[adeadcrab]

I had the same experience.
I also had to wait a bit longer due to their QA and I was also able to price match from the drop.com price.
Once shipped it took only 2-3 days from China to U.S. via DHL.
DHL handles their packages very well I might add from my experiences anyway.

I think you and I got ours around the same time @adeadcrab?
I went through Shenzen Audio after drop.com backed out of the deal as they could not fulfill the order.

I believe I got mine as soon as it was available, a few weeks before drop.com had it on their site.

Barely any hum from the 339i nowadays, with the high gain (and theoretically high hum) 7236 + 6SJ7GT pairing at the moment. Very clean sound, very happy with the amp.
I will say the preamp out has hum though. I have tried plugged into both the Koss 95X energiser and the drop 789 and both had hum. Still, I have an expensive Gustard preamp that is always on for that purpose!

 

[adeadcrab]

... 5693 is also not famous for the details. ...

I have to agree; 5693 smears some of the details away. I think this is a good choice for a relaxed listen if you have, say, the Focal Utopia, and want a more relaxed presentation from time to time.

 

[hp4fun]

I believe I got mine as soon as it was available, a few weeks before drop.com had it on their site.

Barely any hum from the 339i nowadays, with the high gain (and theoretically high hum) 7236 + 6SJ7GT pairing at the moment. Very clean sound, very happy with the amp.
I will say the preamp out has hum though. I have tried plugged into both the Koss 95X energiser and the drop 789 and both had hum. Still, I have an expensive Gustard preamp that is always on for that purpose!

It also depends on the headphone's sensitivity.

On my LCD 3 I heard the hum quite clearly, which is annoying. But on my Ether Flow, which is lower impedance but also lower sensitivity, I cannot hear.

 

[adeadcrab]

Rocking the Focal Elex (80 ohm I believe?), barely perceptible only when the room is totally silent and no music is playing. Volume knobs at 9 o'clock and attenuated via my DAC/preamp.
I have some Grado GS1000 to test with, they are getting a detachable cable mod at the moment, (thanks Custom Cans UK!) but last I checked there was no hum with those. Although the sub-bass is so bad with Grados they may not be physically capable of reproducing the hum's frequency...

 

[hp4fun]

Rocking the Focal Elex (80 ohm I believe?), barely perceptible only when the room is totally silent and no music is playing. Volume knobs at 9 o'clock and attenuated via my DAC/preamp.
I have some Grado GS1000 to test with, they are getting a detachable cable mod at the moment, (thanks Custom Cans UK!) but last I checked there was no hum with those. Although the sub-bass is so bad with Grados they may not be physically capable of reproducing the hum's frequency...

I set 9-10 o'clock when I use the Ether Flow and surprisingly need to reduce it to 8 o'clock the first time I tried the LCD-3.

 

[GU1DO]

Yeah possibly, I have a pair of mullard 6080's as well as a pair of tung sol 5998's coming soon (hopefully).

Does the 339 accept 5998 ?
I just got the DarkVoice 336se this week and tbh i prefer the crack with the 5998 more , tried the 5998 on the 336se and it sounded less impressive with distortion , if the 339 take the 5998 tube that would be great

 

[Bruc3]

Does the 339 accept 5998 ?

Yes it does, and it sounds great with them.

 

[bpiotrow13]

On my LCD 3 I heard the hum quite clearly, which is annoying.

With my lcd 3f (when i had them) La Figaro was dead silent.

 

[bpiotrow13]

Yes it does, and it sounds great with them.

Could not agrre more. Very dynamic open sounding. The only obstacle is the pricenof TS 5998 nowadays
Does anyone knows if 5998 were produced by other company than Tung Sol? It seems these are one of the most wanted tubes now..

 

[Tubewin]

Just got my Tuba tube amp from Jim, and it was properly packaged . The Stellia sounds really nice on the Tuba (I did put in a pair of 60's amperex el 84's). Warm, wide, and detailed. It absolutely compliments each other. Considering getting some nos el84 mullards for the Tuba (300-400 dollars, ouch!) I'll let you guys know how the 339i sounds when I get my tungsol's and mullards for it. It should be in the next few days. Also getting a pair of Mullard EF86's(just got the adapters from Angela's), thanks to Galapac for the suggestion.

 

[Tubewin]

I have not swapped my current tubes yet, but I changed to an optical connection from my pc to dac then rca to Figaro and the sound is everything you would want from a tube amp. Only a slight hum from the tubes from my stellia's, and all the buzzing from the usb/pc (static noise from mouse) is gone. It really does sound beautiful. I am glad I didn't return it. I'm floored on how good it sounds. And now, even more excited to try more expensive tube options. The stellia pairs surprisingly well after changing from usb to optical.

 

[hp4fun]

I have not swapped my current tubes yet, but I changed to an optical connection from my pc to dac then rca to Figaro and the sound is everything you would want from a tube amp. Only a slight hum from the tubes from my stellia's, and all the buzzing from the usb/pc (static noise from mouse) is gone. It really does sound beautiful. I am glad I didn't return it. I'm floored on how good it sounds. And now, even more excited to try more expensive tube options. The stellia pairs surprisingly well after changing from usb to optical.

Great it works for you! I guess I need to change to other tubes and see if it is the EF86+CV4079+Stellia failure synergy.

Regarding to the buzzing from the usb/pc, I did have a similar issue a while back. The only blocker I cannot get away from this is the MQA is only supported through USB.

btw, the mouse noise is not really buzzing, right? It is some high pitch noise (compared to the 60hz or 120 hz noise from the power).

Thanks

 

[Tubewin]

Great it works for you! I guess I need to change to other tubes and see if it is the EF86+CV4079+Stellia failure synergy.

Regarding to the buzzing from the usb/pc, I did have a similar issue a while back. The only blocker I cannot get away from this is the MQA is only supported through USB.

btw, the mouse noise is not really buzzing, right? It is some high pitch noise (compared to the 60hz or 120 hz noise from the power).

Thanks

Ah, yeah that's tough if you lose mqa when swapping to optical. And now that I think about it, the mouse noise is more like a static sound when the mouse moves.

 

[hp4fun]

Ah, yeah that's tough if you lose mqa when swapping to optical. And now that I think about it, the mouse noise is more like a static sound when the mouse moves.

Confirmed that EF86 was the root cause of the microphonic. Replacing the CV 4079 by Bendix 6080 further reduced the noise floor.

Now the Bendix 6080 + TS 6SJ7GT sounds great with the LCD 3f.

I got the LCD 3f with the original headband, which is not comfortable. Luckily I have some junk leather belt to reuse. Ugly and cheap but it works!

 

[bpiotrow13]

I got the LCD 3f with the original headband, which is not comfortable. Luckily I have some junk leather belt to reuse. Ugly and cheap but it works!

Try the new headband from Audeze. Not cheap but really does the job. Obviously it can not make the HPs to be lighter, but at least they are a lot more comfortable than with the old headband.