[L0rdGwyn]

Definitely curious about these Keenan! How do they stack up against the GEC's? Hopefully close and a bit more affordable!


Happy listening,

jgwtriode

They actually are GECs! MWT / GEC / Marconi-Osram are one and the same, so the internal construction is identical these are high gain triodes, mu of 100, with a plate resistance of around 66K, so not really useful in a lot of headphone circuits with all of that gain and the high plate resistance, but my speaker amplifier uses a little local negative feedback, they work really well in that circuit, very linear tubes too.

 

[jgwtriode]

So how do these compare sonically with the GEC 6J5's that Monster talks about on his review. I see them going for quite a bit less money!

Thanks,

jgwtriode

 

[L0rdGwyn]

So how do these compare sonically with the GEC 6J5's that Monster talks about on his review. I see them going for quite a bit less money!

Thanks,

jgwtriode

Ahh but they cannot be compared! As they cannot be used effectively in the same circuit, they will not work in the Airmid, sadly. The GEC L63 / 6J5 and H63 are very different tubes in terms of the operating characteristics. Because of its high gain, the H63 is more of a specialist type of tube, it needs to be used in a more specific type of circuit, whereas the GEC L63 / 6J5 is very adaptable in many different audio circuits, the reason they are so popular. But in general they are both very linear and GEC-made tubes are of the highest quality, each tube is excellent its respective use case. I can highly recommend the GEC L63 for the Airmid or any other amplifier than can use 6J5 types, they are expensive but one of the best in that family.

 

[jgwtriode]

Very good, always trying to find a way to get more value, but understand sometimes you just have to pay the price to get what you want. So thats fine, I figured I would be throwing in another 700 plus to get tubes that are really what I want. I am going to throw a fair amount of money into an interconnect as well, although I have a couple of temporaries that will be okay until I can get what I want. After that will tinker with a higher quality power cord. The Wywires platinum stuff has me gobsmacked right now. But interconnect and tubes first. It never ends, there is always another thing to be improved. But I am getting there. And of course isolation of the amp comes into play as well. I will do basic initially, withmy airbladder ikea composite table sandwich with brass cone/ceramic, works quite well. All good, main thing is I have the core of a phenomenal end game triode headphone amplifier to work from. Estimate by the last quarter of next year all that will be done. Then I can look to some very serious power line conditioning. Right now its just a 1000Watt Hospital grade triplite that runs my Computer and DAC amp on seperate circuits.

If only I had an extra 5 to 10,000 a year to throw at this hobby. But I manage and I am quite pleased. It's all good and have run into some amazing people and learned a hell of a lot.

And my system just keep sounding better which makes me a very happy listener.


Thanks again to you and everyone on this thread, awesome people

jgwtriode

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Now that I'm not doing aggressive critical listening at my desk every day, I can put my DIY DAC in its true home, in my two channel system.





Did some post 45 amp cleanup today, will get back to work on the two Airmid builds tomorrow.

 

[jgwtriode]

Ah very nice! What speakers are those Keenan, if you don't mind me asking?

Happy listening,

jgwtriode

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Ah very nice! What speakers are those Keenan, if you don't mind me asking?

Happy listening,

jgwtriode

They are Snell J/II. Last year I bought a used pair, replaced the drivers, rebuilt the crossovers.

 

[CJG888]

Of course you could conceivably try Audio Note crossovers…

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Of course you could conceivably try Audio Note crossovers…

And their drivers, although they are 6ohms nominal whereas the original Vifa drivers are 8ohms. You can also buy replacement foam surrounds from Audio Note too when the originals wear out. I had exchanged a few emails with Peter Qvortrup when I was deciding on what direction to go, but decided to replace the woofers with OEM parts from Atomic Hifi. Replacing the tweeters was more challenging but was able to get some assistance with OEM diaphragms from a gentleman I met on Audiokarma. Some say you shouldn't touch a Snell crossover as they were factory matched, but the electrolytics in the crossovers had drifted very, very far off of spec in thirty years. Also I found I had two different tweeter models and the HF response was way out of balance in the two speakers, so I threw the crossover matching out the window LOL. This pair was made in 1992 I believe, the last year of manufacture of the J/II, this was the last iteration of the Snell J to be overseen by Snell himself before his death in 1984. I measured all of the components and matched them to the best of my ability.

Here is one of the crossovers. I used film caps, Mills MRA wirewounds. The speakers sound great!

 

[CJG888]

Looks impressive! I’ve had some good results with ICW caps in the past (ICW in Wrexham are the company behind Clarity Caps). I don’t recognise the silver ones, though…

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Looks impressive! I’ve had some good results with ICW caps in the past (ICW in Wrexham are the company behind Clarity Caps). I don’t recognise the silver ones, though…

Those are also ClarityCaps, just a different series, ESA whereas the purple caps are CSA. IME with polypropylene film cap brands, ClarityCaps are best. That includes Audience Auricaps, Solens, Audyn, Mundorf, Sonicaps, Obbligato...probably forgetting one or two, but ClarityCaps are my go to when capacitance and size limitations necessitate a polypropylene cap versus a PIO, copper foil, aluminum foil, etc. Some DIYers I talk to hold the NOS Soviet teflon caps in very high regard, so I will be trying them in the near future, nearly bought some recently for a project but I can't remember where I had planned to use them

 

[leftside]

I see we're on page 242.

