[DTgill]

Is it safe to use 6SN7 in MHDT? It draws 0.6 Ampere instead of 0.35

Here's what Jiun wrote back to me in regards to using 6SN7 tubes in my Istanbul "yes, will not hurt to dac. many users did it already."

 

[warp2600]

What about 6CG7/6FQ7 tubes?
They have a noval, 9-pin miniature base and some people use them in lieu of 6SN7.

 

[DTgill]

What about 6CG7/6FQ7 tubes?
They have a noval, 9-pin miniature base and some people use them in lieu of 6SN7.

You should send an email to mhdtgang@yahoo.com and ask they can give you the information you need.
Jiun was quick to respond to all my questions.

 

[warp2600]

You should send an email to mhdtgang@yahoo.com and ask they can give you the information you need.
Jiun was quick to respond to all my questions.

I am not planning to further my quest in finding new tubes for my Canary dac. I just wondered if anyone has tried those cheaper alternatives for 6SN7.

 

[DTgill]

I made a new cover for my Istanbul. I didn't want to cut the aluminum cover up, and needed a place to rest my new Loki+

 

[DTgill]

I just received a WE 396A put it in my Istanbul turned it on, turned on my Lyr 3 and put on my Anandas', audio heaven, oh yeah! I'm in the middle of the concert, Jason Upton, Bob Dylan, I'm there! This tube has added a dimension I can't explain, other than it's like a cool drink on a hot day, very refreshing.

Edited for naming error...

 

[warp2600]

I just received a GE 396A put it in my Istanbul turned it on, turned on my Lyr 3 and put on my Anandas', audio heaven, oh yeah! I'm in the middle of the concert, Jason Upton, Bob Dylan, I'm there! This tube has added a dimension I can't explain, other than it's like a cool drink on a hot day, very refreshing.

If it is General Electric, then it should be 5670, am I right? It can replace a WE 396a tube. Could you check and specify which tube it is, please?

 

[DTgill]

If it is General Electric, then it should be 5670, am I right? It can replace a WE 396a tube. Could you check and specify which tube it is, please?

I went back and relooked at it and it's a Western Electric my bad, you are right.

 

[DTgill]

This 396 tube reveals layers I haven't heard since getting my Istanbul.

Listening to Stevie Ray The Sky is crying right now, it's like hearing a thunder storm in the distance knowing it's coming your way, it's not only the guitar or the bass or the drums and cymbal crashes or even the moaning of the singer, it's like a symphony of chaos all coming together for the perfect storm.

 

[klyrish]

I've got a feeling I already know the answers to what I'm about to ask but here's hoping against hope...

I bought an Orchid on US Audio Mart and received it earlier this month. It came with both the stock and WE396a tube upgrade. It worked great and I fell in love with its sound rather quickly--even with a balanced Pagoda in the mix as well. Today, after a few days of not using the Orchid, I fired up my system and sat down to listen to some TDA1541A goodness only to be greeted with silence. I checked all connections, unplugged and re-plugged everything and got the same result.

For note, in the main system, I use RCA coaxial via a Pi2AES for the Orchid's input.

I power cycled the rest of the system and still got silence.

I powered down, removed the WE396a and replaced it with the stock Westinghouse tube. Same result: silence.

At this point, I was getting nervous something happened to the preamp (Apex Hifi Pinnacle 2 Ultra), so I turned on the Pagoda as well and since that's using AES, I could have it playing on input 1 with the Orchid on 2. The Pagoda assured me the issue is localized to the Orchid.

To be extra sure it wasn't just the coaxial input, I took the Orchid to my headphone rig (Bifrost 2 + EAR HP-4) and hooked it up using USB at first. Silence. In a moment of desperation, I cranked the volume up to 100% and was suddenly able to hear output at the faintest levels from the Orchid. It sounded extremely distorted. I tried swapping tubes again but same result: no audio until the volume is cranked all the way up.

Finally, I hooked up my X-SPDIF 2 and used the coaxial out on that with a different cable to just to make 100% sure there wasn't some weird issue with the coaxial cable in the primary system and it was the same as USB: silence until 100% volume and then barely-audible garbage.

Has anyone run into this and found a weird solution? This reminds me of the Sonnet Morpheus and how it behaves when not in DAC-only mode with the digital preamp down to -40dB except there's no preamp in the Orchid...

I contacted LTA about getting non-warranty repairs but am not expecting to hear anything for a few days if at all. Sigh, this really sucks.

 

[DTgill]

I've got a feeling I already know the answers to what I'm about to ask but here's hoping against hope...

I bought an Orchid on US Audio Mart and received it earlier this month. It came with both the stock and WE396a tube upgrade. It worked great and I fell in love with its sound rather quickly--even with a balanced Pagoda in the mix as well. Today, after a few days of not using the Orchid, I fired up my system and sat down to listen to some TDA1541A goodness only to be greeted with silence. I checked all connections, unplugged and re-plugged everything and got the same result.

