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Originally Posted by jamesb /img/forum/go_quote.gif
i've been listening to some vinyl on my turntable and everything is just incredibly liquid and smooth. vocals were always the 595s strongest point - now they are really magical.
595s are still not bass monsters, but in combination with the darkvoice and the lenco the bass is now deeper and fuller.
i now understand what people mean by 'tube sound'. warmth is quite a good way to describe it, but to someone who has not heard it it implies reduced treble, which is not what i heard, so i prefer to call it liquid sounding - not that that makes much sense to describe sound
i ordered it about 2 weeks ago from a seller on ebay in france. it should have been here on moday(that would have been 6 working days), but i was out (and my lazy flatmates were asleep and didn't answer the door ). i phoned the number on the card and i got a recorded message saying they automatically try to deliver things again the next working day. for some reason they didnt do that though, so i had to ring them again on wednesday, by which time the next possible delivery date was friday.
it's times like this i wish i had a car - it was sitting in the parcel force depot a couple of miles away for most of the week!
my old reciever isn't bad - its a bit better than the headphone out on my eMac, which in turn is better than the ipod mini. the main problem it had was a noticible hiss.
the problem now is i am starting to think about what i should upgrade next: DAC/cartridge/phonostage/new tubes
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Unfortunately, I think you are heading toward upgrading all those things!
I really think one of the fun parts of this amp is the ability to roll tubes...there are quite a variety of great NOS (or good condition used) 6sn7 tube, up front. Rolling the 6as7 tube likely will not yield much change, sonically, so I would place that as a lower priority (unless you feel inclined to do so - I have a Sovtek in mine, because they forgot to ship my amp w/tubes...lol).
I am not that familiar w/the 595s (I had the HD650s), but if you want a kick in the "bass pants", then a Ken Rad VT-231 staggered plate (either clear or black glass - they are the same tube structurally and sonically) would really do the trick (while maintaining good low end detail). It will also open things up sonically (better soundstage/separation, instrument tone/texture/body, etc). If you search, you can find them for close to 20 bucks on eBay, in good tested condition - sometimes you will have to bid on them, but IMO it's worth the price break from the outrageous prices that many dealers charge for NOS. This is my fav tube (especially w/my K701s).
There are a lot of other choices out there, so I suggest you take a look at this thread, which is super-informative:
http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...highlight=6sn7
Note: The above link contains loads of info; in my case, it took a while to really start to decipher between different tubes. However, it really helped me to narrow down what I thought would be good tubes in my application.
This really is a wonderful amplifier! It just makes you want to take the next steps closer to total audio nirvana!!!
I am totally into some Steely Dan on my K701s, right now...
Have fun and good luck!!!
SL
