[UntilThen]

Omg there's even Odyssey electrostatic speakers.
https://www.stereo.net.au/forums/to...-martin-logan-odyssey-electrostatic-speakers/

 

[whirlwind]

Wow so many posts here and everywhere to catch up from the 2 days of moving and unpacking. Finally it is set up. My music room is ready. Almost... need some nice framed Monet pictures.

Abbey Road Studios

Looks great UT! I would put a solid side on the pc so you don't have all of that flashy light...but that is just personal preference.
Maybe a nice comfy chair....after quite some time I felt them much better for critical listening while not at the pc and on the internet...again personal preference.
Congrats on the room. Nothing beats a listening room!

 

[UntilThen]

Looks great UT! I would put a solid side on the pc so you don't have all of that flashy light...but that is just personal preference.
Maybe a nice comfy chair....after quite some time I felt them much better for critical listening while not at the pc and on the internet...again personal preference.
Congrats on the room. Nothing beats a listening room!

Thanks Joe. Your music room is just as nice. I might have to borrow some of your posters. I wanted a firm supportive chair so that's the chair. Perhaps I should have gotten one with head rest and in leather.

Having spend extra for the RGB fans and rams, covering it up .... actually I'm already tired of the lights. Well it's at my feet so I don't stare at it all the time.

On the left of the table is a wooden cupboard in solid wood. That's for my audio gear and tubes. Yes it's nice to have a room dedicated to music listening.

 

[baronbeehive]

@L0rdGwyn I had an interesting nostalgia trip with your recording of Art Blakey, very enjoyable, the sax player, I don't know who it was, came across very well. Takes me back to my days with my "record player".. mine wasn't very good and kept breaking down until I finally lost patience with it.

The Milt Jackson album of mine, I mentioned has a flute player on it and it seems that he is blowing into his instrument a few feet away from your left ear, the sound is so realistic!

@mordy that was fascinating to hear the recording on wax, the beginnings of it all!

Thanks guys .

 

[mordy]

@L0rdGwyn I had an interesting nostalgia trip with your recording of Art Blakey, very enjoyable, the sax player, I don't know who it was, came across very well. Takes me back to my days with my "record player".. mine wasn't very good and kept breaking down until I finally lost patience with it.

The Milt Jackson album of mine, I mentioned has a flute player on it and it seems that he is blowing into his instrument a few feet away from your left ear, the sound is so realistic!

@mordy that was fascinating to hear the recording on wax, the beginnings of it all!

Thanks guys .

The recording engineers of the day had to be on top of everything - musicians who played loud had to positioned further away and those with soft sounding instruments near the horn. Direct - to - wax/disc or whatever; no room for errors although here and there there are different takes saved.
Sometimes people use modern equipment with a single microphone employing such techniques:
(Notice the foot signal at 2:40)

 

[baronbeehive]

The recording engineers of the day had to be on top of everything - musicians who played loud had to positioned further away and those with soft sounding instruments near the horn. Direct - to - wax/disc or whatever; no room for errors although here and there there are different takes saved.
Sometimes people use modern equipment with a single microphone employing such techniques:
(Notice the foot signal at 2:40)

Yeah, it's amazing how they did what they did with the technology of the day, one can only suppose if they were around today they would revel in the possibilities they would have with the cutting edge technology we have now.

Edit: ... and the sort of things that sonic has done with the Oblivion, horizontal load lines, FET followers and the like.. whatever next!!

 

[UntilThen]

I did a last audition of Auralic Taurus Mk2 with Oblivion before selling the Taurus this Sat. A buyer wants it already.

So I start with the Taurus using Yggdrasil and He1000se. This is one of the best solid state that I've heard. I even prefer it to the SPL Phonitor X. Taurus exudes a clear, luxurious and airy tone with an engaging mid range and the bass is taut and punchy. Makes my He1000se sound like a classy outfit. I could live with Taurus as the only amp and be totally happy because it's very slightly warm and yet it sound neutral. No contradiction here. There's gobs of power as it's a fully balanced amp. Auralic nails it with this amp. I'm surprised they did not make a successor to it.

Switching to Oblivion, I was stunned that Tomas's masterpiece do a lot more of what Taurus has produced. After all the accolades that I've given to Taurus, I can only say that Oblivion is a much better sounding hybrid amp to my ears. In fact, if I had to choose just one amp then it would be the Oblivion. Didn't I just say that of the Taurus? Well I did but Oblivion has just outclass the already superb Taurus with wider soundstage, slight tube tone, a punchy bass and a midrange where I could just indulge in sweet vocals.

This listening session with Taurus and Oblivion has been most interesting. It also makes me feel 'ok' with letting Taurus go because I still have Oblivion.

Oblivion vs Elekit TU-8500 / TU-8200 .... I won't go into many words here but much as I love the Elekit combo with all those superb NOS tubes, I still prefer Oblivion by a slight margin. However with the Elekit combo, I could roll tubes at will and it will also burn a hole in my pocket ! Each change of tubes just bring joy to my face. I can't change anything on Oblivion except the music, which is probably what I need.

