[Icarium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrisles /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the review Icarium and others. It is disappointing that the PX-4/300B amp was not there. I have been relying on this shoot out to ultimately assist me in my decision with the combination. I was wanting to hear how the PX-4/300B stacked up because this is the direction i think i am likely to take given that one has a choice of more valve "styles" & "flavours" etc with this combination. My only concern though with this decision is the PX-4 .. meaning i have not heard or read any reviews on this valve. Of course the 300B "sound" is well documented as is the 307A sound with the TTVJ amp etc but not alot on the PX-4. If i had DEEP pockets i'd get a few amps with different valve types. Just one question i have though to those present. Was the differences immediately apparent? Could you tell the differences in the flavour of the sound as soon as you put on the headphones? Or were the differences more subtle? And it sounds like that it wasn't a blind A/B comparison?

It was not blind A/B but there was no need.. the differences were NOT subtle. The amps were tubed/matched/optioned the same except for output tubes and cables. People not familiar with the amp commented very much about how different the two amps sound and how much difference the output tubes made. I felt the same as did Craig and others familiar with the amps. This isn't really a last 5 percent kind of thing.. the sound signatures and presentation were completely different. It was like two different amps that were both topmost tier.

Honestly I would like to own both after this ;p But yeah deep pockets.

 

[trevorlane]

I hope to listen to a BA with 307As to compare amps. I'd like to hear how far apart their signatures are.

 

[Icarium]

TTVJ 307A to my ears is less musical and more neutral. I prefer the BA by far. I'd say the difference to me is a top tier amped k1k compared to a hp1000.

 

[trevorlane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icarium /img/forum/go_quote.gif TTVJ 307A to my ears is less musical and more neutral. I prefer the BA by far. I'd say the difference to me is a top tier amped k1k compared to a hp1000.

Would you say the BA has more attack on the note? I'm not sure if that was the correct term, the only term that I can better think of is presence on guitar amps. From my perspective coming from the DV 337 to the 307A I noticed better organization and placement of instruments when looking at the overall landscape of the music. When it came to attack, each note had more impact with a faster decay.

 

[Icarium]

The BA with AD1s definitely does it's faster more punchy and demands attention. The 307A BA is somewhere in between that and the TTVJ 307A but much closer to the 307A. I think as far as attack goes it's about the same.. there's just something that's hard to explain with regards to musicality. I dunno if its a slight edge on "attack/speed" or better dynamic range reproduction or what (And frankly I'd have to do another side by side to really say... last time I did this the BA 307A was still in a late stage proto so its improved since as well with power supply/pss transformers etc) but with the BA I'd tap my toes to the music and with the 307A I'd be an impartial observer to the music with absolutely nothing clouding my ability to examine all aspects of the music rather than being moved by it. As a person who likes things like details and speed and clarity.. that's not a bad thing, but frankly I already have that in some of my solid state ;p

Best is to have something that is that musical/moving and something that lets you appreciate the technical aspects.

Oh yeah, I'd like to also mention the thing that absolutely struck me the most when going from the TTVJ to the BA (Both with 307A) was the organization and placement of instruments. I think the TTVJ places things a bit further back and BA places them a bit more forward for one, but also I think there was better representation of Z-axis information. Frankly I haven't heard anything that renders 3d spacial information like the BA in any output tube variant... that also might have something to do with the musicality. The imaging to me is so accurate that it is organic and organicity lends itself to musicality for me... musicality through accuracy is what I personally strive for in my gear

 

[davidxtb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icarium /img/forum/go_quote.gif The BA with AD1s definitely does it's faster more punchy and demands attention. The 307A BA is somewhere in between that and the TTVJ 307A but much closer to the 307A. I think as far as attack goes it's about the same.. there's just something that's hard to explain with regards to musicality. I dunno if its a slight edge on "attack/speed" or better dynamic range reproduction or what (And frankly I'd have to do another side by side to really say... last time I did this the BA 307A was still in a late stage proto so its improved since as well with power supply/pss transformers etc) but with the BA I'd tap my toes to the music and with the 307A I'd be an impartial observer to the music with absolutely nothing clouding my ability to examine all aspects of the music rather than being moved by it. As a person who likes things like details and speed and clarity.. that's not a bad thing, but frankly I already have that in some of my solid state ;p Best is to have something that is that musical/moving and something that lets you appreciate the technical aspects. Oh yeah, I'd like to also mention the thing that absolutely struck me the most when going from the TTVJ to the BA (Both with 307A) was the organization and placement of instruments. I think the TTVJ places things a bit further back and BA places them a bit more forward for one, but also I think there was better representation of Z-axis information. Frankly I haven't heard anything that renders 3d spacial information like the BA in any output tube variant... that also might have something to do with the musicality. The imaging to me is so accurate that it is organic and organicity lends itself to musicality for me... musicality through accuracy is what I personally strive for in my gear

