[ls13coco]

You can try a few things such as a sheilded power cable for your computer and a sheilded usb cable with the round magnet on the end that plugs into the creative x7 dac. If you can safely eliminate the need for grounding the little dot chassis than it will eliminate the problem, they make a device called a humx which is supposed to get rid of ground loops but it is pretty expensive. Do not use the cheater adapters which eliminate the ground to the wall as they are dangerous. You could also go the route i did and build a minature isolation transformer, which cost me around $20 cad and some spare parts i had lying around at work, you have to be comfortable working with 120v though and if you hook it up qrong you can get elctrocuted so something to be aware of. You can also purchase and isolation transformer but they are expensive and i was not able to find one that was small and compact which is why i built my own.

I was reading before i built my isolation transformer how a capacitor and a resistor can be soldering between the ground plug from the little dot and the chassis, so instead of ground going straight to the chassis it goes through the resitor and the capacitor first. I am not sure how safe that is and the guy who posted it never reaponded to my PM ( the post was very old).

Laat but not least tou can buy inline ground loop isolators that just folter the noise out through the RCA connections. After spending alot of money on my amp, source and headphone i did not want to plug some cheap filter ground loop isolator in and potentially ruin the sound. I cannot say whether or not a difference can be noticed but i prefer to just have peace of mind and have nothing alter or filter the sound.

Great info, thanks a lot!
I will look into what you mentioned if my quick and easy route doesn't work out. I did some quick research on best RCA cables for the money (non-audiophile money) same as a ground loop isolator.

I went with the Monoprice 106909 Four Channel Ground Loop Isolator  and Monoprice 102864 6-Feet Premium 2 RCA Plug to 2 RCA Plug 22AWG Cable, Black so hopefully that works out. If it alters the sound, I will mention that.

Also, I just confirmed that my gain switched are in fact reversed on my LD. Oh well!

 

[gregorya]

Also, I just confirmed that my gain switched are in fact reversed on my LD. Oh well!

What exactly do you mean by the gain switched are reversed? Thanks.

 

[ls13coco]

What exactly do you mean by the gain switched are reversed? Thanks.

In the manual it shows high gain as both switches being to the "ON" marking, and I hear that these ship in low gain. Well, mine shipped in low gain.. but the switches were in the "ON" position.

 

[fluffyberry]

I just got this amp, and while I love being able to finally drive my AKGs properly, I have run into quite the issue with the amp producing a very loud humming sound. Thing is, as far as I can tell the humming is basically inaudible when I actually have music playing, but once it stops, the humming reaches volumes even louder than the music was being played at.
 
I'm not sure what the cause is but the hum is present even when I unplugged the source, and only cuts out when i unplug the RCA cables themselves. So my question is am I looking at a case of ground loops or interference picked up by the cables? the hum did quieten (slightly) when i switched out the RCA cables for another set.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ZJee]

Buying this amp soon, can anyone tell me what the most musical/warm sounding tubes i could buy for this are? Thanks.

 

[CHxJC]

Buying this amp soon, can anyone tell me what the most musical/warm sounding tubes i could buy for this are? Thanks.

In my experience tubes like the Voskhod 6ZH1P-EV make it very "tubey", aka warm/smooth/musical but also stay on the neutral side, making it an amazing starter tube. After that, it all depends on your taste. I went back to the Mullard M8161/CV4015 after a month with the Voskhods as these are much less "tubey", less smooth but more detailed for the orchestra/instrumental music I listen to.

 

[trivium911]

I just got this amp, and while I love being able to finally drive my AKGs properly, I have run into quite the issue with the amp producing a very loud humming sound. Thing is, as far as I can tell the humming is basically inaudible when I actually have music playing, but once it stops, the humming reaches volumes even louder than the music was being played at.

I'm not sure what the cause is but the hum is present even when I unplugged the source, and only cuts out when i unplug the RCA cables themselves. So my question is am I looking at a case of ground loops or interference picked up by the cables? the hum did quieten (slightly) when i switched out the RCA cables for another set.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Right well the cheapest way to elimate a ground loop would be a cheater adapter which allows you to plug in the ground plug with the nuetral and hot than on the other side into the wall its just nuetral and hot basically floating the ground. As you could imagine it can introduce a shock potential but for testing purposes it should be fine, i just would not run as your end solution as the shock potential is always there. After that i would see if you could access a UPS for testing as you could also have dirty power. Another option would be to try different outlets in your house. After that i would look at a sheilded power cable and sheilded rcas, cleaning your tube pins, trying different tubes and last would be warrenty/RMA. There is one other solution and that is to try higher impedence headphones. I have a pair of 5 balanced armeture iems with an impedence of 8 or 16ohm and 116db sensitivity maybe which is supposed to be acceptable for the little dot but they have static hissing and noise which is not audible with any of my full headphones...so basically your headphones could have a high sensitivity.

