[TheAttorney]

I will do just that if the MBs don't work out.
 
But every time I've looked into it in the past I've got thoroughly confused, and the sellers haven't had what I was looking for.
So many variations of NOS and used, and seemingly no rhyme nor reason for the huge price variations. To get a quad plus spares of the famous ones requires a lot of patience, and I have no idea what to look for with the less famous ones. Old doesn't automatically mean it's great or reliable. 
 
My BHSE tube rolling is purely a means to an end - just that the end has been more complicated than intended. I know that getting a tube tester and researching old tubes etc can be fun in itself, but that's not the way for me.
 
Having said that, my first sentence still stands.

 

[Golfnutz]

  I will do just that if the MBs don't work out.
 
But every time I've looked into it in the past I've got thoroughly confused, and the sellers haven't had what I was looking for.
So many variations of NOS and used, and seemingly no rhyme nor reason for the huge price variations. To get a quad plus spares of the famous ones requires a lot of patience, and I have no idea what to look for with the less famous ones. Old doesn't automatically mean it's great or reliable. 
 
My BHSE tube rolling is purely a means to an end - just that the end has been more complicated than intended. I know that getting a tube tester and researching old tubes etc can be fun in itself, but that's not the way for me.
 
Having said that, my first sentence still stands.

Tried the RFT's, not much different than the stock tubes in my system...

 

[complin]

Depends where they were manufactured as they were produced in various soviet controlled countries.
Personally the only two RFT's I rate are those made in east Germany which were made in the Telefunken factory and from what is now the Czech republic.
The RFT's elsewhere are much like other Russian produced tubes 
 
Quote:

 
Tried the RFT's, not much different than the stock tubes in my system...

 

[zare]

  it is coming. inserting all the tubes this week

 
Hey Justin, did you start burn in?

 

[TheAttorney]

Update on my Mesa Boogies:
The rattle has considerably reduced at start up and is silent when fully warmed up. Phew!
After Herbie confirmed that the titanium C rings are near indestructable, I got out the pliers and and bent them to fit, resulting in a punchy engaging sound that, even at 20 hours, is at least good as the PHs, but different, with a more forward sound and a bass punch that I never knew my SR-007s were capable of. So, considering the price, a great result.

 

[Crashem]

I don't own a KGSSHV, maybe you're referring to purk's latest post? Currently I'm using a Cavalli Liquid Lightning (which has some mixed reviews, but I really think it happens to sound great).

Alluding to your comments about your DAC, the weakest part of my system now really is my source. The DAC and SACD player I'm using now are both very good, around the $1K range for each, but with an SR-009 and BHSE or Liquid Lightning, I realize they're the bottlenecks of my current system. I think my next major purchase will be a DAC in the same price-range as a BHSE. I'm familiar with your DAC's brand, Audio Note, as well as David1961's brand, Esoteric. I would love to have a DAC from either of those companies, but those are just a little out of my price range currently.

I'm using a lampizator with my kgsshv and sr009. I find the dac musical and amazing for dsd, really enjoying the tube rolling that is making quite a bit of difference on the sound. I typically think dacs' effect on the sound to be more subtle. But tube rolling the rectifier in the dac is making significant differences in the sound. Not familiar with their entire line, but I know they recently released cheap (relatively) dac as it is "mass produced." Contact their distributors in us (if you are here) as they can help with arranging an audition.

 

[Golfnutz]

  Update on my Mesa Boogies:
The rattle has considerably reduced at start up and is silent when fully warmed up. Phew!
After Herbie confirmed that the titanium C rings are near indestructable, I got out the pliers and and bent them to fit, resulting in a punchy engaging sound that, even at 20 hours, is at least good as the PHs, but different, with a more forward sound and a bass punch that I never knew my SR-007s were capable of. So, considering the price, a great result.

I still don’t think these tubes are for everyone, at least not yet. Anyone trying them should have an open mind, and realize that it’s a $100.00 experiment.
 
For example, this weekend my MB’s starting sounding overly bright (to the point where I didn’t want to listen to my system anymore). I turned off all my equipment, let it sit for about 10 minutes, turned everything back on and in about 15 minutes the sound I was used to came back. I dunno, maybe I didn't let them warm up properly. It shouldn't really matter, but I don't know what would cause something like this.
 
As Attorney mentioned, it’s the best bass I’ve heard on my SR-009’s as well. If I compared the MB to the PV at the point in time when they were both sounding their very best, the MB do sound better (at lease to me).

 

[Rico613]

So I'm wondering is this kind of multimeter  what I need to adjust the bias on BHSE?

 

[justin w.]

any of those will work

 

[TheAttorney]

Any of those will work, but if the only thing you're going to use a multimeter for is to measure BHSE bias (balance & offset), then much cheaper ones will suffice - there's dozens of them under £10 on amazon. The only thing you'll be measuring is DC voltage from around 50v down to zero, and just about every cheapo multimeter will do that to an accuracy acceptable for the job. 

 

[justin w.]

if something is wrong or you adjust all the way to the wrong direction for some reason, you do want something that is capable of 1000VDC

 

[TheAttorney]

The thought of seeing a near 1000v reading across a headphone socket is just a little bit scary, but point taken that a multimeter should allow for that hopefully rare situation of amp failure or clumsy trim adjustment. My cheapo multimeter happens to go to 1000v anyway, but there are a few that stop lower, usually 500v.
 
FWIW, I didn't need to change the balance/offset for any of the 4 different tube sets I've now tried. They all read 40-50v when cold, dropping to a small number of volts after a couple of hours (some look longer to fully settle). I adjusted them anyway because I'm like that - I find it strangely comforting to see a reading under 1v, even if it isn't necessary.

 

[Golfnutz]

Don't know about anyone else, but I've made the adjustments on the wrong channel a couple of times. Your adjusting the pot and the meter isn't moving and you tell yourself something is wrong, so you just keep turning. I've ended up over 100v a few times. Of course you realize what you did and make the necessary corrections.

 

[justin w.]

   
Hey Justin, did you start burn in?

 
have to clear out the GS-X mk2s over the next 2 days in order to get enough space to lay out the BHSEs w/ tubes (they are standing vertical right now). then the tubes will go in

 

[purk]

  Don't know about anyone else, but I've made the adjustments on the wrong channel a couple of times. Your adjusting the pot and the meter isn't moving and you tell yourself something is wrong, so you just keep turning. I've ended up over 100v a few times. Of course you realize what you did and make the necessary corrections.

Several times myself.  Always have to have the cheat cheat near by during the voltage adjustment.