[samhuff]

Quote:

Originally posted by PinkFloyd I can answer your question with a quote from an e-mail I received today from Sean Redshaw (designer of the highly acclaimed rennaissance series of Valve amps here in the UK) http://www.highendaudio.co.uk I quote Seans e-mail: "Dear Mike, It sounds like we have helped to spur you on to great things. <Snip>

Well, if you are making tube equipment you already know you cannot beat solid state on specs.
So all of us owe a debt to the people who make and buy tube gear. (Keeps the pressure on solid state.)

But the spec thing and mass production makes possible the whole music in the home for everyone. Without it you have home music if you can play it or hire musicians. A dilemma for sure.

A $20 capacitor adds $60 to the price, zo . . .
It has been observed that companies who get too far away from this markup do not survive. A few mods as suggested later in this thread could bring the price up to the $1000 level, which is a completely different league.


The solution may be to make the product as easy to modify as possible.

Anyway the mod 3 is out.

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally posted by samhuff Well, if you are making tube equipment you already know you cannot beat solid state on specs. So all of us owe a debt to the people who make and buy tube gear. (Keeps the pressure on solid state.) But the spec thing and mass production makes possible the whole music in the home for everyone. Without it you have home music if you can play it or hire musicians. A dilemma for sure. A $20 capacitor adds $60 to the price, zo . . . It has been observed that companies who get too far away from this markup do not survive. A few mods as suggested later in this thread could bring the price up to the $1000 level, which is a completely different league. The solution may be to make the product as easy to modify as possible. Anyway the mod 3 is out.

Hi Samhuff,

This is an old thread and I'm not entirely sure I understand what you are saying. what is Mod 3 ?

Pinkie.

 

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Quote:

Originally posted by PinkFloyd what is Mod 3 ? Pinkie.

X-can v3...

Biggie.

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally posted by NotoriousBIG_PJ X-can v3... Biggie.

Oh right............ no big deal then?

I auditoned 3 (yes 3) V3 X-cans and they were all faulty............ MF blamed it on their production facility in China..... hmmmm

I just can't get into MF the way they are now sorry.......... the X-can V1 was an awesome amp made in the UK.... the V2 was contracted out but was also a good amp but suffered from high failure rates due to the low temp. caps in a high temp.enclosure

The V3 is the same amp.......... they have added £100 onto the price.........

V1 and V2 were ok but I can't recommend V4

:

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally posted by PinkFloyd Oh right............ no big deal then? I auditoned 3 (yes 3) V3 X-cans and they were all faulty............ MF blamed it on their production facility in China..... hmmmm I just can't get into MF the way they are now sorry.......... the X-can V1 was an awesome amp made in the UK.... the V2 was contracted out but was also a good amp but suffered from high failure rates due to the low temp. caps in a high temp.enclosure The V3 is the same amp.......... they have added £100 onto the price.........

 

[samhuff]

Quote:

Originally posted by PinkFloyd Oh right............ no big deal then? I auditoned 3 (yes 3) V3 X-cans and they were all faulty............ MF blamed it on their production facility in China..... hmmmm I just can't get into MF the way they are now sorry.......... the X-can V1 was an awesome amp made in the UK.... the V2 was contracted out but was also a good amp but suffered from high failure rates due to the low temp. caps in a high temp.enclosure The V3 is the same amp.......... they have added £100 onto the price......... V1 and V2 were ok but I can't recommend V4 :

Thanks.


And just when I was going to order one. I suppose that is one purpose of this site. And no if you cannot escape blame on your production facility, you put your name on it, it's your rep on the line.

And as a consumer why I should care?

 

[PinkFloyd]

Don't let my comments put you off buying a superb amp... if you get a good one the X-Can V3 is a Very good amp indeed. I'm just not entirely convinced that Musical Fidelity are doing much in the way of quality control. The major culprit is the valves (tubes) and they appear to be fitted without being tested.

The MF engineer told me to "send it down to us and we will match a pair of valves up and it will sound great" ummm...... I would have assumed the way to go would be to match the valves up "before" sending the amp out but apparantly not.

You can easily swap the stock valves for a matched pair of Mullards or Sovteks for between £20 - £30 but I feel the amp should arrive with fully checked / matched valves and not with valves they have slotted in from a huge batch.

Maybe I'm just being overly fussy here?

Pinkie.

 

[samhuff]

Quote:

Originally posted by PinkFloyd Don't let my comments put you off buying a superb amp... if you get a good one the X-Can V3 is a Very good amp indeed. I'm just not entirely convinced that Musical Fidelity are doing much in the way of quality control. The major culprit is the valves (tubes) and they appear to be fitted without being tested. The MF engineer told me to "send it down to us and we will match a pair of valves up and it will sound great" ummm...... I would have assumed the way to go would be to match the valves up "before" sending the amp out but apparantly not. You can easily swap the stock valves for a matched pair of Mullards or Sovteks for between £20 - £30 but I feel the amp should arrive with fully checked / matched valves and not with valves they have slotted in from a huge batch. Maybe I'm just being overly fussy here? Pinkie.

Maybe matched tubes are not in the original design? I am surprised that they use push pull, I woulda thunk that single ended for a head amp is the way to go. And it neatly avoids the problem of matching.

If the tubes are not matched what would I hear?

Being a nubie I don't think I could point out flaws, and not really having a reference as to what it should sound like.

Perhaps someone could suggest a good dealer in the US preferably in the NYC area, who would do set up and verification. If you don't know what you are buying know who you are dealing with is always a sound strategy.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by PinkFloyd I would have assumed the way to go would be to match the valves up "before" sending the amp out but apparantly not.

When I tested the tubes that came with my X-Can v2 sometime ago, one of them had bad grid emissions and wound up in my junk pile. The tubes appeared to be simply thrown in the amp with no testing at all.

That said, the X-Can can be tweaked to sound very good indeed. I wish I had tried the cap upgrades before selling mine. It might be time to try another. I've already got an X-PSU about with my X-LP2...come to think of it, I wonder what upgrades could be performed on the phono amp...

 

[samhuff]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hirsch When I tested the tubes that came with my X-Can v2 sometime ago, one of them had bad grid emissions and wound up in my junk pile. The tubes appeared to be simply thrown in the amp with no testing at all. That said, the X-Can can be tweaked to sound very good indeed. I wish I had tried the cap upgrades before selling mine. It might be time to try another. I've already got an X-PSU about with my X-LP2...come to think of it, I wonder what upgrades could be performed on the phono amp...

You are saying the x-cans should be considered a kit?

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by samhuff You are saying the x-cans should be considered a kit?

To some degree almost any commercial product can be considered a kit. Take a look at the modifications being done on Melos amps, for example, or the strong CD player aftermarket modification business. Build something, and there's almost always a way to make it better...