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Oblivion | UltraSonic Studios
May 10, 2020 at 12:22 AM Post #724 of 7,478
elChefe said:
Has anyone tried rolling the input tubes? I have the 6av6 in mine and I saw some cheap nos pairs floating around. Might give it a try. Curious to see how a pair of GE or RCA 6av6 would sound.
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Alas my input tube has gone missing and the seller has reimbursed me. Sonic did say that tubes have minimal changes. Some but not much.

I rather roll headphones into the Oblivion. Will be trying a HiFiMan Arya once the balance cable comes and later a Audeze LCD-X.
 
May 11, 2020 at 12:41 AM Post #727 of 7,478
UntilThen said:
Thread that goes into oblivion. :) but I'm not getting notifications from some of the other threads too.
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At the bottom of your subscribed thread (now watched) page check the 'Select all' box then click 'With selected' and choose 'Enable email notifications' from the drop down window, then click 'Go'. This has worked for me in the past many times when I wasn't receiving email notifications.
 
May 12, 2020 at 6:32 AM Post #728 of 7,478
This is the first Oblivion with "Citadel layout". It also has a switchable "power" input which bypasses the volume pot.

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May 12, 2020 at 8:27 AM Post #730 of 7,478
elChefe said:
Wow looks great! I love the layout! I don’t know which I like better, is this going to be how you are going to be laying out the oblivion from now on?
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Thanks!
This was the first one with this layout (on request). I needed to make sure it worked out as the input tube is sensitive to placement. But it worked out great and it's just as quiet as the other design.

I figured I'd let the customers choose what layout they want.
:)
 
May 14, 2020 at 6:29 PM Post #731 of 7,478
Phantaminum said:
I personally love them with the Auteurs. It's a lovely pairing with the amp. It gives you a nice dash tube euphony without the bloat, it's fast, it's detailed, clear, and throws a nice wide sound stage. I preferred the Verite off high impedance amplifiers but that's with my chain and ears.

@Celty Post some pics when you get it.

P.S. I already miss it.
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From one of the photos Celty quoted that I think were yours, it seems I spotted a Glenn OTL amp next to the Oblivion you were selling. If so, I'm curious why you would sell it and keep the Glenn amp?
SonicTrance said:
Yes, tubes do voltage amplification (gain) and FET's supply current. Although, you can say that the tube and top FET are working together to supply current as they're in series with each other.

The input stage in Oblivion is where you would notice most change in sound from tube rolling. This is because the input stage is SE and more prone to pick up any distortion from the tube (the input tube do have a flat load line because of the gyrator plate load, so it's always working in its linear region) than the output stage which is balanced and cancel out most of the distortion.
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Another noob question for your amps - which side of the amp do you consider input and output tubes? I'm used to the terminology "power" for rear tubes and "driver" for front tubes.
 
May 14, 2020 at 7:46 PM Post #732 of 7,478
DecentLevi said:
From one of the photos Celty quoted that I think were yours, it seems I spotted a Glenn OTL amp next to the Oblivion you were selling. If so, I'm curious why you would sell it and keep the Glenn amp?

Another noob question for your amps - which side of the amp do you consider input and output tubes? I'm used to the terminology "power" for rear tubes and "driver" for front tubes.
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The Glenn amp was sold prior to selling the Oblivion amp.

I've been going through a long gear cycling phase. Trying out different amp topologies, synergies with equipment, and headphones. Trying to find that almost perfect mix of qualities you look for in sound which is different for every person. This isn't to say that either the Oblivion or Glenn are bad amps. Far from it. After listening to several amps in the $1k - $4k bracket, I believe the GOTL and Oblivion are knock out amps in their price range.

If you're looking at the Oblivion like the Glenn OTL, i'd say that the 6AT6 tubes (without the caps) would be considered the driver tubes and the EL81 (with the caps) would be considered the power tubes.
 
May 14, 2020 at 8:53 PM Post #734 of 7,478
DecentLevi said:
OK so the driver / input tubes make the biggest sonic difference with the Ultrasonic amps if I've got it right.
Do you now prefer the Apex Teton or Eddie Current amps best?
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There isn't much of a change when it comes to swapping driver tubes. The CIFTE 6AT6 sound like the Mullard 6AT6 which sound like the RCA 6AT6. If there's a difference I personally can't hear it. What you get is an amp that has great transients, wide sound stage, added depth (instruments don't sound flat), a bit of that tube euphony/sweetness, speed, and clarity.

You can PM me if you have any questions on either of those amps. I don't want to clutter up Tomas' thread with other amp talk. :)
 
May 16, 2020 at 3:32 PM Post #735 of 7,478
DecentLevi said:
Another noob question for your amps - which side of the amp do you consider input and output tubes? I'm used to the terminology "power" for rear tubes and "driver" for front tubes.
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Like @Phantaminum says, the 6AT6, or 6AV6, depending on configuration are the input tubes and the EL81's are the output/power tubes in Oblivion. I call the 6AT6 "input" tubes rather than "driver" tubes because a driver tube drives the output tube grid. In my amps the input tube doesn't drive anything, it only does voltage amplification (gain). The grid drivers drives the output/power tube grid. The grid drivers are CCS loaded FET source followers.
The EL81's you can call output or power tubes as the amps output power is totally dependent on how I choose to bias the output tubes.
 
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