[RickB]

I’ve got roughly 2,158 hours on my Vali 2 with the Genelex Gold Lion 12AX7 tube. How can you tell when a tube is toast on the Vali? It seems to me as though this hybrid amp does not put the tubes through the paces as a 100% tube amp would. Any answers on this?

When a tube went bad on my Vali, I noticed that the vocals became very shrill.

 

[florence]

My vali 2 is on the way. I will pair the Vali with idsd black (as pre-amp or dac with rca output) > ak70 and/or macbook pro > senn hd800 and hd600

What tubes do you recommend regarding my headphones? Some says stock tube is bad so it seems that I will need some better ones. This is gonna be my first tube amp so I have no idea which one I should consider to purchase.

edit: what do you say about E288CC?

 

[jnak00]

Just try the stock tube and see if you like it.

 

[teb1013]

My vali 2 is on the way. I will pair the Vali with idsd black (as pre-amp or dac with rca output) > ak70 and/or macbook pro > senn hd800 and hd600

What tubes do you recommend regarding my headphones? Some says stock tube is bad so it seems that I will need some better ones. This is gonna be my first tube amp so I have no idea which one I should consider to purchase.

edit: what do you say about E288CC?

I use HD 600s with my Vali 2, I no longer remember which tube the Vali 2 came with, but I use an Amperex 7308 NOS tube from 1968 with it and it sounds fantastic! I would agree that you should try out the stock tube first. Good luck!

 

[florence]

Just try the stock tube and see if you like it.

I use HD 600s with my Vali 2, I no longer remember which tube the Vali 2 came with, but I use an Amperex 7308 NOS tube from 1968 with it and it sounds fantastic! I would agree that you should try out the stock tube first. Good luck!

Thank you. I will try the stock tube in the first place. However, while it is on the way, I placed an order, Reflector 6n23p. Hope sounds good enough with HD 600 and HD800.

 

[MementoMori99]

My vali 2 is on the way. I will pair the Vali with idsd black (as pre-amp or dac with rca output) > ak70 and/or macbook pro > senn hd800 and hd600

What tubes do you recommend regarding my headphones? Some says stock tube is bad so it seems that I will need some better ones. This is gonna be my first tube amp so I have no idea which one I should consider to purchase.

edit: what do you say about E288CC?

Please see my post #945 on the vali 2 tube rolling thread in the link below.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/vali-2-tube-rolling.793982/page-63#post-13784041

 

[autox]

Hi all - first post here.

Has anyone observed DC on the output immediately after the muting relay closes?

This will likely be accompanied by that click/pop. I can't think of a way you'd detect it with headphones. I'm using my Vali 2 as a pre-amp for my speakers. After the relay closes, my woofer cones get pushed to x-max and held there for a brief period. Surprisingly, this doesn't affect SQ substantially at low/normal listening volumes. Regardless, DC will cook your driver coils and kill your speakers - badbadbad. Doesn't matter where the Vali's volume knob is. Headphone out does it as well; gain switch makes no difference.

I sent it in for warranty, they said they replaced the board, and it still happens - just doesn't last as long now. This w/ the stock tube, owned about a year. Other, new tubes do the same thing. This just isn't a risk I'm willing to take w/ my speakers - real bummer.

Has any one else seen this?

 

[jnak00]

Hi all - first post here.

Has anyone observed DC on the output immediately after the muting relay closes?

This will likely be accompanied by that click/pop. I can't think of a way you'd detect it with headphones. I'm using my Vali 2 as a pre-amp for my speakers. After the relay closes, my woofer cones get pushed to x-max and held there for a brief period. Surprisingly, this doesn't affect SQ substantially at low/normal listening volumes. Regardless, DC will cook your driver coils and kill your speakers - badbadbad. Doesn't matter where the Vali's volume knob is. Headphone out does it as well; gain switch makes no difference.

I sent it in for warranty, they said they replaced the board, and it still happens - just doesn't last as long now. This w/ the stock tube, owned about a year. Other, new tubes do the same thing. This just isn't a risk I'm willing to take w/ my speakers - real bummer.

Has any one else seen this?

I haven't measured the DC or looked at my speakers when I turn the Vali on, but they would do a nasty pop on startup, either through my speakers or headphones. So now I make sure my speaker amp is turned off, and keep my headphones unplugged, before I turn on the Vali 2.

 

[Tuneslover]

I haven't measured the DC or looked at my speakers when I turn the Vali on, but they would do a nasty pop on startup, either through my speakers or headphones. So now I make sure my speaker amp is turned off, and keep my headphones unplugged, before I turn on the Vali 2.

Yeah I can't stand that pop upon start-up. I sold off my Magni2U and replaced it with Jotunheim which doesn't do that annoying pop. I bought a Project Ember which doesn't do that annoying pop and was planning to sell my Vali 2. However I decided to keep it (for now) and put it onto my computer rig but begrudgingly it forces me to reach around behind my A2 to turn them off.

