[claud W]

I have four boxes of tubes. My Cary/Merlin system is tuned as best as NOS allows.I ordered a matched pair of NOS 1940ish RCA 2A3s off Ebay and a matched Cyroed pair of the Russian driver tubes. I read this post and began reading all the posts in this thread. So far the Sophia Carbon 300B 2.5 is leading the pack. I am going to read each and every post. Ordering next week. I always have a spare grand to plug holes. It is now designated. Merry Christmas, Claud, 2018.
PS I believe in break in of electronic items and especially speakers/headphones. I am sure that Donald would not sell an amp that does not sound VERY good with original tubes

Look, the Stratus sounds very good with the tubes Donald sends. I recommend you wait until you hear your Stratus for a while and then ease into new tubes, once you become familiar the sound. You will make better choices this way and probably save yourself some buyers remorse for hasty purchases.

 

[bigfatpaulie]

Your question was, "Outside the soundstage, what made you keep the HD800 over the Utopia?" my question is why would I grab the Focals over the HD800's? This was a question I couldn't answer.

It's hard to find a reason aside fancy materials, to me. With some care and attention to the HD800's the highs, mids and bass are all better or on par with the Focal's PLUS they offer the sound stage, are lighter and more comfortable. Yeah, they don't look as fancy and offer less bragging rights but I have to follow my ears. I guess one could argue that the Focals are more resolving but with the 800's hard wired I have a hard time accepting even that. I mean maybe, but one would really, REALLY have listen specially for that and even then... I think most recordings are going to be missing that kind of detail. Not to mention most peoples sources, amps, interconnects aren't up to the task or really resolving at that level. If that's you thing, great, but I'd rather have a more enjoyable listen than be able to hear one distant nano detail on one particular track if I listen to it 10 times while A/B'ing. I have a DAVE and Stellaris and even with that I don't feel one is more resolving. If someone has better gear, there may be a slight difference, but I don't know.

I just found the the Senn's more engaging. They were the headphone I wanted to reach for, not the Utopia's. I think the small drivers on the Focal's (I'm 100% guessing here) gives them that paper-like quality that mentioned in the mids/upper bass that I don't care for. I've had my HD800's for years now and they have been dethroned, temporarily, over the years - namely the Abyss and Utopia's - but in the end neither headphone is still with me but the 800's are going strong.

I should point out I am not talking about HD800S' - those I don't particularly care for and my HD800's have two crucial mods; hardwired and SDR's.

 

[DMck2000]

I think it is a bit of a matter of preference. I have/had both with mine. The Utopia's have a funny unnatural papery quality that irked me but many love them so, there you go. When I first got the Utopia's my socks were blown clean off, but after the honey moon was over my love for them faded. They definitely have a lot of wow factor when you first pick them up and put them on, especially versus the HD800's but long term they weren't for me. It took about a year for the shine to wear off for me.

Oddly enough when I tried the Utopia for the first 10-15 minutes or so last November I was really unimpressed. Not until I tried them on for longer did I realize these were the best pair of audio gear I’ve ever heard. The Utopia is a weird animal for sure!

 

[bigfatpaulie]

Give them 8 - 10 months. You may tire of them. Or not. But I did.

 

[Sorrodje]

I also did. It took a month and a half for me. I prefer the HD800 (SDR modded and now with a little EQ here or there ) I can perfectly get why some people could prefer the Focal though.

Never heard the Focal with my Stratus though. Can't comment on that point.

 

[adamaley]

So, after much pondering and soul searching, I have decided to sell my Stratus along with the full complement of tubes I have for it. I currently have the fortune of living in a house with ample space for a speaker system, and will be moving in that direction. I'll be listing it shortly. Thanks to everyone for the great advice and feedback to allow me to attain the best possible sound out of it.

 

[mysticstryk]

So, after much pondering and soul searching, I have decided to sell my Stratus along with the full complement of tubes I have for it. I currently have the fortune of living in a house with ample space for a speaker system, and will be moving in that direction. I'll be listing it shortly. Thanks to everyone for the great advice and feedback to allow me to attain the best possible sound out of it.

You've already got yourself a PM friend

 

[Frihed89]

I may have to eat my own words. Has anyone tried the ELROG 274B rectifier. I have their 300B tubes for a speaker amp., and enjoy them very much.

 

[auricgoldfinger]

Have you ever listened to an NOS WE274b?

 

[Frihed89]

Have you ever listened to an NOS WE274b?

Nope. I am using u52 at the moment. I haven't found any reviews of the ELROG, so I don't know how it sounds compared to the WE rectifier, but have read a review on Head-fi about the WE.

 

[Frihed89]

Does anyone know exactly what was upgraded in the new versions of the Stratus? I swapped out some stuff from my early model Stratus for newest Audio Note Electrolytic caps and silver, non-magnetic resistors. It lowered the noise floor and has better inner detail/resolution and the music sounds more present.

 

[George L]

I may have to eat my own words. Has anyone tried the ELROG 274B rectifier.

I may have to eat my own words. Has anyone tried the ELROG 274B rectifier. I have their 300B tubes for a speaker amp., and enjoy them very much.

I have their 300B tubes for a speaker amp., and enjoy them very much.

I have just taken delivery of the Elrog 274a's and 274B's. For more information contact George Lenz at TubesUSA.

 

[Frihed89]

I am in Denmark, shouldn't I contact Vinyl Savor in DE?

 

[Donald North]

Does anyone know exactly what was upgraded in the new versions of the Stratus? I swapped out some stuff from my early model Stratus for newest Audio Note Electrolytic caps and silver, non-magnetic resistors. It lowered the noise floor and has better inner detail/resolution and the music sounds more present.

The latest version includes the Audio Note Kaisei caps for cathode bypass duties, revised grounding of the audio path, revised DC heater supply for the 6N1P, among other changes.

 

[RubyTiger]

There's not much being said about the EML Mesh 5U4G. It's an excellent rectifier.