[PATB]

And I thought spending extra dough for Black Gates in my puny KGSS was extravagant.

If I had all those fantastic gear, I wouldn't have any time to listen to music as it would take me forever to decide which killer combo to listen to

Congrats!

 

[tom hankins]

AYT999, congrats on the amp! Well the team has now grown to three!!! I guy in Ca. has also ordered one that is going to be upgraded even beyond our amps.

I passed on the digital display. I hate displays and leds of all kinds.
I cant wait to hear your impressions of the amp with the balanced Qualia! The nobs on the side are to switch between the two different balanced inputs, or the individual SDS amps on there own on my amp. Is that what they are for on yours?
In answer to anyone wondering about the big cases...The power supply is packed about as tight as you can get in mine. I would think with the extra PS for the display yours is even tighter. My favorite tube combo so far is a pr. of Sylvania 6sn7W short bottle in front of a quad of Sylvania VT-231 tubes. MAGIC!!!
About time to get the R10 recabled...

 

[tom hankins]

BTW... I guess we know what to get the headphone fan that has everything. SDS-XLR

Have fun with the new amp.

 

[philodox]

Nice amp... might be time to start getting rid of some of your other gear to make space on the rack. And maybe a pair or two of headphones?

 

[Sleestack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins AYT999, congrats on the amp! Well the team has now grown to three!!! I guy in Ca. has also ordered one that is going to be upgraded even beyond our amps.

He. he. I wonder if you are talking about me. After listening to my maxed MPX3 for the last 4 days, I sent Mikhail an e-mail asking him if $15K would buy me the best amp he could build. He told me it wouldn't even take that, which was great news. A maxed out SDS-XLR is definitely in my near future, however, I want to give my wife some time to get accustomed to my new interest in head-fi. Furthermore, I am very likely buying a $250K record collection within the next month which should be a pleasant surprise (euphemism alert) to my wife.

 

[tom hankins]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sleestack He. he. I wonder if you are talking about me. After listening to my maxed MPX3 for the last 4 days, I sent Mikhail an e-mail asking him if $15K would buy me the best amp he could build. He told me it wouldn't even take that, which was great news. A maxed out SDS-XLR is definitely in my near future, however, I want to give my wife some time to get accustomed to my new interest in head-fi. Furthermore, I am very likely buying a $250K record collection within the next month which should be a pleasant surprise (euphemism alert) to my wife.

Well, if your not Scott..then the team has grown to four.

 

[HugoFreire]

Congratulations, Alex!

(Yeah, they have finally activated my account!)
That's a really nice amp!
I can't wait to read your impressions!

Regards,
Hugo

 

[Sleestack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins Well, if your not Scott..then the team has grown to four.

Nope. I'm Richard. I won't be ordering my SDS for another 6 months. I just got into head-fi one month ago so I want to pace myself... actually my wife wants me to pace myself. She thinks my interest in HT/Music equipment and cars should take a temporary backseat to home renovations. I don't know where she gets her logic.

 

[PsychoZX]

Thats some awsome stuff you have their ayt999. I don't know wheter to bow down in awe of your greatness or just hate you.

 

[Sleestack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PsychoZX I don't know wheter to bow down in awe of your greatness or just hate you.

You can do both. They are not mutually exclusive.

 

[philodox]

The thing that blows me away is that he is in school and 4 years younger than me.

Rich parents? Summer Jobs? Spending student loan money on gear?

 

[Glod]

Somehow, I can't help thinking of the expression: The best imaginary amplifier is just a wire with gain.

In this SDS XLR there are quite a lot of connectors, potentiometers, selectors and wires between cabinets. All normally considered to degrade a source signal. But, perhaps, here the whole concept and the choice of components have such an overwhelmingly positive influence on the amplification of the original source signal, that that factor is negligible(?)

Does this reasoning make sence?

[size=xx-small]Don't take it wrongly; I am seriously impressed by this piece.

I'm just looking for a healthy debate

[/size]

 

[ayt999]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canman Its definitely time to recable the R10 with a balanced cable.

I'm waiting for Edwood to recable his R10 and let me borrow them.

they seem run down enough to need a recable.

or maybe Wmcmanus and his R10 with the slightly chewed up cable. Quote:

Originally Posted by Canman Can you tell us more about the digital volume control that you had installed?

it is a 100-position (goes from -99dB to 0dB AFAIK) 2-channel volume control. when you use it with a balanced headphone, it basically makes it into a dual mono / unbalanced setup. driving balanced headphones in true balanced mode with the stepped attenuators brings out more dynamics (a lot more airy), soundstage (width and more sound front/back), clarity, and speed. I'll have to do a proper listen so I can explain the differences in detail. Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins AYT999, congrats on the amp!

thanks!! I've been waiting so long, and reading your impressions didn't help. I refrained from posting in your thread since that would have been too much for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins Well the team has now grown to three!!! I guy in Ca. has also ordered one that is going to be upgraded even beyond our amps.

