[Misterrogers]

I modded mine last night too. Yep, noise floor is definitely improved. Combined with the tube change, the Torpedo is back in my rotation This is a special little amp, thanks for continuing to nurture it Tom/Doug.

 

[tomb]

  I modded mine last night too. Yep, noise floor is definitely improved. Combined with the tube change, the Torpedo is back in my rotation This is a special little amp, thanks for continuing to nurture it Tom/Doug.

 
Glad to hear it and thanks!

 

[Punnisher]

Does anyone else have experience with the newly discovered E90CC/5920?

I'd like to know the differences between brands, especially the ones carried by Beezar. I'd prefer the most accuracy across the range. I wouldn't mind a second pair with somewhat lean bass response to help match some of my warmer vintage headphones.

Tomb, feel free to chime in again on this. I'd like a couple opinions before I pull the trigger on a pair or two.

 

[tomb]

Does anyone else have experience with the newly discovered E90CC/5920?

I'd like to know the differences between brands, especially the ones carried by Beezar. I'd prefer the most accuracy across the range. I wouldn't mind a second pair with somewhat lean bass response to help match some of my warmer vintage headphones.

Tomb, feel free to chime in again on this. I'd like a couple opinions before I pull the trigger on a pair or two.

The Telefunkens I have seem to be a bit lean in bass, whereas the Philips and Amperex seem to have a bit of bass bloom.  I had a few Mullards (no longer) and they were perhaps in-between.  That's the best I can do because at the moment, I'm without a Torpedo.  I sold my own and am in middle of building four more (3 for sale and 1 for me to keep).  I thought I'd have another ready by now with no problem, but it's taking a while with orders and other things in-between.

 

 

[cubeasic]

  Here are some pictures related to the Torpedo. They might be interesting to some.
 
 
Just before upgrading to Clarity Caps.

 

Hallo,
nice pictures.
 
So, how did you like the upgrade to clarity caps ESA?

 

[Punnisher]

 
The Telefunkens I have seem to be a bit lean in bass, whereas the Philips and Amperex seem to have a bit of bass bloom.  I had a few Mullards (no longer) and they were perhaps in-between.  That's the best I can do because at the moment, I'm without a Torpedo.  I sold my own and am in middle of building four more (3 for sale and 1 for me to keep).  I thought I'd have another ready by now with no problem, but it's taking a while with orders and other things in-between.

 

 
 
Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll grab some Mullards if they are ever back in stock. For now I'll go with the Telefunken.
 

  Hallo,
nice pictures.
 
So, how did you like the upgrade to clarity caps ESA?

 
To be honest it's a very subtle change, and I can't be too sure about the improvements. I'd say a slightly more open sound with a better frequency response. As soon as I turned on the amp with the Clarity Caps I noticed a big difference, though it was very congested and flat sounding. As the caps were used over the next hour or two the sound opened up a lot to where it is now. They definitely do need time to burn in. Not hundreds of hours but at least a few.

 

[dpump]

Did you replace the Solen caps with the Claritys? Or did you have a different cap originally? I have never been a fan of the Solens myself. When I replaced the Solens in my Magnepan 1.6 QR with Audio Caps, there was a big improvement. However, I remember tomb saying he replaced the Solens in his Torpedo and didn't think there was much if any improvement. I think he used the Clarity SAs, which are a step down from the ESAs.

 

[Punnisher]

Yes the original caps I used were Solen. I do believe there is an improvement and would definitely recommended the upgrade. It's just hard to quantify because of the inability to a/b them.

 

[tomb]

Just MHO, and Dsavitsk would need to weigh in on this - but Parafeed caps are not really output coupling caps.  They're more like inter-stage coupling caps, but there's a transformer on the output and it's connected in a special way in a parafeed design.  All of that means the Parafeed caps are not in the same place in the circuit that one would expect in order to detect different effects in sound quality.
 
IOW, I'm not so sure that differences in film caps really have that much effect in the Torpedo. 

 

[dsavitsk]

They are coupling caps, but there is an argument that their inductance interacts with the inductance of the OPT in a way that is different from what would normally happen with a coupling cap. But, if caps make a difference, then his would seem to be a place that they would. I used V-Caps in the L-2 after liking them better than a bunch of others I tried (Mundorfs, etc.) and I definitely thought I could hear a difference.

 

[tomb]

They are coupling caps, but there is an argument that their inductance interacts with the inductance of the OPT in a way that is different from what would normally happen with a coupling cap. But, if caps make a difference, then his would seem to be a place that they would. I used V-Caps in the L-2 after liking them better than a bunch of others I tried (Mundorfs, etc.) and I definitely thought I could hear a difference.

Maybe the Clarity SA's I used in the past were not any better than the Solens?  The Solens seem to work great for me, but I haven't tried anything as pricy as Mundorfs or V-Caps.
 
Thanks for weighing in!

 

[Punnisher]

I'm eagerly awaiting my Telefunken E90CC/5920. They should arrive tomorrow. I'll post impressions once I get some listening time in.

