[dcguy73]

I wanted red, got red, and I'm glad I did. I'm sure many people would prefer the subtler colors, but I knew I'd always regret it of O didn't get what I really wanted at this pricepoint. Definitely avoid the Zebrawood due to deterioration over time

You know, I got the Zebrawood and was thinking of returning it due to the glue problem, but my spouse and I super glued the Zebrawood veneer to the chassis and it has been trouble-free ever since. Plus, it looks beautiful! Dunno why Pathos can’t just use decent glue that can withstand heat.

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

My Zebrawood peels off overtime due to heat. Pathos Italy changed my casing because of this problem.

 

[tdx]

Hi all,

I will be joining the club in the next few days. While waiting for the amp I wanted to ask you all a couple of questions:

- Following the advice here I will be upgrading stock tubes right away. The two tubes that I'm thinking of are either 80's Siemens E188CC or Mullard 7308s. Wondering if anyone has experienced both and can recommend one over the other? Mainly looking to improve soundstage and refinement without making things sound bright.

- I'll be pairing this with a Holo Spring 3 KTE which has a preamp. I've read here that the May is a little too hot via XLR and therefore clips, so people are running it via RCAs. Since my Spring has a preamp, do you think it's necessary to also run it via RCA or can I run it via XLR and attenuate using the preamp?

Thanks!

 

[DJW50]

Hi all,

I will be joining the club in the next few days. While waiting for the amp I wanted to ask you all a couple of questions:

- Following the advice here I will be upgrading stock tubes right away. The two tubes that I'm thinking of are either 80's Siemens E188CC or Mullard 7308s. Wondering if anyone has experienced both and can recommend one over the other? Mainly looking to improve soundstage and refinement without making things sound bright.

- I'll be pairing this with a Holo Spring 3 KTE which has a preamp. I've read here that the May is a little too hot via XLR and therefore clips, so people are running it via RCAs. Since my Spring has a preamp, do you think it's necessary to also run it via RCA or can I run it via XLR and attenuate using the preamp?

Thanks!

Not sure which country you hail from but I bought two matched Russian Reflector valves from Watford Valves in the UK quite expensive but I'll not be changing anytime soon.

 

[dcguy73]

Hi all,

I will be joining the club in the next few days. While waiting for the amp I wanted to ask you all a couple of questions:

- Following the advice here I will be upgrading stock tubes right away. The two tubes that I'm thinking of are either 80's Siemens E188CC or Mullard 7308s. Wondering if anyone has experienced both and can recommend one over the other? Mainly looking to improve soundstage and refinement without making things sound bright.

- I'll be pairing this with a Holo Spring 3 KTE which has a preamp. I've read here that the May is a little too hot via XLR and therefore clips, so people are running it via RCAs. Since my Spring has a preamp, do you think it's necessary to also run it via RCA or can I run it via XLR and attenuate using the preamp?

Thanks!

It’s not a bad idea to get tubes to roll, but I’d suggest running your new InPol with the stock tubes for a bit to get an idea of a baseline before you change out the tubes. Otherwise, how will you know for sure that other tubes sound better and not just different?

In my experience, Siemens tubes are very linear, almost solid-state sounding. If you want your InPol to sound very defined and neutral, they are good for that. Mullard tubes lean towards the “tubey” sound, with a lot more warmth and thicker bass than the Siemens.

The Holo Spring DAC is a balanced design and meant to be run balanced. Give it a try without the preamp function, but use the preamp function if you find it clipping. It may be satisfying running it single-ended, I don’t know for sure. I own a Spring 1 KTE that sounds best balanced, but I’m not using it with my InPol, so there’s no limitation there with VRMS input.

 

[tdx]

Im in the US but Im sure I can find those

It’s not a bad idea to get tubes to roll, but I’d suggest running your new InPol with the stock tubes for a bit to get an idea of a baseline before you change out the tubes. Otherwise, how will you know for sure that other tubes sound better and not just different?