I heard that there are more than three.

(well, maybe some are still not confirmed orders, but there are a few crazy audiophiles that are ordering these things.

) I'm in CA... are you talking about me?

j/k... mine is pretty much maxed out and there isn't much you can do to make it better than mine. about the only thing you can improve on mine and make it better is to change the Jensen Copper coupling capacitors with the Audio Note Silver coupling capacitors. I was tempted to go with the silver ones, but the copper ones seemed to have a sound that was more to my liking. maybe I'll change them later on. I hear that's about the only thing that's an "upgrade" over mine. Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins I passed on the digital display. I hate displays and leds of all kinds.

it was a pretty interesting option so I went for it. I actually wanted it more to use as a digital selector to select inputs and the different solen stages... but that was scrapped after Mikhail found the digital relays to have crosstalk between the channels thus wasn't good, especially for an amplifier such as this. so the display only has the digital volume thing now... which is a bit redundant since my source has digital volume control too.

at least it fills up the void on the front panel of the SDS-XLR pretty well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins I cant wait to hear your impressions of the amp with the balanced Qualia!

it sounds wonderful!! go get one now!!

it really sounds better than with the BlockHead or Balanced Reference IMO, especially with the setting for the 010 which tames the highs a bit. I'll have to compare the 010 in the balanced configurations and also with the unbalanced configurations, but I think it really performs its best when driven balanced. right now I'm using my silver-plated copper balanced Qualia 010 cable. I cannot wait to hear what it sounds like with more burn-in. Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins The nobs on the side are to switch between the two different balanced inputs, or the individual SDS amps on there own on my amp. Is that what they are for on yours?

mine's configured differently than your amp, with a balanced input, a balanced loop out, and a balanced preamp out... and a pair of each for the RCA connections. neither of the knobs switch between inputs. since the RCA inputs are wired in parallel with the balanced input, I need to manually plug the connection that I want to use, which isn't much of a problem since I only have one source and would only be using it either as two single-ended amps or as one balanced amp. the top knob switches between the stepped attenuators and the digital volume control, while the bottom switches between different solen capacitor configurations. Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins In answer to anyone wondering about the big cases...The power supply is packed about as tight as you can get in mine. I would think with the extra PS for the display yours is even tighter.

that's pretty much it. rather than your six 3900uF res. caps I have one 9200uF and four 3900uF res caps but I guess they take up similar amounts of space. there's also the relatively large blackgate power capacitors that are in there too. the PS for the display doesn't take up too much space I think, although it is split up into I believe a transformer in the PSU and a regulator in the amp section right before going to the display board. Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins My favorite tube combo so far is a pr. of Sylvania 6sn7W short bottle in front of a quad of Sylvania VT-231 tubes. MAGIC!!!

sure is.

that's currently the best sounding configuration with the balanced 010, and I can see why Mikhail recommended the combination. I tried a pair of tung sol round plates in front of a quad of Neotron round plates (I actually liked this combo the best when I had it in the MPX3 and used the stock Qualia cable... but at the time I didn't have a 6SN7W tube to compare to) and some other combinations such as the 6SN7W's followed by a quad of tung sol round plates, but none so far has sounded quite like the 6SN7W/VT-231 with the Qualia 010. I should try it out with the balanced HD650's too. right now my HD650's that are burned-in are out on loan to toor and I only have my relatively brand new HD650's, so once I get my other pair back I assume the sound will be even better. Quote:

Originally Posted by tom hankins About time to get the R10 recabled...

I really wish the R10's came with detachable cables.

 

[tom hankins]

I had no need for the balanced loop out so I had another set of balanced inputs added in there place. This way I have the SCD-1 run balanced for SACD and the Audio Aero also run balanced for redbook. I also have the balanced preamp outputs. I hope to get another turntable and run it single ended into the amp and just listen through either the L or R amp.
If I add any upgrades down the road I would like to try the Audio Note caps. Scott in CA. is getting them in combo with different blackgates on his.
How much did you have to pay for your balanced cable for your Qualias?
BTW, the old reliable KenRad VT-231's in front of the Syl. VT-231 sound very good with the HD650 too.

 

[ayt999]

I have two other balanced amplifiers... so even the balanced loop out isn't enough and I have a splitter there.

the balanced cables... I made them myself.

I have a balanced solid silver Qualia 010 cable, a balanced silver-plated copper Qualia 010 cable, and a balanced solid silver HD650 cable to name the main ones. the parts didn't cost too much, but each took about a quarter to half a day to braid the long lengths of wire, sleeve them, and to put the connectors on.

hopefully I can get Scrith to come over so I can test out his Moon Audio Black Dragon balanced 010 cable and see how that compares to the ones I made.