 

[Gijs]

First of all the very best wishes for the New Year!
 
I received my Philips tubes today and have only used them for about two hours now. My Torpedo has the snubber-caps upgrade, as well as the Hammond choke, and use it for my AKG k702's. Compared to the other tubes I've used sofar (6J6, 6J6W and 5964), I agree with TomB's observations that the Philips tubes provide more bass than the other tubes. Bass is far richer, yet remians detailed and fluent. It never gets "boomy" (if that's a word ). Just what my k702's needed! Also, there's even more detail in the mids than before. I would recommend going for any of these newly discovered tubes! 

 

[tomb]

  First of all the very best wishes for the New Year!
 
I received my Philips tubes today and have only used them for about two hours now. My Torpedo has the snubber-caps upgrade, as well as the Hammond choke, and use it for my AKG k702's. Compared to the other tubes I've used sofar (6J6, 6J6W and 5964), I agree with TomB's observations that the Philips tubes provide more bass than the other tubes. Bass is far richer, yet remians detailed and fluent. It never gets "boomy" (if that's a word ). Just what my k702's needed! Also, there's even more detail in the mids than before. I would recommend going for any of these newly discovered tubes! 

Wonderful review - thank you!  Yes - just a reminder, but "newly discovered tubes" = 5920/E90CC's.

 
 
I got some Q701's over Black Friday and I agree with you - I'm almost not missing listening to my Grados.

 

[Punnisher]

I have received my pair of Telefunken 5920/E90CC. Before I get to my initial impressions I'd like to clarify a few things.
 
1. I have been listening to my Torpedo with 6J6 since day one. I had a pair of every type of torpedo tube that beezar carried but never felt the urge to remove the 6J6 and try another pair. I liked them that much. They jived incredibly well with my k702 and sr325i, as well as any other analytic/bright headphone. They offered some additional low-end punch, a rich textured midrange and just a hint of natural treble softness that made the k702 very enjoyable and easy to listen to. The Torpedo/6J6 combo is what made me treasure my k702 instead of selling it.
 
2. I felt that the 6J6 didn't jive quite as well with neutral or warm headphones. This includes my dt880, k240 Sextett, k240 Monitor and k601 which coincidentally are all higher impedance (120ohm-600ohm). These, when paired together, were too warm and lush for my ears. I felt that some detail was being washed out which made the headphones "slow". That is, a loss of texture and some confusion in loud, layered passages of music. I guess you could say there wasn't a tight control of the diaphragm movement.
 
3. I chose the Telefunken 5920/E90CC after I heard TomB claim the Telefunkens were a bit leaner in the low-end department. I thought this might help compensate for the neutral/warm headphones when being driven by the Torpedo.
 
 
I swapped out my original 6J6 with the 5920/E90CC and ran some loud music through my k702 for two hours. After listening to a couple of my reference albums I can tell there's a massive difference between these two types of tubes. The first thing I noticed was the overall presentation, in terms of frequency response, was similar to that of a solid-state system with the k702. It was still better than your average solid-state pairing though. There isn't the midrange peak that I couldn't stand with the k702 with solid-state, nor the sharp treble grittiness that made the k702 fatiguing. It was just flat, ultra detailed, smooth but slightly dry. It didn't have quite the bass punch of the 6J6 but in all other respects performed better. It's actually a really good pairing if you're not a basshead. If TomB is right about the other brands of 5920/E90CC having neutral or slightly elevated low-end, they should be a perfect pairing with the k702 and other analytical headphones.
 
I used the k702 as a baseline to determine the main differences between the tubes, but I didn't buy the Telefunkens for the k702. I started to branch out to my other headphones to see how they fared. I am happy to say my gut feeling was correct, and in fact I underestimated how well the Telefunken 5920/E90CC would work with my other headphones.
 
I started with the dt880. These fall into the neutral category and were too bassy and lush paired with the 6J6. The Telefunken 5920/E90CC seemed to control the bass a bit better, helped treble extension and dried out the midrange in a good way. It brought the sound spectrum back to a more reference level. I also noticed transients, texture and complex passages were more coherent and controlled.
 
I finished my night of listening with the k240 Monitor and k240 Sextett MP, both 600ohm. It has become apparent to me that these are extremely hard to drive properly. I don't mean volume, but rather getting any sort of fidelity is difficult due to most amplifiers being underpowered and not voiced for such headphones. Normally, both of these headphones sound underwhelming with a steep treble rolloff and too much midbass. The Telefunken 5920/E90CC definitely improved both of these areas and really surprised me with the result. The bass is extremely controlled where usually it's a loose cannon. It dips low, conveys bass texture well and doesn't have a hump at the midbass. The midrange is about the same, but with slightly more detail evident in vocals, hard vowels, and acoustic instruments. The treble is much improved with better extension, air and spacial details. This is the best and most neutral my k240 Sextett has sounded and I'm quite pleased.