Now Oblivion vs Odyssey? You have to wait till July or August to find out. Fortunately for Odyssey, I would have invested quite a few tubes for it as it uses the same tube compliments as the Elekit TU-8200 and more.

 

[baronbeehive]

Now Oblivion vs Odyssey? You have to wait till July or August to find out.

I don't know about you.. I can't wait .

 

[UntilThen]

I don't know about you.. I can't wait .

All good things must wait.

 

[SonicTrance]

First Infinity for sale is now complete! @DecentLevi
This one has the tube rolling add-on. Here with KT66's and 6J5G's

 

[UntilThen]

The silver front plate with the black knobs transform the amp. Stunning.

Love the looks despite the size.

What is the power output with those tubes configuration?

 

[SonicTrance]

The silver front plate with the black knobs transform the amp. Stunning.

Love the looks despite the size.

What is the power output with those tubes configuration?

Thanks!

The power output will be roughly the same regardless of tube config since all tubes needs to run at the same bias current. About 5W at the speaker jacks.

 

[DecentLevi]

Wow, looks absolutely astonishing. I'm proud to be the first Infinity customer, and can barely wait to try it. @SonicTrance really pulled out all the stops and went the extra mile for me, seamlessly integrating multiple customization requests and not griping... I'm sure some amp builders would tell me where I can 'shove it', but he actually wanted to help tailor my amp to perfection! And he even said it sounds 'mighty' good (well let's just say it was a strong adjective).

I may be the first Infinity customer but time will tell if I will also be the first recipient. I'm facing temporary monetary setbacks so it could be someone else could get theirs before mine.

Now Tomas I need you to do a 2-page impression / review / critical analyses for me... nah joking, I understand about not causing expectation bias and MOT's having their 'hands tied' on reviewing their own work. But I give you my blessing to write a sentence or so on your personal opinion. And let's make it exciting. Can you try my very own EL39 and EL12 Spez that you have (separately, manually biased) outputs with any favorite input tubes?

Thanks!

The power output will be roughly the same regardless of tube config since all tubes needs to run at the same bias current. About 5W at the speaker jacks.

Also this makes me curious - if the power output doesn't change much with tubes, does that in a way mean that tube rolling on this amp doesn't make quite as much a difference as with the likes of a traditional OTL amp? In many cases I recall tube rolling on other amps not only changed characteristics like tonality, soundstage and extension, but also dynamics/'slam' and I think this dynamic change had something to do with rolling tubes that synergize better/worse with certain headphones according to their varying power output.

One more thing - for the others here would you mind to explain in your own words the function of the two smaller knobs on the front plate?
And PS - for anyone who's curious about those two narrow metal nozzles on the top in between the tubes; those are the milti-turn trimmers (sensitive potentiometers) for adjusting the bias; and the 4x mA meters are level 'health' meters, one for each tube.

 

[UntilThen]

Wow, looks absolutely astonishing. I'm proud to be the first Infinity customer, and can barely wait to try it. @SonicTrance really pulled out all the stops and went the extra mile for me, seamlessly integrating multiple customization requests and not griping... I'm sure some amp builders would tell me where I can 'shove it', but he actually wanted to help tailor my amp to perfection! And he even said it sounds 'mighty' good (well let's just say it was a strong adjective).

Tomas will go the extra mile with his customers. I really think he enjoys what he is building and every new amp that I've seen, have been great looking and also many satisfied customers.

Also this makes me curious - if the power output doesn't change much with tubes, does that in a way mean that tube rolling on this amp doesn't make quite as much a difference as with the likes of a traditional OTL amp? In many cases I recall tube rolling on other amps not only changed characteristics like tonality, soundstage and extension, but also dynamics/'slam' and I think this dynamic change had something to do with rolling tubes that synergize better/worse with certain headphones according to their varying power output.

Regardless, I think you will love how Infinity sound. I am still very much in love with Oblivion. With the Elekit combo, my NOS tubes haven't been quite burn in and the first few minutes of powering up the TU-8200, I hear pop and crackles. 20 mins into play and it goes silent. This is with all my NOS power tubes - GEC KT66, Philips Miniwatt 6CA7, RFT EL34 and also my drivers - Brimar 12au7 long plates and Philips Miniwatt 12au7. However with Oblivion, it's pure silence. Not a pop, hiss or crackle and the sound is gorgeous to my ears. Whether it's to my headphones or speakers.

I should be getting the Canadian maple leaf and Radiotron 807 in the next few days. It's on it's way with Australia Post.

If you really want to tube roll and experience the change in tone with change of tubes, you have to go the way of Odyssey. Having said that, wait and experience for yourself with Infinity. You might be surprised. Nobody has heard it yet except Tomas and he's usually very quiet about praising how his amps sound. He leaves that to the customer to share their impressions.

 

[UntilThen]

One more thing - for the others here would you mind to explain in your own words the function of the two smaller knobs on the front plate?

I think one is to switch between speakers and headphones and the other is the impedance switch.