HOW IS THE SOUND OF BA DRIVING K1000？

 

[trevorlane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidxtb /img/forum/go_quote.gif HOW IS THE SOUND OF BA DRIVING K1000？

I'd lay off the caps, or the caffeine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icarium /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oh yeah, I'd like to also mention the thing that absolutely struck me the most when going from the TTVJ to the BA (Both with 307A) was the organization and placement of instruments. I think the TTVJ places things a bit further back and BA places them a bit more forward for one, but also I think there was better representation of Z-axis information. Frankly I haven't heard anything that renders 3d spacial information like the BA in any output tube variant... that also might have something to do with the musicality. The imaging to me is so accurate that it is organic and organicity lends itself to musicality for me... musicality through accuracy is what I personally strive for in my gear

This was definitely what interests me moving into the realm of "better" amps. I decided to listen to some opera on the K1K and check out its representation. What I noticed was: Freq. Resp. strongly influences note attack, and for me, there may have been perceived muddiness jumbling voices + instruments on the lower end of the midrange. Again this was my opinion on the R10 (mine's bass-heavy,) however this was less prominent on the CD3K. I suppose this is why people are moving to stats, and why I've heard some say the K1K could be somewhat comparable to electrostat headphones. I have personally had limited time with electrostat speakers, I did listen to one crazy setup by the person I bought the R10 from (Tom) and upon listening to the recordings he's working on, immediately thought of sound in 3 dimensions. I came to the conclusion that the K1K simply floors me in ways that reminded me when I was sitting listening to that electrostat system (btw, he was using Sonoma Editor station w/ Meitner CDSE/DAC8 hooked into 5 SoundLab speakers with gigantic parasound amps.) Came close, but maybe a SR-007 will bring me closer

I'm not saying the R10 is severely flawed, because where the K1K lacks (guessing below 100Hz) the R10 manages to bring to the table in sound imaging. After all these years I decided to start frequenting meets to get a better grasp on this hobby and I'd like to cross paths with a BA and B52 to really get an idea of what's out there.

 

[dfoe]

Could anyone be kind enough to post some pictures of the inside of the BA?

 

[Jarmel]

It's a pain to take apart and a pain to put back together again. You should have asked when I had to take it apart a few months ago. Anyway I don't have mine on me at the moment, had to send it in for repairs, so I can't.

 

[vcoheda]

^^ what kind of repairs?

 

[Jarmel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vcoheda /img/forum/go_quote.gif ^^ what kind of repairs?

Well I've had two issues with it, nothing major really. The first problem was a serious pain. Two of the joints connecting the power to the right tube(facing the amp) was disconnected so I had to solder, first soldering time too, the two joints back.

The second being that the power going to the tubes would fade out randomly. It turns out that the power umbilical cord was slightly messed up, one of the pins was slightly disconnected. So he gave me a new one and the amp is in the mail back to me.

The amp is a pain to take apart mainly because there are wires everyplace in the amp and if you aren't careful then you could very easily disconnect something. The power supply there isn't any such problem.

 

[Icarium]

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidxtb /img/forum/go_quote.gif HOW IS THE SOUND OF BA DRIVING K1000？

It's good, but not the best I've heard. Probably a little underpowered to really do the trick. The best I've heard is foo_me's Zanden 300B amp followed closely by Voltron's Moth 300B Paradigm amp.

 

[KingStyles]

Do the px4 have more output power to help drive k1k? I thought I read that it might somewhere.

 

[vcoheda]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jarmel /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well I've had two issues with it, nothing major really. The first problem was a serious pain. Two of the joints connecting the power to the right tube(facing the amp) was disconnected so I had to solder, first soldering time too, the two joints back. The second being that the power going to the tubes would fade out randomly. It turns out that the power umbilical cord was slightly messed up, one of the pins was slightly disconnected. So he gave me a new one and the amp is in the mail back to me. The amp is a pain to take apart mainly because there are wires everyplace in the amp and if you aren't careful then you could very easily disconnect something. The power supply there isn't any such problem.

that's too bad and surprising. from what i heard, craig is very thorough about checking the amps before they go out. hopefully, it wasn't too much of a hassle and you will have the amp back soon.

 

[Jarmel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vcoheda /img/forum/go_quote.gif that's too bad and surprising. from what i heard, craig is very thorough about checking the amps before they go out. hopefully, it wasn't too much of a hassle and you will have the amp back soon.

It's not that big of a deal except shipping. God the shipping costs.