For note, in the main system, I use RCA coaxial via a Pi2AES for the Orchid's input.

I power cycled the rest of the system and still got silence.

I powered down, removed the WE396a and replaced it with the stock Westinghouse tube. Same result: silence.

At this point, I was getting nervous something happened to the preamp (Apex Hifi Pinnacle 2 Ultra), so I turned on the Pagoda as well and since that's using AES, I could have it playing on input 1 with the Orchid on 2. The Pagoda assured me the issue is localized to the Orchid.

To be extra sure it wasn't just the coaxial input, I took the Orchid to my headphone rig (Bifrost 2 + EAR HP-4) and hooked it up using USB at first. Silence. In a moment of desperation, I cranked the volume up to 100% and was suddenly able to hear output at the faintest levels from the Orchid. It sounded extremely distorted. I tried swapping tubes again but same result: no audio until the volume is cranked all the way up.

Finally, I hooked up my X-SPDIF 2 and used the coaxial out on that with a different cable to just to make 100% sure there wasn't some weird issue with the coaxial cable in the primary system and it was the same as USB: silence until 100% volume and then barely-audible garbage.

Has anyone run into this and found a weird solution? This reminds me of the Sonnet Morpheus and how it behaves when not in DAC-only mode with the digital preamp down to -40dB except there's no preamp in the Orchid...

I contacted LTA about getting non-warranty repairs but am not expecting to hear anything for a few days if at all. Sigh, this really sucks.

You should contact Juin@MHDT Labs.
mhdtgang@yahoo.com
He's pretty quick to answer, I've heard good things about their C.S.

 

[sideways]

I had this happen to an Atlantis I bought used... good thing the unit was still under warranty and the seller was a fantastic dude... he took it back and refunded my money. He sent it in to LTA where he bought it from and it turned out to be a fault on the main board... they replaced it and it seems to be working fine for him.

 

[klyrish]

Thanks guys. I contacted MHDT directly as well as LTA and explained the situation. LTA got back to me right away this morning and said I can ship it in and they'll take a look at it despite me being the second owner. Obviously all shipping and repair costs are on me (I talked with the seller I got this from and the warranty expired in March so it'd be on me either way) and that's fine. Just annoying.

What was super weird this morning was that I plugged it all in again with the stock tube installed, just to make sure it was messing up before I went through this whole process and that it wasn't just some super weird fluke.

It worked this morning. Audio played immediately and without any issue. I was stunned. So I powered down, took off the top, and swapped tubes, installing the WE396a again. Powered it back up and silence. Swapped tubes again to get the stock back and still silence. So it seems like there is something wrong with the board at this point.

In the meantime, the Atlantis sounds phenomenal so at least I've got that to hold me over + the Pagoda until this comes back.

 

[al2813]

Hi everybody, an Orchid owner for 4 months now and really happy. I am debating whether I should upgrade it or stick with it and I have several questions.
1. Upgrade option - where do I have to go to a really better result? I have an Audio Note 300b amp and Audio Note speakers so you probably get a gist of my sound taste. There's one thing that got me thinking this way and that is the amount of DSDs I have in my library. I always wonder if I am not losing anything when Roon needs to output PCM to my Orchid.
2. And if I keep it (which currently is my feeling) : I got a very nice Philips miniwatt 7308 NOS which I wanted to tube roll to my DAC. I ordered a Garage1217 adapter but due to customs issues (long story) it was sent back to the US by the Belgian Post. So I ordered an adapter from Aliexpress but when I inserted everything in I really didn't like the result. Maybe the adapter is of low quality?

 

[warp2600]

Hi everybody, an Orchid owner for 4 months now and really happy. I am debating whether I should upgrade it or stick with it and I have several questions.
1. Upgrade option - where do I have to go to a really better result? I have an Audio Note 300b amp and Audio Note speakers so you probably get a gist of my sound taste. There's one thing that got me thinking this way and that is the amount of DSDs I have in my library. I always wonder if I am not losing anything when Roon needs to output PCM to my Orchid.
2. And if I keep it (which currently is my feeling) : I got a very nice Philips miniwatt 7308 NOS which I wanted to tube roll to my DAC. I ordered a Garage1217 adapter but due to customs issues (long story) it was sent back to the US by the Belgian Post. So I ordered an adapter from Aliexpress but when I inserted everything in I really didn't like the result. Maybe the adapter is of low quality?

Welcome to the club.
If you want to roll, you might want to try Western Electric 396a or rather WE JW 2C51. Mind you, they are not the cheapest tubes in this category.
I have been running a Russian tube in my Canary on the recommendation in this thread: 6N3P-DR. No adapter needed.

If you want to upgrade the DAC and want to listen to native DSD, look around in the offers of Lampizator. They have an excellent trade-in program and offer refurbished pre-owned gear. I bought an Atlantic TRP (Tube Rollers Paradise).