[ColSaulTigh]

Curious if you have heard the 70's Melz? I am not looking for any less bass weight than what I am getting with 70's version, and curious how the 50's compares.

Yes, I have both. It's subtle, but a noticeable difference. '50s are more "thumpy" and have more lower end extension. Both are brilliantly crisp and clean on the top end.

 

[JeffMann]

I am liking and enjoying the WE 300B more than the Elrog. More musical, not in a romantic or tilted, way but a very detailed and natural flow with a less stiff sound. I get the same results with the 7193 Ken-Rad or the 6C5G Cossor.

Are you using the new production version of the WE 300B tube?

Could you please expand on the sound quality difference between the WE 300B tube and the Elrog ER300B tube?

I am neophyte tube amplifier user and I purchased my first tube amplifier (Cayin HA300Mk2) about 6 months ago. I empirically purchased the Elrog 300B tubes based on many rave reviews, but I do not like their musical tone/timbre quality and they make my Susvara headphone's musical sound reproduction to be too thin and bright and too over-analytical. I prefer more tonal weight in the lower midrange and midbass and the stock Gold Lion 300B tubes have that quality, but the Gold Lion 300B tubes cannot compete with the Elrog ER300B tubes in terms of detail resolution, transient speed, an ability to avoid sounding congested/smeared during loud orchestral musical passages and superb soundstaging qualities with rock solid imaging and lots of "air" between musical instruments/voices.. I also own Sophia Electric Princess Mesh Plate 300B tubes, which has the musical tone/timbre qualities that I desire and they can nearly equal the Elrog ER300B tube in terms of those described qualities. I was thinking of purchasing the Sophia Electric Royal Princess 300B tubes for $1,500 because they are their flagship model, which hopefully could sound even better. However, I decided not to for two reasons. Sophia Electric 300B tubes are no longer being manufactured and Sophia Electric told me that their 300B tubes are only expected to last about 3,500 hours. I normally turn on my Cayin HA300MK2 headphone amplifier at ~2pm everyday and off at midnight. That works out to ~3,500 hours per year, which means that the Sophia Electric 300B tubes are only expected to last 1 year - which is unacceptable from a cost perspective. The WE 300B tubes are reputed to last 40,000 hours and are guaranteed for 5 years. Even if they do not last 40,000 hours, I would be happy if they lasted 5 years ( 5 X 3,500 hours = 17,500 hours). So, if the WE 300b can be equal in sound quality (and hopefully even better in terms of sound quality) to my Sophia Electric Princess Mesh Plate 300B tubes, then I would be very interested in purchasing them.

Therefore, I am very interested in a more detailed description of their sound quality and a description of any pros/cons. I am also interested in knowing whether are totally noise-free. All of my three sets of 300B tubes are totally noise-free and dead-silent.

Jeff.

p.s. I only use RCA greyglass 6sn7GT driver tubes, which I much prefer over the stock Tungsol 6sn7GTB tubes and the the Linlai Elite 6sn7 GT tubes that I also own.

 

[Wes S]

Yes, I have both. It's subtle, but a noticeable difference. '50s are more "thumpy" and have more lower end extension. Both are brilliantly crisp and clean on the top end.

Got ya, and looks like I need to find me a pair from the 50's too.

Thanks!

 

[Ake_Y]

Hi everyone,

I have HA-300B MKI. I'm looking for a new DAC for it. Rockna Wavedream ( Signature RCA ) is the one I will choose.

However, its Vrms max out is 3.53 V ( RCA ) and 7 V ( XLR ) , while standard Vrms in for HA-300B should be around 2 V ( RCA ) and 4 V ( XLR ) if I understand correctly.

My questions are

1 ) Will Vrms of Wavedream able to make any damage on HA-300B?
2 ) What will be the impact of high Vrms on HA-300B in terms of sound ( benefit or disadvantage ) ?

The reason I asked above questions is that Wavedream Dynamic Range depends on Vrms out. However, it has a volume control.

Thank you for your suggestions in advance.

