[connieflyer]

What I found was using one amp for a day or so and then doing the same for the other amp, the differences were not large. But developed a preference for one sound over the other. This was done over a period of three to four weeks, before I came to the conclusion, that I preferred one over the other. Agree over cycling tubes, it takes time to let the parameters of the tube to come into their own. And then short time using each is very limited. When I had the Elise, I must have really liked the VT 52 and VT 96 as I bought a half dozen of each!.

 

[myphone]

CF, thank you for sharing your experience of standard Euforia and AE. Have been wondering about whether to upgrade to AE. I have been using standard Euforia since 2017, using 6080/6AS7/ 6SN7/12SN7. All my phones are high impedance (HD800, T1, Audio-Technica). Standard Euforia is still sonically competitive to my near-field desk-top setup (Harbeth P3ESR 40th Anniversary or Audience 1+1with Schiit Aegir mono-blocks).

 

[Henrim]

Tubes arrived... but the amp is still currently being built! Probably going to be months before I recieve it. So excited!!

 

[connieflyer]

Hi Henrim, Just a word of advice, if you don't mind. I would not stock up on tubes just yet. Use the tubes that come with the amp for a month or two, let everything burn in, and the main thing is, get to know what it sounds like to you. See if you can tell where it might be improved for you. Until you know what you have you won't know it you might like it quite well. Stock the amp sounds great. Why not give it a chance to see what you like or dislike before you start rolling tubes in. Just my opinion.

 

[Deleeh]

Hello,
I agree.
Above all, it is new and has a 3-year warranty.
If something happens, Feliks is accommodating in that respect.
Mine is on its way back from the repair and there is nothing to complain about.
The fault has been found and repaired.
The 3rd week has started since today and I should have it back in my hands soon.

It can look different if you equip it with the wrong tubes at the beginning.
And Feliks didn't fall on its head either, of course they want to know why there was a failure.
And they may have found ways to recognise this and thus be able to reject the warranty claim.
You should keep this in mind.

Even if it is your device, you decide on it yourself, but then you also have to put up with side blows.

As I said, there are other tubes that are very good with the 6SN7 socket and 6AS7G.
The mod originally comes from experienced tube hares who know what they are doing.
And Feliks knows about it and still doesn't recommend it regardless of whether the amplifier can take it.

 

[Henrim]

Hi Henrim, Just a word of advice, if you don't mind. I would not stock up on tubes just yet. Use the tubes that come with the amp for a month or two, let everything burn in, and the main thing is, get to know what it sounds like to you. See if you can tell where it might be improved for you. Until you know what you have you won't know it you might like it quite well. Stock the amp sounds great. Why not give it a chance to see what you like or dislike before you start rolling tubes in. Just my opinion.

Thanks CF, it's a fair call, thanks for that. I am planning on buring it in with stock tubes first, especially cos it runs close to the 7A limit with the KT88s.

And yeah knowing the stock sound. I demo'd it at home for a week a few months ago - I'm sure my understanding of it's sound will develop but so far I found the bass a bit uncontrolled, and since then I've upgraded to the Yggy GS which also has a relaxed bass, which won't help. So I'm thinking the bass will be way out of control but time will tell!

No idea if the KT88's are going to help that, but to tell you the truth I just couldn't resist!

Switching to a Chord Qutest (or something lean) might be on the cards too, but I'm loving the yggy through the 789 currently.

 

[Henrim]

Hello,
I agree.
Above all, it is new and has a 3-year warranty.
If something happens, Feliks is accommodating in that respect.
Mine is on its way back from the repair and there is nothing to complain about.
The fault has been found and repaired.
The 3rd week has started since today and I should have it back in my hands soon.

It can look different if you equip it with the wrong tubes at the beginning.
And Feliks didn't fall on its head either, of course they want to know why there was a failure.
And they may have found ways to recognise this and thus be able to reject the warranty claim.
You should keep this in mind.

Even if it is your device, you decide on it yourself, but then you also have to put up with side blows.

