[teknorob23]

Ive been away from the thread for a few weeks, but have had some time today to enjoy a i've enjoyed a catch up only to discover my endgame EL39/11 combo have been relegated in my absence to a mere mid-fi combo

I have however been consoling myself with a new found guilty pleasure in the form of a pair of Beyer DT1770 Pros. My Stellias are still top dogs, but a late night journey back from a work trip, combined with a few too many glasses of wine, some highly selective review reading and a 50% amazon discount have led to the Beyers being plugged into my Euforia ever since.

Sounding just so-so straight out of the Hugo2,but,wow the Euforia with its "nearly man" tube combo these things kick, they go deeper than just about any headphone i've heard, but an astonishing amount of control and transparency, yes the mids are little bit back and they're sparkly at the top, but all without sounding stereotypically v-shaped. I've swapped the tubes around with even lesser combos and its the 39/11s that seem to be bringing the x factor not just with the bass definition but almost as important some thickening of the mids. I listen mainly to electronic music, which definitely plays in to the wheel house of the D1770's, but they also sound great with accoustic too. In fact, can i retract guilty pleasure, if you like to crtically examine the lower frequencies without compromising overall enjoyment then these headphones are just a straight up pleasure. One word of warning, wow these things attack, so if you want to drift off while listening you'll definitely need to look elsewhere.

I hope the Stellia's arent listening and now i'm off to the Mazda showroom to look at what i should be driving my euforia with... sorry i know they're powers but i couldnt let the pun go un aired

 

[Admiral Kolchak]

combined with a few too many glasses of wine

Always a very wise choice. In vino veritas.

 

[teknorob23]

Always a very wise choice. In vino veritas.

i'm not sure about that, i may have inadvertently turned myself into a bass-head, preparation perhaps for the ultimate betrayal of the stellia's, hopefully heading across the seas from New York very soon

 

[hypnos1]

Ive been away from the thread for a few weeks, but have had some time today to enjoy a i've enjoyed a catch up only to discover my endgame EL39/11 combo have been relegated in my absence to a mere mid-fi combo

I have however been consoling myself with a new found guilty pleasure in the form of a pair of Beyer DT1770 Pros. My Stellias are still top dogs, but a late night journey back from a work trip, combined with a few too many glasses of wine, some highly selective review reading and a 50% amazon discount have led to the Beyers being plugged into my Euforia ever since.

Sounding just so-so straight out of the Hugo2,but,wow the Euforia with its "nearly man" tube combo these things kick, they go deeper than just about any headphone i've heard, but an astonishing amount of control and transparency, yes the mids are little bit back and they're sparkly at the top, but all without sounding stereotypically v-shaped. I've swapped the tubes around with even lesser combos and its the 39/11s that seem to be bringing the x factor not just with the bass definition but almost as important some thickening of the mids. I listen mainly to electronic music, which definitely plays in to the wheel house of the D1770's, but they also sound great with accoustic too. In fact, can i retract guilty pleasure, if you like to crtically examine the lower frequencies without compromising overall enjoyment then these headphones are just a straight up pleasure. One word of warning, wow these things attack, so if you want to drift off while listening you'll definitely need to look elsewhere.

I hope the Stellia's arent listening and now i'm off to the Mazda showroom to look at what i should be driving my euforia with... sorry i know they're powers but i couldnt let the pun go un aired

Ah tr, that's what you get for staying away from us for so long lol! ...new tubes and treachery towards your Stellias!! But glad you're liking your new Beyers...(could it possibly be some ZMFs entering the ring also?!!

Anyway, re. the aforementioned Mazda/Dario EL38 of slightly different construction/appearance, 2x EL39s could never be termed 'mid-fi' mon ami!... Much more accurate would be that one of these upstarts partnering an EL39 as power is, as far as I'm concerned, super-fi lol . And if you like(love!) the Beyer's bass from the 39s, I'm sure the 'special' combo would have you downing more than a few glasses of something very nice...in both wonderment and joy!!

