[fordski]

Sort of depends on your use case. It’s a great amp, but it’s too big for true portable use, and it runs hot. The DAC section has an extremely smooth tuning that some love and some hate. And it’s not necessarily the best choice for either super sensitive hiss-prone IEMs or hard to drive headphones.

I agree with your comments about portability although it's a great hand warmer on cold days! I bought my CDM used about 2 years ago and use it most days. I love this thing. It's performed flawlessly and is a great pairing with my Beyerdynamic T5p headphones. I have tried it with my T1's and it seems to struggle with them.

For transportable home use it's great. I use mine with a Chord Poly/mojo when I want it untethered and use the built in DAC at my desk. I actually quite like the built in DAC but it does run a bit hotter than just using the amp.Tube rolling can make a difference as well so that can be fun if you're into that.

Having said this I think the CDM is still a great buy today especially if you can find one used.

 

[cj3209]

If you switch tubes from stock, you can reduce the heat. If I remember, the sonotones were a good balance.

 

[fordski]

Thanks for the suggestion. I do have the Sonotone tubes and found them "polite" nice sound but not to my taste. Unfortunately the tubes I prefer are the 6BF7 which unfortunately are a little warmer...

 

[kukkurovaca]

I like the Sontone tubes quite a bit, but the CDM still runs disconcertingly warm with the DAC on IMO (I do like the DAC though)

 

[choisan]

I am waiting for BF discount, hopefully it has

 

[kukkurovaca]

ALO has definitely run BF discounts in the past, so there's hope. : )

Listening to my CDM at now, it really is a delightful device. It's particularly impressive that microphonics are basically a non-issue.

 

[choisan]

yeah, if it does, i will buy
just want to confirm, the cdm limited comes with 2 pairs of tube? 1 pair 6832 installed and extra 6111?

 

[nephilim32]

Man. Not a lot of offers out there for portable tube amps. If you have a CDM or any other portable tube amp I’d hang on to it.

 

[nsk1979]

Is anybody knows - what is the difference between 6111 tube and 6111A? What does it mean? Could not find any information regarding 6111A tubes.

 

[nephilim32]

Is anybody knows - what is the difference between 6111 tube and 6111A? What does it mean? Could not find any information regarding 6111A tubes.

Hello. The ‘A’ means that the tube is designed to work in conjunction with a Class A Amplifier. Of course. Some amps out there are hybrids. Hope that helps.

 

[nsk1979]

Hello. The ‘A’ means that the tube is designed to work in conjunction with a Class A Amplifier. Of course. Some amps out there are hybrids. Hope that helps.

Thanks a lot! I think such tubes suitable for CDM. Following is mentioned on Alo website:
“Running in Class A, the Dual Mono implementation of the vacuum tubes provides improved stereo separation and an expanded soundstage.”

 

[sklonchpower]

Does anyone tried to adjust minitube instead of subminiature? I know that they doesnt fit but maybe someone tried to install it)