There will be no 3rd rack that I can assure you. Some of my present amps will go. Eventually only Elekit combo, Oblivion and Odyssey will remain.... and v280 as my only solid state amp. I might change that to v281 because I like that shape better. I know it's been discontinued but that won't stop me from owning it.
I have let the cat out of the bag. The next amp will be call Odyssey, my logon in my local forum. This amp will be special because I even get to choose my own name for it and it will be on the badge. Odyssey will sit on the top of the 2nd rack because it can get hot with KT120, KT150. Yes those tubes are in addition to what I have stated before. Power will be aplenty to drive speakers and hard to drive headphones. He6se and Susvara will be too easy peasy for it. Oblivion will slot below because it's hardly hot and I don't need to change tubes in that amp.
I wasn't going to give out more details but since
@OctavianH ask, I just might volunteer some info but do remember this is the concept phase and things can still change. The main idea is that because I already have Oblivion which sound very clear, full of micro details, 3D wide soundstage, Odyssey will be a classic old school tube kind of design. It will be SET, ie transformer coupled and using good specialised transformers with taps of 8 and 50 ohms for headphones and speakers, Mundorf S/G/O caps and maybe Visnay resistors. It can be use with KT88, KT77, KT66, 6L6GC, 6550, 5881, 807, EL34, EL12 SPEZ, KT120, KT150, etc. With the last 2 tubes, output power will be plenty to drive speakers and certainly any headphones, including He6se and Susvara and any other power hungry headphones.
I don't like the chassis to be as big as Infinity. Even Oblivion chassis will work but it's most likely I'll opt for a special chassis that has a Viking look haha. It will have triode and ultralinear modes and I've ask for a 'keep it simple and stupid principle' in looks. I.e no manual adjustments of bias. Maybe 2 settings that will be accomplished with the flick of a switch.
There will be speakers banana plugs out and preamp out. xlr and rca input even though it's not a balance amp, purely to cater for my 2 inputs - Yggdrasil via xlr and turntable via rca. 2 beautiful meters - I don't care what it does as long as it dance in time to the music lol. Tomas will have given up by now lol.
Headphone out will be 1/4 inch jack and xlr balance out. Again I repeat this is not a balance amp. Those xlr balance connectors are just for convenience as all my headphone cables are terminated with 4pin xlr out and also in consideration of Yggdrasil balance out being better. I'll use primarily NOS tubes - drivers to be decided or I'm not talking about it in case ebay sellers watching jack up those tube prices. Power tubes are all NOS and will be source from my private 'friend' who will make me bankrupt investing in the likes of GEC KT88, KT77, KT66 and Philips Miniwatt 6CA7, Tung Sol 1960s 6550 (super rare), Radiotron 807 with the D^D logo, my own 5 pairs of NOS Telefunken and Tesla EL12 spez tubes. There's is a possibility that I might get a pair of GEC TT21 NOS tubes. I think that's enough. I won't be using 6V6 or 6L6 as those require less power which means another bias setting. Besides I want good sounding and powerful and sweet sounding tubes. This is when the odyssey voyage comes to an end, so it will be some amp but not overly over the top. There should be budget later for Susvara, He6se and Abyss 1266 phi TC.
After which I'll be spinning my vinyls and going through Tidal HiFi catalogue. Am I interested in a streamer later? Possibly but certainly a power conditioner, proper power cables, interconnects and speaker cables. After which I'll retire UntilThen and come back as TheEnd.
P/s as I type, I get a message from Tomas, suggesting a stylish wooden chassis. Now I'm getting a bit more excited. Either that or a stylish aircraft grade 10mm aluminium casing in gun metal grey or maroon red or gold. Now I'm getting over the top.
