Bigjppop
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2006
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Another member of the family... You'll love your new toy!
Originally Posted by alex1pdx /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the warm welcome. Now I am in anguish over tube replacements. I plagiarized the setup Skylab has in his profile, but I am having difficulty locating those tubes at a reasonable price. It seems that it would cost me well over $100 to purchase these tubes. Do you think that I will be satisfied for a while with the stock tubes? I need to recover from the financial hit I took with ordering the amp. I am also thinking of getting an Equinox cable for my HD650, but the bottom line is not pretty. So far I've been able to fund the purchase of the DV337 without dipping into my student loans, as I don't really think it is ethical to use those funds for audio gear anyway. Decisions, decisions! The very weak voice of common sense deep inside me is struggling to get to the surface and tell me to stop. |
Originally Posted by Bigjppop /img/forum/go_quote.gif I would put a cable WAY down your list of priorities, especially if money is tight. If I were you, I'd enjoy the stock 337 for awhile before you even start rolling tubes. Get a feel for the sound of the amp and who knows, you might be plenty pleased with the way it is. I really enjoyed the stock sound and I put quite a few hours on them before I tried any other tubes. I've mentioned it before in the 337 tube rolling thread, but to my ears, tubes really don't make a HUGE difference in the sound of an amp. If you don't like it stock, I don't think any amount of tube rolling is going to change that. I think different tubes offer different variations on the theme of the amp, but the overall character of the amp is going to come through. Now, all that being said, there are some really great bargains to be had in the tube complement on the 337 (one of the reasons I bought it). Try the RCA "Red Hots", Pataburd has some for sale right now on the FS page for a good price. I really liked them and they're cheap. As for power tubes; check the 337 tube rolling thread for some suggestions on reputable dealers that sell them pretty cheap (again, Skylab's recs). Anyway, bottom line, enjoy it stock for a while; no need to rush into anything else until you've spent some nice time with what you've go already. Enjoy! |
Originally Posted by Mazuki /img/forum/go_quote.gif Also, don't forget there's the 6AS7GA. They're identical to 6AS7Gs except for the outside glass envelope. Last time I checked at Antique Electronic Supply, they were only $4 a piece. |
Originally Posted by alex1pdx /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, my DV 337 arrived today. When I got home from school there was a missed delivery card in my mail box. There was no way I was going to wait until 5pm to pick up the parcel from the post office, so I started driving around the neighborhood looking for the mail truck. I found it after about five minutes of driving in the rain (gotta love Oregon). Now, two hours later, it is nice an sunny outside and I am in audio heaven! Initially I warmed up the amp with the default tubes. Until today I've been listening to my HD 650s through the Zero's internal amp, so the change wasn't subtle at all. Glorious music! However, pretty soon I noticed something I didn't like. Yes, everything was much more clear and defined, but I was shocked to realize that on some passages the 650 was actually harsh. It kind of reminded me of my HFI-780s. I changed the tubes to the 6AS7Js and 6SJ7GTs. The difference was quite noticeable and the harshness disappeared. I am not good at describing the qualities of the sound I hear, all I can say is that I am totally amazed by the sound this amp produces. My wallet will hurt for quite a while, but I am really glad I made this purchase. I want to thank all those who posted impressions about this amp and tube options. I don't think I've ever been this excited about a purchase. |
Originally Posted by oofie810 /img/forum/go_quote.gif So is it worth the price of the DV337 over the internal amp of the Zero? |
Originally Posted by frank99 /img/forum/go_quote.gif originally I was looking for Doge 6210 or Wooaudio 6 to be my first tube amp, to match my AKG K701 which I just bought. I listen to the female vocal most of time, after doing research on this forum, it seems these amps should give me the warm/sweet sound I am looking for. However the microsoft cashback offer on ebay made me pull the trigger on dv337, a very good deal hard to resist. Too bad I couldn't find any doge/woo amps on ebay. I hope the dv337 won't make me disappointed. But it seems dv337 may not match the K701 very well as I only find a few people using these two on this forum. Any suggestion on what tubes I should try to make dv337 sweeter? Thanks! (btw., this is my 1st post on this forum after reading great posts on this forum for about a month. I am happy with my grado sr-80 without an amp for years, after reading this forum, I feel I want more... |