| Originally Posted by Gonz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Vaccum tube sound... thing... review w/pics Not only does this strike me as pure marketing gimmick... But Tom's can't even find *anything* to say about the sound. My guess is that a cMoy would work better. If considering the AT 900s, why not look at the HA25D, also sold by Audiocubes. I guarantee that would be a much better device, and it's also a DAC. |
| Originally Posted by Gonz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well thats fine, don't spend the money then. That vaccum tube has what appears to be, LEDs behind it so as to look like it's glowing. Don't waste your money on this garbage. Talk to Norm and get a GoVibe if you want a real, quality amplifier on the cheap. Thats $50-$60 WELL spent. |
| Originally Posted by Gonz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well thats fine, don't spend the money then. That vaccum tube has what appears to be, LEDs behind it so as to look like it's glowing. Don't waste your money on this garbage. Talk to Norm and get a GoVibe if you want a real, quality amplifier on the cheap. Thats $50-$60 WELL spent. |
| Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif No, it's not fake. It actually uses the tube. There's a reflector behind the tube, which is why it looks like the light isn't entirely coming from the tube. I took it apart to figure out what kind of tube it uses (12AU7), since it's not listed. Sound quality is OK, but not as good as other amps I have. |
| Originally Posted by philodox /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am also concerned that the tube is not glowing, although it does not seem to be burnt out. [no blackness] Another thing I noticed is that, if anything, my HD201's seem to be quieter coming out of the Musketeer than when I used them from the AV710 line out. I thought this thing was supposed to have 6dB of gain. 
I will check this again when I get home, but as far as I remember, the noise is there at minimum and low volume on the musketeer and nearly goes away when you max out volume on the musketeer. |
| Originally Posted by philodox /img/forum/go_quote.gif I let the 'Musketeer' run for ~2hrs last night and turned off the lights. No tube glow at all... they stuck a couple LEDs in the chamber though and it looks like there is glow at first glance. |
| So it didn't work out so well... why? Well, with a single unit, the actual output of this unit may be lower than what your soundcards can output, meaning that volume will drop, and that when you have to max the rheostat on the unit out to reach that same volume, distortion may occur. This seems to be because of a number of factors - first, I'm not going to rule out that the unit I was testing might have had a messed up vacuum tube - which would definitely explain the voltage drop, and neither will I rule out that the voltage coming from the power supply is potentially low. |
| The first of these quirks is the fact that the inbuilt VU meter is far, far too frigging sensitive. Half the time I'll be sitting there at my computer, and behind the music, I'll just hear "click click click" as the needle from the VU meter slams against the right wall time and time again, even when the volume slider is down under a quarter of the way. |
| The second problem, of course is the fact that the first thing you'll notice plugging this unit in is that your volume has just gone WAY down. Trying the unit with headphones on, the sound was barely audible, and this is with system volume as well as the volume slider at their maximum points. These headphones, under normal conditions (plugged into the front audio port) are loud enough to be heard across the room. Not good. Even more amusing, the aforementioned VU meter can be sitting in the red zone yet whispers will come from the user's headphones. |