 

[trivium911]

In my experience tubes like the Voskhod 6ZH1P-EV make it very "tubey", aka warm/smooth/musical but also stay on the neutral side, making it an amazing starter tube. After that, it all depends on your taste. I went back to the Mullard M8161/CV4015 after a month with the Voskhods as these are much less "tubey", less smooth but more detailed for the orchestra/instrumental music I listen to.

Funny how everyone has different opinions. Most people say mullards are the tubey sounding with a warm smooth sound signature, i cant say from experience with the mullards as i still need to order them. Regarding the voskhods i found them slightly brighter and more clinical sounding than the 6hm5 tubes which i prefer for a more laid back sound with my 400is.

 

[CHxJC]

Funny how everyone has different opinions. Most people say mullards are the tubey sounding with a warm smooth sound signature, i cant say from experience with the mullards as i still need to order them. Regarding the voskhods i found them slightly brighter and more clinical sounding than the 6hm5 tubes which i prefer for a more laid back sound with my 400is.

I think the different combinations of setups also contribute to the factor of how each tube sounds to us. The Voskhods sound way smoother, with silky low mids making it sound very warm. While the Mullards do have a stronger mid-high bass, the treble clarity and detail on the M8161 in turn makes it seem way less than it should have been. In layman's term, it sounds more like my SS amp.

 

[gulakpi]

Funny how everyone has different opinions. Most people say mullards are the tubey sounding with a warm smooth sound signature, i cant say from experience with the mullards as i still need to order them. Regarding the voskhods i found them slightly brighter and more clinical sounding than the 6hm5 tubes which i prefer for a more laid back sound with my 400is.

I guess it depends on your other equipment, especially the headphones used.
I too find the Voskhods too bright to my liking, and I can never call it tubey.  YMMV!  
I prefer the M8100 and especially the 6HM5!  
Fortunately, they are all very inexpensive and is fun to roll!

 

[trivium911]

I guess it depends on your other equipment, especially the headphones used.
I too find the Voskhods too bright to my liking, and I can never call it tubey.  YMMV!  
I prefer the M8100 and especially the 6HM5!  

Fortunately, they are all very inexpensive and is fun to roll!

True it can add though. By far the most fun is exploring new music through the amp and finding which tubes sound the best to satisfy you, and perhaps even choosing genre specific tubes. Either of the mentioned tubes aswell as the GE JAN 5654 tubes are a great starting point.

 

[ZJee]

I guess it depends on your other equipment, especially the headphones used.
I too find the Voskhods too bright to my liking, and I can never call it tubey.  YMMV!  
I prefer the M8100 and especially the 6HM5!  

Fortunately, they are all very inexpensive and is fun to roll!

True it can add though. By far the most fun is exploring new music through the amp and finding which tubes sound the best to satisfy you, and perhaps even choosing genre specific tubes. Either of the mentioned tubes aswell as the GE JAN 5654 tubes are a great starting point.

What do you two think the most musical or "tubey" sounding tubes are, from your experience?

 

[trivium911]

What do you two think the most musical or "tubey" sounding tubes are, from your experience?

Well as mentioned im really liking the 6hm5 tubes but any of the tubes mentioned are a great starting point since sound is subjective.

 

[igotyofire]

Well as mentioned im really liking the 6hm5 tubes but any of the tubes mentioned are a great starting point since sound is subjective.

 
I prefer the JAN 5654  seems overall to have more sonic synergy & balance to the entire frequency range to my ears. They both sound good though. Mine is paired with the V5i too.

 

[CHxJC]

   
I prefer the JAN 5654  seems overall to have more sonic synergy & balance to the entire frequency range to my ears. They both sound good though. Mine is paired with the V5i too.

Does the V5i make a big difference? I always wanted to change my OP-amp, but the price and shipping makes it hard for me to justify the upgrade.