In fact, for a while now I've been wondering why there's a quality about the lower register that transcended all previous bass experience with headphones, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. Today it finally struck home, with my new Tannoy XT6F speakers blossoming after further burn-in...my Empyreans now deliver an almost speaker-like experience down low, albeit without body mass and bones shaking!! At first I was unsure if the extra bass from the Mazda might just be a tad too much, but after further burn-in (of both tube and brain!), I could never ever go back to anything less...total addiction lol!

However, the now superlative performance from these Tannoys (WAY, WAY above the half price cost I got them for) has unfortunately confirmed that good speakers can do many things that even $3000 headphones like the Empyreans can't match...one of them being the unique and unmistakable sound that comes from the gong when used in a good recording... viz in a section of one of the tracks in Alan Parson's 'Turn of a Friendly Card'. In fact, I had to come running back into the room to find out just what was coming out of the Tannoys!! But then, speaker driver units are somewhat larger than in anything that sits on one's ears, no?!!

Mind you, such a sound never came out of my modded Dynaudio standmounts either lol. And I'm convinced that Euforia + EL11s + 'special' EL 38/39 combo as pre-amp has a good bit to do with it......CHEERS!...CJ

ps. And so, tr, get hot foot down to the Mazda showroom in search of the EL38 tube in question...remembering the badge on the bonnet might just have 'Dario' on it!!

 

[OctavianH]

i'm not sure about that, i may have inadvertently turned myself into a bass-head, preparation perhaps for the ultimate betrayal of the stellia's, hopefully heading across the seas from New York very soon

You can find ZMF in Germany here, why bother to buy from US?

https://headphonecompany.com/produk...?filter_010-marke=zmf&query_type_010-marke=or

 

[teknorob23]

You can find ZMF in Germany here, why bother to buy from US?

https://headphonecompany.com/produk...?filter_010-marke=zmf&query_type_010-marke=or

Sorry i didnt make myself very clear I've ordered Verite Closed in the UK, but i'm waiting for them to be finished and shipped from the US

 

[OctavianH]

What made you decide to buy them? I have to admit I discuss with my wallet about a pair of Verite Open, but it is not very responsive. What to say, my wallet matches my grumpiness.

 

[chrisdrop]

Sorry i didnt make myself very clear I've ordered Verite Closed in the UK, but i'm waiting for them to be finished and shipped from the US

Me too
Can't wait

 

[Admiral Kolchak]

Sorry i didnt make myself very clear I've ordered Verite Closed in the UK, but i'm waiting for them to be finished and shipped from the US

Me too
Can't wait

Hahaha the lamentations of the ZMF Waiting Support Club have spilled over to the Euforia thread

 

[hypnos1]

YE GODS, guys...especially @ZRW0 , @Johnnysound and my chief fellow pioneer risk-taker @connieflyer ...this time I cannot take credit for what looks like (at the moment!) could well be a power tube that's by far the best value-for-money I personally have ever had the pleasure to experiment with. And that, from initial performance at least, may well be easily the equal of the silver-banded EL38 and close on the heels of the EL39/'special' Mazda/Dario EL38!

To be precise, my Tung Sol reissue (Russian) 7581As arrived today; popped one in Euforia (using my EL39 adapter with a simple wire link between socket pins #3 and #4), and with trembling hand remaining glued to the power switch, went for bust...

Well, the first surprise was deathly silence, and with no signal yet, even with the vol knob at max! The second came with signal volume gradually increased...beautiful sound already from a brand new tube not 50 to 60 years old lol!! And still not the slightest hint of any untoward noise/distortion...in fact, when pushing the tubes to ear-busting levels, the partnering EL39 would go into distortion, but the 7581A stayed totally in control, even at impossibly high volume level...WOW!...

Although still very early days - just a few hours in fact! - this tube is holding its own against the EL39, albeit with not quite the bass mastery of the special Mazda EL38. But hey, it can only develop more with time. It is delivering a very impressive balance right across the FR, and with a treble I've seldom heard this good, and without sibilance, right from the off. Stage is not yet quite as wide either, but this can definitely only get better.