 

[ToddRaymond]

Hi all - first post here.

Has anyone observed DC on the output immediately after the muting relay closes?

This will likely be accompanied by that click/pop. I can't think of a way you'd detect it with headphones. I'm using my Vali 2 as a pre-amp for my speakers. After the relay closes, my woofer cones get pushed to x-max and held there for a brief period. Surprisingly, this doesn't affect SQ substantially at low/normal listening volumes. Regardless, DC will cook your driver coils and kill your speakers - badbadbad. Doesn't matter where the Vali's volume knob is. Headphone out does it as well; gain switch makes no difference.

I sent it in for warranty, they said they replaced the board, and it still happens - just doesn't last as long now. This w/ the stock tube, owned about a year. Other, new tubes do the same thing. This just isn't a risk I'm willing to take w/ my speakers - real bummer.

Has any one else seen this?

Yes. When I used my Vali 2 and Lyr 2 as a preamp at different times, they would send a bad pop through my power amp and speakers, and put my power amp into protection mode. I shared these experience once on Jason's thread and he deleted my post.

My tubes were various Reflektors.

 

[Harry Manback]

Yes. When I used my Vali 2 and Lyr 2 as a preamp at different times, they would send a bad pop through my power amp and speakers, and put my power amp into protection mode. I shared these experience once on Jason's thread and he deleted my post.

My tubes were various Reflektors.

How could Jason delete a post? If sponsors can do that this whole site is suddenly invalid.

 

[autox]

Yes. When I used my Vali 2 and Lyr 2 as a preamp at different times, they would send a bad pop through my power amp and speakers, and put my power amp into protection mode. I shared these experience once on Jason's thread and he deleted my post.

My tubes were various Reflektors.

@Turdski,

Ok, so the pop made it past the protection trigger to your speakers, but then it went in to protection mode? Do you know what triggers protection mode? Do you think it was DC?

 

[ToddRaymond]

He and Mike are free to moderate their own threads (the "Schiit Happened" and "What a long, strange trip" threads). MIke has only deleted two posts: One for being incomprehensible, and the other for being racist. Jason has at times felt the need to deleted a number of posts. Despite the thread often going completely off the rails, sometimes there's a bit more of an attempt to keep the thread "on topic", meaning, positively promoting the brand. (In my opinion; your mileage may vary, etc.) Once he asked who would be interested in a small desktop amp, and my post expressing interest also got deleted.

I should provide more context for these two examples. During the second example, I believe an argument was starting to gain momentum between a couple of posters, resulting in a couple extra pages of blahbiddy-blah, so perhaps the timing of my "I would LOVE to see a mini pivot-point-based amp" was (somehow) taken as a "yeah, okay guys, time to shuddup now/thanks for weighing in". In the first example, someone had just mentioned a (potentially spurious) story someone else had posted on another forum, I believe, about a Schiit headphone amp causing some major problems when being used as a preamp. In Jason's defence, he was likely trying to avoid a Schiitstorm of (potential nonsense) information being propagated seemingly endlessly, and so on. I did chime in though just to mention what I touched on in my previous post in this thread, as I too had noticed this as being a characteristic of *multiple* Schiit headphone amps. I'm hesitant to even write all about this, as I feel fervent Schiit supporters will express their mountain doubt, and I'll otherwise being accused of being off topic. I think though that it's important – for a variety of reasons – to know not just about a product or company's many strengths – as there most assuredly are in this case – but also any possible shortcomings that fellow users may experience. When some individuals simply mention that their support hasn't gotten back to them after several days, those people are often met with an avalanche of doubt. Meanwhile, the man himself has very recently admitted to this being an issue in the past. (For the record, I've had mostly great experiences with both their products and their support. [EDIT: Mostly, but also some not so great support when things crapped out in a very short amount of time.] Also, I've owned 15 pieces of Schiit at this point.)

 

[ToddRaymond]

@Turdski,

Ok, so the pop made it past the protection trigger to your speakers, but then it went in to protection mode? Do you know what triggers protection mode? Do you think it was DC?

From my broken armchair engineer's vantage point, that very much sounds plausible. To be more clear, the "POOF/POP" happened virtually at the same exact moment as the Ayre power amp went into "uhhhh, no thank-you" mode. Within probably 0.25 seconds. Every single time, with both the Vali 2 and Lyr 2. Don't think the original Mjolnir did that though with my McIntosh amp (or maybe it was to a lesser degree... that was a while ago).

 

[RickB]

From my broken armchair engineer's vantage point, that very much sounds plausible. To be more clear, the "POOF/POP" happened virtually at the same exact moment as the Ayre power amp went into "uhhhh, no thank-you" mode. Within probably 0.25 seconds. Every single time, with both the Vali 2 and Lyr 2. Don't think the original Mjolnir did that though with my McIntosh amp (or maybe it was to a lesser degree... that was a while ago).

Let me ask you, in your opinion, is it dangerous to have headphones plugged into a Schiit amp that produces a pop when turned on?