[Oskari]

Dreaming about Hawaii.....

That Hawaii is only about ten times the price of an Elise. :eek:

Don't think so.

 

[doofalb]

  I've always wonder what everyone's first song is on Elise. Mine would have been one of Dire Straits numbers. This one sounds particularly good to me. I have it on LP.  

 
 

My choice was based on my most recent playlist as it allowed for an easier comparison. So that was a Japanese remastered album from Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Blood Sugar). I am looking forward to listening to Phil Collins' In the Air tonight you posted

 

[UntilThen]

It's Dire Straits day again today beginning with their 1st album. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - yes they are spicy. 
 
You have to listen to 'In The Air Tonight'. It will electrify you.
 

 

[UntilThen]

That Hawaii is only about ten times the price of an Elise.

Don't think so.

Please @mordy I'm trying to unlisten Blue Hawaii. This combo at the meet has corrupted my hearing with that Pink Panther song. It's too detailed.
 

 

 

[mordy]

Hi UT,
 
Is this what you meant?
 
"The thing you have to realise about these amps is that they are not designed to blow your head off. At this level of audio goodness, what you’re getting is access to parts of the music you simply didn’t realise were there. When musicians record a song, there is so much that they lay down that never makes it through to the listener’s ears under most circumstances. A combination of audio compression, dodgy sources like smartphones, and low quality headphones mean that a lot of the detail is removed. That simply isn’t the case here. Sure, you’re paying your $6800 four exquisitely crafted design and superb build, but really, that money is for the purchase of a key that unlocks your music.
 

Unlock Code

As long as you’re listening from a good source, like a decent turntable, a high resolution stream, or a CD, then you’re going to get everything. Absolutely everything. You are going to hear every single nuance of every single note, every breath the singer makes. The tiniest shifting from foot to foot by the guitar player will be recorded. You can take a song you’ve heard a million times, a song you swear you know back to front, and you’ll discover new parts of it. The sounds will be richer, more full, the textures more prevalent. Comparing something like the Blue Hawaii SE to smartphone audio is like comparing a burger from McDonald’s and a burger from Heston Blumenthal. They’re still technically the same product, but we know which one we’re shelling out for.
This is an amp that you’ll be spending quiet hours with. It’s an amp that will make you want to put away your phone, unplug your WiFi, find a comfortable space to sit, get a really, really good bottle of bourbon, maybe even a cigar…and just listen. If you dig into the badly-written hell that is the audiophile internet, you can extract treatise after treatise about how the dynamic character of the sound isn’t quite as neutral as that one amp the writer listened to at THE in ’82, and how it would be dramatically improved by swapping out the tubes for a Manley XL57B amp with a carbo-loaded turbo-driver, or whatever, but really: this amp is incredible. You would have to be the most pernickety, pedantic, detail-obsessed, moustachioed Gradgrind  to not admit that."
   
  Funny, I thought I was reading about the Elise.....

 

[UntilThen]

Pink Panther jump out of the headphone and had it's paws on my throat strangling me. It was that real. I have to wrestle with that big cat and the next person waiting in line to listen.
 
However you know what's real? Elise is real now and sounds really good with T1 on Dire Straits. 

 

[Oskari]

"The thing you have to realise about these amps is that they are not designed to blow your head off.

That's a relief. :rolleyes:

 

[UntilThen]

That's a relief.

 
 

 
"The thing you have to realise about these amps is that they are not designed to blow your head off. 

Which is why they are not so suitable for Metallica or Red Hot Chilli Peppers. For that you need Elise with 5998 and you'll be dancing on the table tops and bringing the house down.

 

[mordy]

i want to thank everybody for their good sense of humor and all the good laughs I had today! THANKS!

 

[pctazhp]

That's a relief.

This will probably do serious damage to your reputation, but I really appreciate your sense of humor.

 
And thanks to @UntilThen,  we now know never to risk our lives by getting close to a Blue Hawaii and a Pink Panther.

 
Sure has been another highly informative day hanging out with the horses here at the HeadFi Coral. Whoever said that social media is a vast wasteland???

 

[UntilThen]

@doofalb  in case you miss 'In the air tonight' here it is again. 
 

 

[DavidA]

Hi everyone, just got home from golf with the GF.
 
@doofalb, where are you located in Hawaii?  I'm in town, right next to the convention center and sorry for ruining our reputation

, but I do love my wine and will get up in the afternoon quite often these days.
 
Tube are no where near as hot as lava, the picture in my avatar was taken from +100ft away and you can still feel the heat.  We tried to use a shovel to pick up some lava to pour it in a mold but the lava is so hot the wood handle of the shovel started to burn.
 
I tried my SR-009 with a Blue Hawaii and yes it a magical sound but I actually like the SRM-007mk2 that I have better:  1) it was free, 2) way less desk space, and 3) has a little better synergy to me with the genres of music that I listen to, a touch warmer sounding.
 
Breakfast was left overs, grilled mahimahi with a champagne dill sauce and Caesar salad, not a typical Hawaii breakfast.  My typical breakfast is a loco moko which my GF really likes, one of the few local foods that she likes but only if I make it.
 
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and didn't spend too much on Black Friday.
 
D

 

[doofalb]

  @doofalb  in case you miss 'In the air tonight' here it is again. 
 
 

Lol 
 
Did you notice that the gorilla was as cool a cat as Phil Collins in the other video...all dressed in black

 

[DecentLevi]

So today I got the Mazda ECC804 (ECC88 / 6DJ8 miniature tube equivalent). As much as I wanted it to be good, it fell short. A semi-lengthy listen with all of my top power tubes, I've found this tube manages to somehow have good dynamics yet somewhat loose / disconnected bass and a mid-treble dip causing much sibilance. @HOWIE13 thanks for your advice on this, but do know miniature tubes in Elise can perform much better. 
 
OTOH, my RCA 12AV7 mini driver tubes basically 'decimate' these (mentioned here yesterday). These are much more true to life, detailed, crisp and basically make you feel happy LOL. Also I may have to correct myself, the pairing with these RCA 12AV7's is not only superb with quad EL3N's, but is also even better in some ways with the GEC 6AS7G (more coherent and 'plush' but slightly smaller stage), slotted Bendix 6080 (tight, crisp), and Tung Sol 5998 (more airy / spacious). Though even this is still a bit shy of perfection, as comparison to larger 6SN7's as drivers shows this has a somewhat small soundstage / congested in comparison - the tradeoff though being more tightly articulated / fast / crisp / sweet / detailed however... of which it seems that just maybe a somewhat small soundstage is something that all miniature tubes may have in common. 
 
While I would wholeheartedly recommend the RCA 12AV7 driver tubes to any Elise owner, my search still resumes with the anticipated arrival of two more pairs of miniature driver tubes later this week, which were top ranked from this expert miniature tube resource thread.

 

[DecentLevi]

With you guys in mind, I just checked but it looks like the RCA 12AV7 are quite scarce. Luckily I discovered there are also RCA 12AX7 and RCA 12AU7, which many are available cheaply now! All three have identical construction, and I am confident these two will have identical sound as the RCA 12AV7: with the 12A_7 tubes, the only difference between variants U - Z is the gain factor, and many brands made several gain variants of the same tube class. These do need XuLing's adapter though