And so if things develop as I'm sure they will, this 7581A is going to prove a no-brainer power tube for our amps...especially at just an average of $42 a pair (in the USA)...crazy (cheap) money!!!

Once again, I'm confounded by our F-A amps' ability to shine so brightly with tubes not configured for...quite amazing...

A couple of photos of this extremely well made and good-looking tube in situ :




ps. Unfortunately, as I and cf suspected, Euforia doesn't push this tube anywhere near hard enough to create the lovely blue glow triportsad:)...big sigh...but once again, as recompense, it has our amp running cool as a cucumber . And will also, of course, mean much longer life for both the amp and tube lol...consider me super impressed.

So a big THANKS and MERCI BIEN! to Erwan for suggesting I try this tube...you were spot on!

pps. I shall ask cf to check once more precisely how Mrsx's EL38 adapter is configured, to see if this time a simple wire link can also make it work for the 7581A. And if not, it may well be worth my asking Mrsx to make one specifically for this tube...if anyone is interested, that is! Naturally, however, I will need to trial this tube for a good while yet before I personally can recommend it as perfectly safe to use...but after over 5 hours' continuous use, everything is still performing 100%, and the amp still just lukewarm!!...CHEERS!...CJ

ppps. Anyone with my EL39 adapter will be able to use it for this new tube, using the wire link I mentioned earlier...and I shall show once again just where it goes on the adapter's socket...

 

[teknorob23]

What made you decide to buy them? I have to admit I discuss with my wallet about a pair of Verite Open, but it is not very responsive. What to say, my wallet matches my grumpiness.

Well i love the Stellia's and they definitely raised the bar by some margin on everything else i'd heard in the CB market. They're second only to the Utopia for detail retrieval with a much easier to live with tonal balance, amazing midrange, etc, etc, but they're not perfect as i find bass although extended and well defined, to be a little too linear for my taste and the stage is not the widest or deepest. I had a super brief listen to the VCs at canjam, and was instantly impressed by the stage and tonality, but i couldnt really form anything like a reliable impression. However a two friends who's ears i trust, with similar music tastes to me (60% electronic/ 20% indie alt rock & 20% anything else), both demo'd them at length and both ordered on the spot. So i've taken the gamble, with the risk mitigated slightly by the Canjam discount and ordered a pair off plan. It was either that or wait for a demo pair to wind their way to the UK in the New year and then if ordered probably have them delivered by late spring, so i've taken a bit of a punt based on putting them up against the stellias and selling the loser.

You're probably right to be questioning the sanity of such and endeavour, my wife definitely is and would even more if she new how much any of it cost, but whereas i'm pretty happy to keep DACs, Amps etc for a number of years, i tend to get itchy feet/ears with headphones after about 6-12 months, not because theres anything wrong in this case with Stellias, but i just love hearing my music presented with a different flavouring. I'm not expecting the VC's to improve in every aspect, because i'll be very surprised if they can match the stellia purely on technical terms, but a bit more width and depth and bass punch will be a nice change and of course i'm expecting them to hit it off with the Euforia

 

[connieflyer]

Well CJ oh, it's as we figured as far as the blue glow goes. But with everything else being said these could turn out to be a very good option for people especially at the price point. I must admit it's disappointing about the blue glow, if I would have been wrong and these glowed like crazy, I would have jumped all over them! But we'll see how it goes let you do the trailblazing on these, to be honest the special 38 and the 39 combination with the mesh 11s just are so satisfying. Using this as a preamp has really made a difference in my listening. Using the headphones quite a bit less than I had in the past. And these tubes continue to improve, usual sessions are between 2 and 3 hours and they have grown quite a bit since I first started using it as a preamp. Amplifier never ceases to amaze me

 

[LoryWiv]

YE GODS, guys...especially @ZRW0 , @Johnnysound and my chief fellow pioneer risk-taker @connieflyer ...this time I cannot take credit for what looks like (at the moment!) could well be a power tube that's by far the best value-for-money I personally have ever had the pleasure to experiment with. And that, from initial performance at least, may well be easily the equal of the silver-banded EL38 and close on the heels of the EL39/'special' Mazda/Dario EL38!

