[omegaman]

Cheers for sharing those great pics.

 

[mchang]

Must have been a typo. jasmine_chine's counter offer was the standard price reported by others in this thread. Oh well... worth a shot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mchang /img/forum/go_quote.gif FYI... Seems like the price dropped on the DV 332. jasmine_chine has one of the Ebay listings at $359 (down from $395). Maybe it is a typo, maybe the other listings haven't been changed yet. Either way, I made an offer of $350 shipped. We'll see what happens.

 

[Zodduska]

Hi all, I just joined the 332 club as I am now waiting for the amp to arrive from Jasmine.. I would like to echo all the other positive comments about this seller in this thread as she has been responsive to my emails and shipped the amp very swiftly after receiving payment.

I am really excited about hearing the 332 with my HD650! After reading the entire thread it seems there are a handful of tubes out there that vastly improve the 332's sound and I'm interested in buying some but have had a little trouble finding them.

If any fellow 332 owners would be gracious enough to help me out by selling any extra tubes they would be willing to part with I would greatly appreciate it! please PM me

I am most interested in the following:
2x Tung Sol 6AK5 (sniped, still looking)
2x WE403B (found and bought)
2x Mullard M8100 (found and bought)
2x ULYANOVSK 6S19P-B (found and bought)
2x Svetlana 6S19P-EV or 6S19P-B (found and bought x8, will have extras up for sale shortly)

edit: thanks to a great head-fi member I have found several of the tubes I was seeking, still looking for a few others to roll so keep the PMs coming

 

[mchang]

I just purchased a Darkvoice 332 from a Head-Fier. It should be here tomorrow!

Getting a few free tubes thrown in, to go with tubes already ordered. So I'll get to do my first tube rolling.

Odd and funny story: Package came from Canada with WE403b's last week. Yesterday, I got an odd box from the Ukraine (Svets). Wife asks, "What's that?" I take a deep breath and start to explain that it was vacuum tubes and it was for a tube amp that I didn't have, and that it was another "you won't understand" purchase.

Surprisingly, she launches into explaining to me that all of the sound engineers she's worked with (she's a voice talent and used to sing in a band) swore by tube amps and pre-amps, and that it provided a warm, lush sound, etc. etc.

My jaw dropped!

Five years, and she still surprises me.

 

[Godkin]

Sorry, don't have any tubes to sell at the moment, but here's a matched pair of CV4010s on E-Bay (the CV4010 is the British military version of the M8100):

M8100/CV4010/6AK5W MULLARD NOS MATCHED PAIR on eBay, also Valves Electronic Tubes, Audio, Vintage Electronics, Consumer Electronics (end time 05-May-08 09:49:34 BST)

 

[dhammavijaya]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gradofan2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you could figure out what's causing the problem - you could likely repair it yourself. It may be nothing more than a loose wire (grnd wire, perhaps) in one of the tube sockets (since they're so fragile and some are so loose that you might have broken a wire connection inserting a tube. Might be worth opening the bottom of the amp and looking at all the solder points of the wires and see if any are loose - that's the first thing I'd do... if the other experiments above didn't resolve / isolate the issue as external to the amp.

Thanks very much for this advice, but before I proceed, I was just wondering if other owners get any degree of humming with the 332 when not faulty. Should gaps between tracks be absolutely silent? Or should one expect a faint hum that sounds like that of the transformer when you put your ear against it?

 

[Gradofan2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dhammavijaya /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks very much for this advice, but before I proceed, I was just wondering if other owners get any degree of humming with the 332 when not faulty. Should gaps between tracks be absolutely silent? Or should one expect a faint hum that sounds like that of the transformer when you put your ear against it?

No hum... or... noise at normal listening volumes.

 

[Godkin]

There should be no hum at all. My 332 has always been "inky black" quiet. Are you still using the stock tubes? If so, that could be the source of the problem.

 

[dhammavijaya]

No. I've got good tubes in. I think I'll open it up and have a look.

 

[mchang]

I just got back from a business trip at 1:00 AM CST. Waiting on the doorstep was my Darkvoice 332. I unpacked, put on a pair of rubber gloves, carefully inserted my NOB Svetlana 6S19P-B and WE403b tubes (first time handling a vacuum tube!), plugged everything in, and snuck a few tracks.

Very quick impression: the DV332 brings serious punch! I like!

Quick notes on hum, I've noticed the following (remember, amp is secondhand, tubes NOB, stock power cable):

- loud noticeable HUM for the first hour. Can hear when volume is at zero and throughout the dial. Can here in quiet passage of tracks and when nothing is playing from source. I swapped power cables with stock GLite cable. Tiny/no improvement. Used cheater plug I got with the amp deal. No improvement.

- went to bed after 1 hour. Left tunes playing over night. Woke up six hours later. No hum heard during quiet passages or when no track is playing. Assuming this was tube burn-in at work.

- With volume at zero, a slight BUZZ can be heard. Cheater plug added results in no change. When volume knob is turned up just slightly, the buzz goes away.

- When nothing is playing and I pass 12:00 on volume (way too loud), I get a faint SSSSS. It gets slightly louder as I turn volume to max, but still quite faint.

So for the purposes of safe and everyday listening, I would call my setup (tubes, amps and stock cable) "silent." I'll definitely try the GLite cable again and see if it makes a difference. And try different DACs to see if jitter (?) is playing a role.

In the meantime, no time for buzz/hum listening. Here comes the music!

 

[dhammavijaya]

OK. After opening up and finding nothing obvious, I tried changes to various combination of mains plugs, sockets and trailers and found a combination with which the hum has ceased. Perhaps there was some kind of loop with my power amps. Anyway, great to listen now with the inky blackness Godkin mentions. Thanks guys.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Hey guys, I've stayed up all of last night reading this huge thread.

Am I to understand that headphones of low impedance (i.e. Grado) are too sensitive for the Darkvoice 332?

Some say it sounds great, others (aka GradoFan2) say they get "rough," and that description is dissuading me.

Thanks in advance!

 

[jellojoe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMarchingMule /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hey guys, I've stayed up all of last night reading this huge thread. Am I to understand that headphones of low impedance (i.e. Grado) are too sensitive for the Darkvoice 332? Some say it sounds great, others (aka GradoFan2) say they get "rough," and that description is dissuading me. Thanks in advance!

I'm with Gradofan on this one. Maybe there's a tube combination that's better. I haven't spent that long to find it though.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Hey jellojoe, thanks for the input. My gut feeling tells me that this amp isn't for me ; now I have to PM the 332 seller in the FS Amp thread and apologize for backing out.

 

[Gradofan2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jellojoe /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm with Gradofan on this one. Maybe there's a tube combination that's better. I haven't spent that long to find it though.

What I mean by "rough" is that their highs and upper mids aren't as smooth as the Senns, or even the AD2000s. The RS-1s don't sound terrible... they just sound a bit less smooth ("rough"), and harder than these other phones.

I don't know whether tube rolling would help, because I haven't had the patience to try that with the RS-1s, exclusively - I've been too impressed with the sound of my selected tubes with the Senns and AD2000s.