As I said, there are other tubes that are very good with the 6SN7 socket and 6AS7G.
The mod originally comes from experienced tube hares who know what they are doing.
And Feliks knows about it and still doesn't recommend it regardless of whether the amplifier can take it.

yeah.... I kind of regret buying them now. TBH with you I'm so new to tubes I didn't even know it was an unusual thing to do and FA didn't approve.

 

[JTbbb]

Hello,
I agree.
Above all, it is new and has a 3-year warranty.
If something happens, Feliks is accommodating in that respect.
Mine is on its way back from the repair and there is nothing to complain about.
The fault has been found and repaired.
The 3rd week has started since today and I should have it back in my hands soon.

Can you share with us what the fault was? Was it the same problem I had?

 

[mordy]

yeah.... I kind of regret buying them now. TBH with you I'm so new to tubes I didn't even know it was an unusual thing to do and FA didn't approve.

Based on reading it is not unusual at all to stock up on different tubes before the amp arrives. Nothing wrong with that!

 

[Deleeh]

In principle, you are right.
But if it has to go straight into the hardcore variant and you also lack a bit of experience, it's a hard start.
Especially if it's your first tube amp and it's not exactly cheap.

Of course you can go the hardcore route with a little more caution and of course time and patience.

That reminds me, I followed your tip with the adapter and had one made.
The only thing missing are the socketsavers, which are also on their way.

 

[Henrim]

What’s the benefit of that? Looks like a very short cable extension to my untrained eye.

 

[Arcayne]

Thanks CF, it's a fair call, thanks for that. I am planning on buring it in with stock tubes first, especially cos it runs close to the 7A limit with the KT88s.

And yeah knowing the stock sound. I demo'd it at home for a week a few months ago - I'm sure my understanding of it's sound will develop but so far I found the bass a bit uncontrolled, and since then I've upgraded to the Yggy GS which also has a relaxed bass, which won't help. So I'm thinking the bass will be way out of control but time will tell!

No idea if the KT88's are going to help that, but to tell you the truth I just couldn't resist!

Switching to a Chord Qutest (or something lean) might be on the cards too, but I'm loving the yggy through the 789 currently.

In my experience, bass performance seems to be greatly dependent on the DAC you pair with the Euforia, as well as the tubes. I've used a few AKM-based DACs with the Euforia, and I found that my Bifrost 2 showed a significant improvement in bass control over those AKM DACs. So I would expect that the Yggy would also pair nicely with the Euforia. With KT88s, what happens in the bass seems to really depend on the headphones. So I don't know how it'll work out with the Utopia, but you'll be able to evaluate that yourself.

Either way, there is plenty of room for improvement, should you find yourself not quite satisfied with what you're getting. Just experiment with what you have available, and do share your findings here as you go!

 

[mordy]

What’s the benefit of that? Looks like a very short cable extension to my untrained eye.

The idea is to save wear and tear on the headphone jack, especially if you change headphones often, a little extender will save the headphone jack in the amp from wearing out or breaking.
The same idea with socket savers, which, as the name implies, save the sockets from wear and tear. An additional large benefit from socket savers is that they act as insulators, causing the amp to run cooler, especially with 6080/6AS7 type tubes that generate a lot of heat.

 

[Henrim]

The idea is to save wear and tear on the headphone jack, especially if you change headphones often, a little extender will save the headphone jack in the amp from wearing out or breaking.
The same idea with socket savers, which, as the name implies, save the sockets from wear and tear. An additional large benefit from socket savers is that they act as insulators, causing the amp to run cooler, especially with 6080/6AS7 type tubes that generate a lot of heat.

Ahh that makes sense. But how does socket savers cause the amp to run cooler? Does it electrically insulate something that isn't well insulated in Euforia's own sockets?

 

[mordy]

Ahh that makes sense. But how does socket savers cause the amp to run cooler? Does it electrically insulate something that isn't well insulated in Euforia's own sockets?

As far as I understand it, it has nothing to do with electrical insulation but with heat transfer. Imagine that you take off a pot of very hot water from the stove. If you touch the metal with your fingers you could burn yourself. So you put on a pair of heat resistant kitchen mittens that insulate your fingers from the heat. By having another layer between your fingers and the pot less heat reaches your fingers.
By using socket savers less heat reaches the chassis of the amp and it runs cooler.