To be precise, my Tung Sol reissue (Russian) 7581As arrived today; popped one in Euforia (using my EL39 adapter with a simple wire link between socket pins #3 and #4), and with trembling hand remaining glued to the power switch, went for bust...

Well, the first surprise was deathly silence, and with no signal yet, even with the vol knob at max! The second came with signal volume gradually increased...beautiful sound already from a brand new tube not 50 to 60 years old lol!! And still not the slightest hint of any untoward noise/distortion...in fact, when pushing the tubes to ear-busting levels, the partnering EL39 would go into distortion, but the 7581A stayed totally in control, even at impossibly high volume level...WOW!...

Although still very early days - just a few hours in fact! - this tube is holding its own against the EL39, albeit with not quite the bass mastery of the special Mazda EL38. But hey, it can only develop more with time. It is delivering a very impressive balance right across the FR, and with a treble I've seldom heard this good, and without sibilance, right from the off. Stage is not yet quite as wide either, but this can definitely only get better.

And so if things develop as I'm sure they will, this 7581A is going to prove a no-brainer power tube for our amps...especially at just an average of $42 a pair (in the USA)...crazy (cheap) money!!!

Once again, I'm confounded by our F-A amps' ability to shine so brightly with tubes not configured for...quite amazing...

A couple of photos of this extremely well made and good-looking tube in situ :




ps. Unfortunately, as I and cf suspected, Euforia doesn't push this tube anywhere near hard enough to create the lovely blue glow triportsad:)...big sigh...but once again, as recompense, it has our amp running cool as a cucumber . And will also, of course, mean much longer life for both the amp and tube lol...consider me super impressed.

So a big THANKS and MERCI BIEN! to Erwan for suggesting I try this tube...you were spot on!

pps. I shall ask cf to check once more precisely how Mrsx's EL38 adapter is configured, to see if this time a simple wire link can also make it work for the 7581A. And if not, it may well be worth my asking Mrsx to make one specifically for this tube...if anyone is interested, that is! Naturally, however, I will need to trial this tube for a good while yet before I personally can recommend it as perfectly safe to use...but after over 5 hours' continuous use, everything is still performing 100%, and the amp still just lukewarm!!...CHEERS!...CJ

ppps. Anyone with my EL39 adapter will be able to use it for this new tube, using the wire link I mentioned earlier...and I shall show once again just where it goes on the adapter's socket...

Ah, the horizon keeps expanding wider. What drivers are you using at present with these @hypnos1? Also, if I'm reading the spec. sheet correctly it appears these only draw 0.9 ma heater current, so could they potentially be used as drivers as well or is their relatively low amplification factor (8) a reason to think they wouldn't perform well in that capacity?

In any case, looking forward to your more extended impressions and based on your initial enjoyment of them, perhaps a direct 7581A --> 6SN7 adapter would be useful if Deyan or xulingmrs are interested in building.

Thanks!

 

[DecentLevi]

And whaddya' know, this latest breakthrough in Euforia tubes is actually available in plentiful quantities, seems to be currently manufactured (don't quote me on this), and is even available on such places such as Amazon. And at least this time, I can wait as long as I want without having to jump ship towards a dwindling tube supply. So H1 let us know how two of these sounds.

But for me with the level of satisfaction I've gotten with EL39's in a special multi-setup on the Euforia, the possible 7581A route would be just for fun or even collecting for a future amp.

 

[teknorob23]

oh God, now i'm 2 set of tubes behind the Zeitgeist, i really need to stop being distracted by headphone and focus a bit more on the things that matter!

On a slight tangent, while i've been away on work i've been using a little Fostex HP-1V portable tube amp which, running with my H2, i've been surprised and impressed by. Stage width is particularly good, which brings me on to my question. For me the Euforia's stage is definitely not the widest, yes it can be deep and made deeper with silver/gold hp cables and EL39/11s, but i've yet to find a combination that adds width, so my question to the floor is: what is the best combination of tubes anyone has found, based purely on staging performance, most importantly width?