 

[Andykong]

Hi everyone,

I have HA-300B MKI. I'm looking for a new DAC for it. Rockna Wavedream ( Signature RCA ) is the one I will choose.

However, its Vrms max out is 3.53 V ( RCA ) and 7 V ( XLR ) , while standard Vrms in for HA-300B should be around 2 V ( RCA ) and 4 V ( XLR ) if I understand correctly.

My questions are

1 ) Will Vrms of Wavedream able to make any damage on HA-300B?
2 ) What will be the impact of high Vrms on HA-300B in terms of sound ( benefit or disadvantage ) ?

The reason I asked above questions is that Wavedream Dynamic Range depends on Vrms out. However, it has a volume control.

Thank you for your suggestions in advance.

I have responded to your PM, since you have post the same question here, I have to repeat my suggestion for others reference.

I assume you are referring to the single-ended output of Rockna Wavedream at 3.35 V. This should work with HA-300Mk2, however, the extra voltage from RCA input will limit the range of volume control that is available on HA-300/HA-300MK2. To illustrate this with numbers. with 2V line input, the HA-300 will function at low distortion full output power and dynamic range at the 3 o'clock position. With 4V line input, the same will happen at 12 o'clock (hypothetically). If you turn the volume to 1 o'clock, you can hear distortion and compressed dynamics already.

In normal cases, this won't cause a noticeable effect with regular headphones, and that included all the headphones listed in your signature.
In fact, some users even like it better with a hotter input because they prefer the more lively sound presentation. On the other hand, if you were to use a hard-to-drive headphone such as Susvara or HeDDphone, a hotter input might make the paring sound flat or compressed. Lowering the line input level will solve the problem in my experience. Since your Rockna Wavedream allows you to adjust the output level, you can then adjust the volume so that you can turn the HA-300/HA-300Mk2 to a higher volume level, hopefully, this will restore the performance of your system conveniently.

 

[idairyou]

Just ordered my unit.

Will be arriving next week. Really looking forward to it.

 

[jamato8]

Trying out some NOS 6J5GT military Sylvania from 1942. I have had these a long time. Nice round flat black plates. I am using some new much lower adapters I got yesterday. They will not work with the coke bottle glass envelope of some of the other 6J5 tubes.

I have a pair of 6J5 WGT that are metal base that are internally 6SN7 but they converted them to 6J5 by using only the wires needed for each half. A shame, as internally they are the 6SN7 many want and in perfect condition.

 

[EagleKent]

Is anyone using the speaker out for their Susvara? I just received a banana to XLR connector from Aliexpress to try the speaker out on my Susvara and found two noticeable differences to XLR output (high gain):
(1) XLR output is louder than speaker out which surprised me as I assume speaker out would have more power (yes, I didn't check the specs). Might be the banana->XLR cable I am using?
(2) A/Bing my test tracks I found the speaker out seem to have lifted slightly a veil between the notes i.e. darker background. Hence I am hearing the edges of the notes more without digital glare which made the music sound more natural. There seem to be a touch more sub-bass as well.

Just wondering what others are experiencing in their system as not sure I want to go back to XLR at this early stage and will have to buy a speaker out selector box (yet another component to my ever expanding system) as I would like to listen to my speakers as well.

PS. Just tried my ZMF VC and same thing with bonus it's absolutely dead silent and very dark background compared to the XLR output. Didn't expect that at all. Nice

 

[ARCXENOS]

(1) XLR output is louder than speaker out which surprised me as I assume speaker out would have more power (yes, I didn't check the specs). Might be the banana->XLR cable I am using?

I think this is correct, I do recall Andy mentioning this before

I haven't tried speaker out, maybe someday

 

[ColSaulTigh]

I am using some nice RCA 1940s 7193 right now but the best is the Ken-Rad, which is what I was using but wanted to burn in some RCA. The RCA are better than any 6SN7 I have. The Ken-Rad and RCA have the same spacers and look almost the same but when closely examined there are little differences from the plate being off of the bottom spacer but the RCA right on the bottom spacer (but now I see some that are the same as the KR) and the support rods where they go through the spacer on the KR, have little metal rings on top but the RCA in the reverse. To me, they seem like they are all made by KR but they also sound different but both very fine. The RCA once burned in are extremely dynamic and resolving. Also a quiet tube.

