Ali-Pacha
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2013
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SR-1 out of my BHSE are a treat. Wait, have I already told you ?
Ali
Ali
Can I ask, are you leaving the Stax camp? I saw you were very into the Hifi-Man HE2.If you want euphonic, magical, lush etc then you have to go vintage. Sorry, that's how it is.
A while back, I posted a league table of all the tubes I've tried. You can find it with the search function probably as quickly as I.
But we are talking incremental differences here. If you heard the bottom of the table (stock tubes) against top of the table (vintage metal base) at a headfi meet, of maybe even at home in a quick A/B session. it's unlikely you'll spot the difference, or even if you did, you may not think the differences are worth the price. Under those sorts of conditions, a BHSE with any tube sounds like a BHSE. The differences come to you (or me at least) when you get used to the sound of a particular tube over a period of time, then swapping the tube makes an incremental, but for me very worthwhile difference - because the lower performing tubes have a sort of upper-mid/treble haze (as well as loss of clarity and detail) that I can no longer put up with once a better tube has pointed that out. YMMV.
The Mesa Boogie has a very clear, clean and punchy sound compared to stock. I much prefer it and would simply not go back to stock, but the MB is not particularly lush, although it does lose much of that upper-mid haze of the lower placed tubes. As I've mentioned before, the MBs are graded for "strength". White is strongest, but I've never come across this grade. Blue is next (and what I have), so ensure your supplier has one of these colours. There are two other grades which are less strong. These tubes are aimed at the electric guitar market and the less strong tubes will distort earlier - which may be exactly the kind of sound that a rock god guitarist wants, so there is no good and bad grade in the guitar world. But in hifi, the strongest (which I understand to mean the highest plate current) is best.
Edit: Yes, that link is the model I'm talking about
Hi planning on getting Stax 009 and BHSE. Can I live happily ever after with this combo? What differences are there with HE 1000V2 with a top amp and Focal Utopia? Sorry if this is a newbish question, I don't have time to research this forum and look for answers and I tried searching those three to get a comparison but I did not find any. I just want the best listening experience possible and be done with it. Is this combo the one?
I would ask TheAttorney about that subject. He has both and knows the BHSE - 009 combo as well as anyone I can think of.
Since doing my TOTL comparisons, there are two new dynamics models that should get my attention, but I'm in no rush to try:
The Abyss Phi, which some reports say is a big improvement over the original, which automatcally puts it into top dynamics contender category, But this just gives me an opportunity to repeat one of my favourite quips: I refuse to put anything on my head that looks like a medeival instrument of torture. I mean c'mon JPS Labs, why should I consider something which is that heavy, that ugly and that fiddly to adjust? I may be a dedicated audiophool, but I'm not a masochist.
And the Hifiman Susvara, which at least looks more attractive then my HEK's. But I mean c'mon Fang, you surely are having a laugh with that cynical pricing? I may be a dedicated audiophool, but I don't like being taken for a fool.
In the end, we can forever go round in circles as to what is best, which I know is part of the fun, but I've recently made my "diffcult decision" and that's what I'll be sticking with forever..... or for as long as i can hold out