would be no noise whatsoever.

Discovering this seems to be highly dependent on the DAC. With my old Topping D30pro the VCs had just a tad bit of noise, which didn't increase while turning the volume knob up and was only discernible in very quiet environments.

Now with the Spring 3 though there's noticably more noise, which does increase in-line with the volume knob. Still generally unnoticeable even when playing music at fairly high volumes. With the Spring 3 on mute though there's zero noise even with the volume set to max.

 

[Palyodgree]

Discovering this seems to be highly dependent on the DAC. With my old Topping D30pro the VCs had just a tad bit of noise, which didn't increase while turning the volume knob up and was only discernible in very quiet environments.

Now with the Spring 3 though there's noticably more noise, which does increase in-line with the volume knob. Still generally unnoticeable even when playing music at fairly high volumes. With the Spring 3 on mute though there's zero noise even with the volume set to max.

Could possibly be production variations from one amp to another, while rolling dacs recently I experienced no hum with Holo Audio May KTE, Denafrips terminator, Rockna WaveDream XLR and Mearson Dac .

 

[Palyodgree]

I have my eye on a pair of these from GrantFidelity select for about 500 bucks a pair and I’ll check out the black glass Kenrads , sounds like fun to me .

 

[mfgillia]

Could possibly be production variations from one amp to another, while rolling dacs recently I experienced no hum with Holo Audio May KTE, Denafrips terminator, Rockna WaveDream XLR and Mearson Dac .

This is with Verite Closed or other headphones? With my Atriums there's essentially no noise using either the Topping or Spring 3.

 

[llamaluv]

I got some Ken Rads recently and have about 120 hours on them, and can confirm they're the real deal.

With this amp, I've toyed around with a number of just-okay 6SN7's (PSVane Tii Premium Grade, Sylvania 6SN7WGT, Sylvania 6SN7GT, RCAs, ~$100 Tung Sols), and to be honest, none of them really distinguished themselves in relation to the others in any important way. But the Ken Rads are a cut above.

Better bass, better speed, more authority. Also, less bloomy in the upper-mids, which is a good thing in my system. My only regret is that I've been wasting my time (relatively speaking) doing my listening using these other just-okay tubes for so long. The Ken Rads are not the final word on depth though, and not romantic by any means, but the clear winner over the other stuff I have.

I also got a matched pair of Melz 6H8C off of Ebay recently, just the "regular" ones I would guess, and probably for too much money, but they're still burning in. So far, they have a more romantic sound, really good depth in the midrange, but nothing great in the bass at the moment.

 

[Wes S]

Discovering this seems to be highly dependent on the DAC. With my old Topping D30pro the VCs had just a tad bit of noise, which didn't increase while turning the volume knob up and was only discernible in very quiet environments.

Now with the Spring 3 though there's noticably more noise, which does increase in-line with the volume knob. Still generally unnoticeable even when playing music at fairly high volumes. With the Spring 3 on mute though there's zero noise even with the volume set to max.

I actually rolled some more tubes and my noise is almost completely gone, and I imagine with more burn-in it will be silent soon enough. Interesting stuff with the different DAC's, and I am running balanced in from my Sonnet Morpheus and balanced out with my VC's, and the noise I am hearing doesn't increase or decrease with volume. What I am hearing is definitely tube noise, and I think a big part of why we are hearing about some with noise and other's without, is mostly because of the tubes. I doubt Cayin is checking all the stock tubes for noise, so some owners might just get lucky and start out with quiet tubes. I experienced the exact same thing with my last amp (Pendant SE), and I actually got that amp silent as can be with rolling some good NOS tubes. Of course is took a few rolls to find the quietest combo in my Pendant, but I did get there eventually and will get there with my HA300mk2 soon enough.

On another note, I just rolled in a quad of NOS G.E. 22DE4 from the 70's and they are rocking. The word visceral is the first word the comes to mind. . .

 

[llamaluv]

On another note, I just rolled in a quad of NOS G.E. 22DE4 from the 70's and they are rocking. The word visceral is the first word the comes to mind. . .

That's really great how you've been finding success rolling the rectifiers. I could be wrong but you may be the first person in this thread to post any impressions of alternative 22DE4s.

 

[Wes S]

That's really great how you've been finding success rolling the rectifiers. I could be wrong but you may be the first person in this thread to post any impressions of alternative 22DE4s.

Rolling rectifiers is always a great way to tweak the sound on a SET amp such as the HA300MK2. I am actually kind of shocked more owners of the HA300 aren't aware of this. The really cool thing with the HA300 is that it uses four tubes that don't have to be matched, and there are a ton of combos one could try.

The quad of NOS G.E. have been my favorite so far, and the dynamics, transparency and holographic staging are all in full effect. I highly recommend rolling some rectifiers and they can be found quite cheap if you are diligent in your search, and can make quite a difference depending on which ones you roll.

Happy Hunting, Rolling, and Listening.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Rolling rectifiers is always a great way to tweak the sound on a SET amp such as the HA300MK2. I am actually kind of shocked more owners of the HA300 aren't aware of this. The really cool thing with the HA300 is that it uses four tubes that don't have to be matched, and there are a ton of combos one could try.

The quad of NOS G.E. have been my favorite so far, and the dynamics, transparency and holographic staging are all in full effect. I highly recommend rolling some rectifiers and they can be found quite cheap if you are diligent in your search, and can make quite a difference depending on which ones you roll.

Happy Hunting, Rolling, and Listening.

22DE4s are so hard to find tho, my trusted dealers don't have a single one of them.

 

[ARCXENOS]

Rolling rectifiers is always a great way to tweak the sound on a SET amp such as the HA300MK2. I am actually kind of shocked more owners of the HA300 aren't aware of this. The really cool thing with the HA300 is that it uses four tubes that don't have to be matched, and there are a ton of combos one could try.

The quad of NOS G.E. have been my favorite so far, and the dynamics, transparency and holographic staging are all in full effect. I highly recommend rolling some rectifiers and they can be found quite cheap if you are diligent in your search, and can make quite a difference depending on which ones you roll.

Happy Hunting, Rolling, and Listening.

I'll probably dabble on the rectifiers once I am done with 6SN7 (maybe soon!) and 300b, I think most would prefer to roll the driver first for maximum sound changes. It will be interesting to find out how different rectifiers will change the sound signature.

22DE4s are so hard to find tho, my trusted dealers don't have a single one of them.

My biggest issue too, the local dealers I typically go to don't stock any of them, I'll probably wait and see if any appear