 

[jgwtriode]

And their drivers, although they are 6ohms nominal whereas the original Vifa drivers are 8ohms. You can also buy replacement foam surrounds from Audio Note too when the originals wear out. I had exchanged a few emails with Peter Qvortrup when I was deciding on what direction to go, but decided to replace the woofers with OEM parts from Atomic Hifi. Replacing the tweeters was more challenging but was able to get some assistance with OEM diaphragms from a gentleman I met on Audiokarma. Some say you shouldn't touch a Snell crossover as they were factory matched, but the electrolytics in the crossovers had drifted very, very far off of spec in thirty years. Also I found I had two different tweeter models and the HF response was way out of balance in the two speakers, so I threw the crossover matching out the window LOL. This pair was made in 1992 I believe, the last year of manufacture of the J/II, this was the last iteration of the Snell J to be overseen by Snell himself before his death in 1984. I measured all of the components and matched them to the best of my ability.

Here is one of the crossovers. I used film caps, Mills MRA wirewounds. The speakers sound great!

Impressive indeed. Having sold Snell speakers years ago I know that had take make a huge improvement over what is stock on that crossovers. Never was really that impressed by the J's. Their bigger Snells were okay. I preferred the Theils in terms of what we had or possibly Revel. But I always had speakers from Tierry Budge who worked for Wilson Audio. He designed the The Watt3 Puppy 2 or I say should reworked that particular model. He also designed all the Talon Audio and Escalante stuff. Back when I was selling at an Audio store he was just building stuff out of his garage. I owned about 4 variants of his speakers. The last one was similar to the Escalante's but not as refined. After that I went to work for Talon Audio and had a prototype Khorus and then one of theirs in a dark red mahogany.

I used to mod Near's crossovers for customers who wanted an improvement when I worked in the store. Upgraded caps and resistors. I did that because even when they
blew drivers we could just swap drivers from manufacter so effectively modding them didn't void customers warranty. Did about 15 pairs of their speakers. Just using Solens upscale caps. Name escapes me at the moment.


That is a pretty damn serious crossover.

jgwtriode

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Impressive indeed. Having sold Snell speakers years ago I know that had take make a huge improvement over what is stock on that crossovers. Never was really that impressed by the J's. Their bigger Snells were okay. I preferred the Theils in terms of what we had or possibly Revel. But I always had speakers from Tierry Budge who worked for Wilson Audio. He designed the The Watt3 Puppy 2 or I say should reworked that particular model. He also designed all the Talon Audio and Escalante stuff. Back when I was selling at an Audio store he was just building stuff out of his garage. I owned about 4 variants of his speakers. The last one was similar to the Escalante's but not as refined. After that I went to work for Talon Audio and had a prototype Khorus and then one of theirs in a dark red mahogany.

I used to mod Near's crossovers for customers who wanted an improvement when I worked in the store. Upgraded caps and resistors. I did that because even when they
blew drivers we could just swap drivers from manufacter so effectively modding them didn't void customers warranty. Did about 15 pairs of their speakers. Just using Solens upscale caps. Name escapes me at the moment.


That is a pretty damn serious crossover.

jgwtriode

The Snell Js are great for my space and system, but tastes will differ. The system has changed since I made the recording below, most significantly the amplifier is not the 6A5G SET in the video but now my 801A SET, which is more refined. Made with a field recorder so not the greatest quality, I need to do an updated version with better equipment.



Also did this festive recording

 

[bcowen]

Impressive indeed. Having sold Snell speakers years ago I know that had take make a huge improvement over what is stock on that crossovers. Never was really that impressed by the J's. Their bigger Snells were okay. I preferred the Theils in terms of what we had or possibly Revel. But I always had speakers from Tierry Budge who worked for Wilson Audio. He designed the The Watt3 Puppy 2 or I say should reworked that particular model. He also designed all the Talon Audio and Escalante stuff. Back when I was selling at an Audio store he was just building stuff out of his garage. I owned about 4 variants of his speakers. The last one was similar to the Escalante's but not as refined. After that I went to work for Talon Audio and had a prototype Khorus and then one of theirs in a dark red mahogany.

I used to mod Near's crossovers for customers who wanted an improvement when I worked in the store. Upgraded caps and resistors. I did that because even when they
blew drivers we could just swap drivers from manufacter so effectively modding them didn't void customers warranty. Did about 15 pairs of their speakers. Just using Solens upscale caps. Name escapes me at the moment.


That is a pretty damn serious crossover.

jgwtriode

My gateway drug speakers to this addiction were the E III's. Had those for about 4 years then got C IV's, and then C V's. Enjoyed them all. Only mod I did to both of the C's was to replace that crappy wirewound tweeter pot with a good film resistor which made a pretty substantial improvement.