So I just got mine today. A touch noisy, I'll have to give them some time to see if they settle down. So far, I'm not super impressed. They do present forward (very forward, in fact). They're also strong in the midrange. Nowhere as clear on the top end as a Melz or a 6F8G. They have some warmth, but are lacking low bass/sub bass extension. We'll see what the next few days bring.

 

[jamato8]

So I just got mine today. A touch noisy, I'll have to give them some time to see if they settle down. So far, I'm not super impressed. They do present forward (very forward, in fact). They're also strong in the midrange. Nowhere as clear on the top end as a Melz or a 6F8G. They have some warmth, but are lacking low bass/sub bass extension. We'll see what the next few days bring.

They need to burn in some, but also are the tubes matched? I get excellent detail, clear and succinct bass and very good layering, but I also matched my quad of tubes on my own equipment, my own tube testers.

 

[ColSaulTigh]

They need to burn in some, but also are the tubes matched? I get excellent detail, clear and succinct bass and very good layering, but I also matched my quad of tubes on my own equipment, my own tube testers.

They're doing better with a couple of hours on them. They are not matched (seller didn't sell them that way). I bought them because they were 4 tubes with adapters for cheap, and I figured, hey let's try them out. I'll pick up some better examples eventually.

 

[Wes S]

Further down the rabbit hole I go. . .currently burning in the "Frankstein Quad", and so far so good with zero noise issues. In fact, they are the quietest tubes I have tried so far.

I went with the smaller version adapters and they aren't that terrible of an eyesore at all and fit quite nicely. Now the look of those wires and ceramic caps are a different story and will take some getting used to, but with what I am hearing so far it's totally worth it. I have never heard or felt such amazing bass slam, and the texture and layering is incredible. There is impact for days and the music feels completely alive and totally engaging, with sounds literally flying all around my head. Talk about holographic staging, this tube type does it in spades. Heck, at this point with only just a few hours of burn-in, I already don't think I will ever use a 6SN7 again. Honestly, I have never been a fan of adapters and how they look, but these with the wires and caps look like a science project and actually look kind of cool and retro. They do kind of hide my Elrog's a bit, but I can live with it. I have several more different quads of CV6 (Mullard) and CV1135 (G.E.C.) arriving within the next few days and can't wait to hear them all.

A special thanks to @jamato8 for the suggestion to give these tubes a try.

 

[jambaj0e]

Further down the rabbit hole I go. . .currently burning in the "Frankstein Quad", and so far so good with zero noise issues. In fact, they are the quietest tubes I have tried so far.



I went with the smaller version adapters and they aren't that terrible of an eyesore at all and fit quite nicely. Now the look of those wires and ceramic caps are a different story and will take some getting used to, but with what I am hearing so far it's totally worth it. I have never heard or felt such amazing bass slam, and the texture and layering is incredible. There is impact for days and the music feels completely alive and totally engaging, with sounds literally flying all around my head. Talk about holographic staging, this tube type does it in spades. Heck, at this point with only just a few hours of burn-in, I already don't think I will ever use a 6SN7 again. Honestly, I have never been a fan of adapters and how they look, but these with the wires and caps look like a science project and actually look kind of cool and retro. They do kind of hide my Elrog's a bit, but I can live with it. I have several more different quads of CV6 (Mullard) and CV1135 (G.E.C.) arriving within the next few days and can't wait to hear them all.

A special thanks to @jamato8 for the suggestion to give these tubes a try.

What 22DE4 tubes are you using there? I don't recognize them.

 

[Wes S]

What 22DE4 tubes are you using there? I don't recognize them.

A pair of Japanese Black Plates in the front 2 slots and a pair of Sicte (Italy) in the back 2 slots. These are my two favs out of all of them.