UntilThen
Headphoneus Supremus
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Really beautiful when lit up. By far the best looking Oblivion.
(...)
I'm designing a new amp in the coming months. It's going to be a SET amp with much more power than Oblivion and Citadel. Going to be great for speakers but also headphones of course! It's going to be called Infinity. I'll post here with updates on that!
Yes, it's basically the input stage in Oblivion, which is SE, times two. Instead of having the balanced LTP output stage like in Oblivion there's another SE stage in Infinity using the the 6P36S. Infinity will therefore have more of the old "tube sound" (more harmonics) than Oblivion.
Oblivion is also transformer coupled. It has a parafeed output.
It's still MrCurwens original design but it will be a first trying to get this much power out of this design. That's the reason it's going to be a bigger chassis. To accommodate for larger heat sinks. Gyrator plate loads are great for getting the tubes a flat load line. The downside is that the gyrator FET needs to dissipate as much heat as the tube. If I run the tube at 10W the FET also dissipates 10W, hence big heat sinks =)
Has anyone gotten to compare the Oblivion or Citadel vs. the new Infinity from Ultrasonic Studios? Even impressions from a brief listen would be interesting.
Also about the Infinity: How many power and driver tube sockets does it have (if it uses both power / driver tube topology)? Can it use more power tubes (EG 4 instead of 2), and would there be any benefit to that? And can the tube class (type) be customized (without too much difficulty to implement)?
UntilThen is right. It hasn't been born yet so there has been no comparisons. I have built the SE design before but not like I plan to build Infinity. I'll build one for myself first to test and see how it performs. Then I'll build for other people.Infinity hasn't been born yet.
Oh wow no comparison of the former amps to Infinity was made yet, so I guess it makes this sort of a gamble. But you know amp designs like almost nobody so it should sound great. You did say it will sound more 'tubey' than Oblivion. I suppose that can change depending on which tubes are used with it right? And I think you said that the Infinity has more power for speakers but the headphone load is about the same as the Citadel?UntilThen is right. It hasn't been born yet so there has been no comparisons. I have built the SE design before but not like I plan to build Infinity. I'll build one for myself first to test and see how it performs. Then I'll build for other people.
As far as number of sockets etc. The stock version will have either one input tube (6N2P) or two (6AV6)
Anything can be customized though.
Edit: one power tube / channel
Very efficient, easy to drive.- Rosson Audio Rad-0: 29 ohms and a sensitivity of 98dB/mw (planar driver)
Not efficient, needs more power for same amount of volume.- HEDDphone: 42 ohms and 87 dB SPL for 1 mW (unique AMT driver)
Yes, the less linear the tube is the more distortion it will produce.You did say it will sound more 'tubey' than Oblivion. I suppose that can change depending on which tubes are used with it right?
Infinity will have much more power than Citadel and Oblivion across the board. Both for speakers and headphones.And I think you said that the Infinity has more power for speakers but the headphone load is about the same as the Citadel?
Citadel and Oblivion have two output tubes per channel because they're balanced amps. The output tubes operate in push pull. Infinity will be single ended so only one output tube per channel. I could put two tubes in parallel per channel but it won't benefit anything besides looks. I'd run them cooler than a single tube so the output power would remain the same. Otherwise there will be too much heat. Parallel output tubes are only really used in OTL amps to lower the output impedance. My amps have parafeed output so it's not necessary.I think I would prefer mine with the same amount of sockets as your other amps: 2x drivers and 4x powers (6 total).
Oh wow no comparison of the former amps to Infinity was made yet, so I guess it makes this sort of a gamble.
I can believe how cool this runs!
If you can get by with less power and want more lushness the Oblivion would be a good choice.
Yes.So you mean the Infinity uses only 4 tubes total (2x driver + 2x power)?
It's apples and oranges. You can't compare OTL design vs my amps as they're totally different topologys. But, I'm certain that output tubes in parallel will not yield better results than a single output tube in Infinity.My experience with OTL tube amps has been that more power tubes in parallel allows for better soundstage, and instrument separation / 'air'. So are you certain that only 2 power tubes would yield the same good result as 4 in that design?
I can put a 4pin XLR output on it for convenience but it will still be single ended.Since the HEDDphone (which I don't have just yet) is less efficient, looks like it should pair well with the Infinity.
And it's SE so it won't have balanced input, but can probably still have 4-pin balanced output right?
@BzzzzzT I enjoyed reading your review and look forward to trying an Ultrasonic amp. I didn't watch the videos yet but let me tell you we definitely have something in common about electronic music. Though I also listen to acoustic genres, I'm also deeply into the electronic scene (collecting, research, sound design, producing and sometimes DJ for fun.). It's actually all for fun and you can check out some of my work here including lossless download there too. Sometime I'll hit you up about some ideas and stuff because I've been looking to transition from a digital to more of a hardware setup, and also use (oh brother... digital ) saturation effects.
Your description of its' sound was quite impressive. Made me curious which DAC you're using with it; if not all for monitoring use with your modular setup?
And did you get good sound out of it as a speaker amp (if it has one)?
Also from your description it would seem that (perhaps) the Citadel has more authoritative bass compared to the Oblivion. But that's just my guess from what I've read here.
I'm actually thinking of going for Tomas's newer amp design Infinity. Though I don't fully understand the design, it seems to have even more power and at least some more options for tube rolling... especially so depending if you get it customized around a tube class that has lots of similar interchange types. But maybe you can fill me in on something - for a headphone like the Heinz "HEDDphone" or Rosson Rad-0, would you say these would likely pair well with Citadel, or possibly even better with the more powerful Infinity amp? I'm not sure if these are efficient or need much current, but here are the specs:
- Rosson Audio Rad-0: 29 ohms and a sensitivity of 98dB/mw (planar driver)
- HEDDphone: 42 ohms and 87 dB SPL for 1 mW (unique AMT driver)
(maybe @SonicTrance can answer that too). Thanks
@BzzzzzT I enjoyed reading your review and look forward to trying an Ultrasonic amp. I didn't watch the videos yet but let me tell you we definitely have something in common about electronic music. Though I also listen to acoustic genres, I'm also deeply into the electronic scene (collecting, research, sound design, producing and sometimes DJ for fun.). It's actually all for fun and you can check out some of my work here including lossless download there too. Sometime I'll hit you up about some ideas and stuff because I've been looking to transition from a digital to more of a hardware setup, and also use (oh brother... digital ) saturation effects.
Your description of its' sound was quite impressive. Made me curious which DAC you're using with it; if not all for monitoring use with your modular setup?
And did you get good sound out of it as a speaker amp (if it has one)?
Also from your description it would seem that (perhaps) the Citadel has more authoritative bass compared to the Oblivion. But that's just my guess from what I've read here.
I'm actually thinking of going for Tomas's newer amp design Infinity. Though I don't fully understand the design, it seems to have even more power and at least some more options for tube rolling... especially so depending if you get it customized around a tube class that has lots of similar interchange types. But maybe you can fill me in on something - for a headphone like the Heinz "HEDDphone" or Rosson Rad-0, would you say these would likely pair well with Citadel, or possibly even better with the more powerful Infinity amp? I'm not sure if these are efficient or need much current, but here are the specs:
- Rosson Audio Rad-0: 29 ohms and a sensitivity of 98dB/mw (planar driver)
- HEDDphone: 42 ohms and 87 dB SPL for 1 mW (unique AMT driver)
(maybe @SonicTrance can answer that too). Thanks