[Cante Ista]

I should be getting mine in a week or 2! 

 

 

[Audioclyde]

Cante,

You are in for a treat!

 

[Cante Ista]

I know! just in time of Xmas! only thing is I am gonna drive to New England from DC to vista my and wife's family for the holidays. Maybe I will bring the Stratus along

!!! You enjoy Audioclyde! 

 

[fejnomit]

Good way to tune out the in-laws if need be, Cante!

 

[Cante Ista]

  Good way to tune out the in-laws if need be, Cante!

Good call! 

 

 

[Frihed89]

  I've spent considerable holiday time listening to my headphone setup with the Stratus installed.  Of course there may be some of the 'new toy' effect working here, but I'm now enjoying listening to my headphones just as much or more than my speaker setup; in the past, I much preferred my speaker setup.
 
I also got the Placette remove volume control installed.  Going direct from the DAC to the Placette then to the Stratus cured the slight noise issue I had when trying to use my preamp's remote volume control; however, I felt like the sound lost some weight or body.  My Calyspo pre allows you to set any input to 'unity gain' or bypass mode; so I did this and now have the DAC feeding the 'bypass mode' input on the pre, then from the preamp's outputs to the Placette, with the Placette feeding the Stratus.  Maybe I just like lots of tubes, but I like the sound much better this way, and I have absolutely no noise (and this is with the Stratus' volume control turned all the way up, so that it is basically out of the signal path), and still have remote control of volume.  Happy camper here

!!
 
The Stratus is a real gem, IMHO!!
 
Randy

What are you hearing that you like more than running the Stratus straight from your Dac?  My guess is more distortion, which adds "colorations".  If you want color, the Eddie Current Super 6 may have been a better choice, since it can be tuned/toned with the use of different 6SN7GT tubes.  The Stratus is a very "honest" amp for an SET and, while changing the power and input tubes can add some color, it doesn't seem to have that big an effect on the amp's neutrality.  Good luck with your set-up.  

 

[Audioclyde]

@Frihed89:
 
I considered the EC amps; I am quite happy I went with the Stratus.  I like the sound fine with the DAC feeding the Stratus directly; unfortunately I have to have remote volume control.  The Placette does the job quite nicely; however, I much prefer the sound with the setup described above vs. going directly from the DAC to the Placette and on to the Stratus.
 
In my system, I've been able to discern the different characteristics/sounds imparted by different output tubes and rectifiers in the Stratus quite easily; I haven't noted nearly as big a difference rolling the input tube (although I haven't experimented much there yet).
 
I've had a fairly large group of very well thought of amps & preamps in my setup over the years; many that got great results on the test bench, but didn't sound like music to me.  I long ago concluded that I'm not interested if a component is dead neutral--what matters is whether I like the sound, and whether it sounds like real, natural music to me.   I would suggest if you are concerned about distortions or colorations, maybe you shouldn't be listening to a SET at all; yes the Stratus is quite honest, but it does sound like a SET amp to me--as it should, and as I was looking for.
 
My concern with posts such as your is that someone may not read this entire thread, or worse yet, part of the post gets quoted elsewhere on the internet (with no real context, etc.), and lead a reader to the conclusion that the Stratus doesn't deliver the magnificent SET sound that it does.  IMHO, when we post without any real knowledge of another person's experience, listening bias, setup, etc., we can too easily provide the basis for quite erroneous conclusions, even if we don't intend to do so.
 
Thanks and enjoy!
 
Randy

 

[Frihed89]

Point well taken, Randy.

 

[third_eye]

Warm glow from the Stratus!
 
 

 

[Greed]

  Warm glow from the Stratus!
 
 
 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 

 
Awesome pic! So jelly...

 

[santacore]

Inspired by third_eye
 

 

[magiccabbage]

  Warm glow from the Stratus!
 
 

Best tube glow of the Stratus so far. Lovely.

 

[Cante Ista]

very nice indeed! cannot wait till ETA on Friday!

 

[third_eye]

  very nice indeed! cannot wait till ETA on Friday!

 
Fun weekend ahead, congrats!!

 

[mink70]

This may not be the right forum, but has anyone had a chance to compare the Stratus with the Woo WA5? Both DHT SE amps. I had a chance to listen to both at the last NY meet, and both sounded great, but it was difficult to suss out differences with different sources, music, crowd noise, etc.