In my experience, Siemens tubes are very linear, almost solid-state sounding. If you want your InPol to sound very defined and neutral, they are good for that. Mullard tubes lean towards the “tubey” sound, with a lot more warmth and thicker bass than the Siemens.

The Holo Spring DAC is a balanced design and meant to be run balanced. Give it a try without the preamp function, but use the preamp function if you find it clipping. It may be satisfying running it single-ended, I don’t know for sure. I own a Spring 1 KTE that sounds best balanced, but I’m not using it with my InPol, so there’s no limitation there with VRMS input.

Thanks this is all very useful. I will def try the stock tubes first but by your description I think the Siemens are more what Im looking for. As for the Spring, there is no option to bypass the preamp per se, so I guess i would just use XLRs and then play with the volume control of the Spring. I hope using the Spring volume control vs the Inpol wont degrade the signal too much.

 

[hearNew]

I would really give more space to the InPol...

I tend to agree with your suggestion, it runs quite warm in that spot as the shelf is quite limited in space now. I'll move to new apartment in a few months, which means plenty of real estate for (new) gears!! Yay.

Yesterday, I replaced all four stock internal fuses with HiFi Tuning Supreme Copper v3 fuses. Correction to my previous post: The internal fuses are fast-blow, I think. I need to sit down with a magnifier and look at the 2a fuses I took out.

The sound has changed. Music is now more transparent and clear at lower volumes. More 3-D. Smoother-sounding but not rolled off.

I chuckle when I think about a post I read on the forum that fuse swaps don't make a difference because they're just "one little wire" of many. Maybe so, but changing 5 of those little wires does make an audible change.

I haven't had much time to listen since I did the swap. I'll report back later on.

My Inpol Ear is 220v version, which is specced with fast blow for the main fuse. I once tried to find an upgraded one but audio grade fuses are primarily made or stocked in slow blow variant. I was also looking at HiFi Tuning Supreme Copper but only to find it doesn't do in fast blow spec.
Looking forward to hear your impression again after replacement all those fuses.

 

[sahmen]

For those who have used the Inpol Ear solely as a preamp to pair with higher powered speaker amps for either speaker or headpone use, could you kindly provide your impressions of its performance as a pre-amp? Thanks.

 

[tdx]

Hi all, finally got mine. Lovely unit, will put it through its paces before writing a comparison with my other amps. I do have a couple of functionality questions though if anyone can chime in:

- Is there a way not to have both the HP out and preamp on at the same time? I tried to switch inputs both on the unit and the remote, but it seems like when I collect XLRs to the back they're always active, same with headphones. No way to select one or the other?

- I'm confused about the standby mode. Is it something that engages automatically after x amount of time, or does it have to be manually engaged?

Thanks!

 

[tdx]

Ok figured out both questions. However I'm still not 100% sure this amp is for me. I really love the size, low heat when in use, output flexibility and the sound now that I've updated tubes twice is finally to my liking. It's just that the more I compare it to my other amps the more I have to admit I'm leaning more towards pure tubes vs hybrid.

This is a long winded way to say that if anyone here wants a mint lacquered black unit with two extra sets of tubes for a really a low price, feel free to pm me. Would make my choice on which amp to keep much easier

 

[dcguy73]

Ok figured out both questions. However I'm still not 100% sure this amp is for me. I really love the size, low heat when in use, output flexibility and the sound now that I've updated tubes twice is finally to my liking. It's just that the more I compare it to my other amps the more I have to admit I'm leaning more towards pure tubes vs hybrid.

This is a long winded way to say that if anyone here wants a mint lacquered black unit with two extra sets of tubes for a really a low price, feel free to pm me. Would make my choice on which amp to keep much easier

The Pathos with the right tubes has a delicacy to its sound that's addictive, but I learned after owing the Pathos and demoing the Wells Audio Dragon Level 3 that hybrid tube/solid-state amps just don't sound like tube amps.

 

[Musikfan]

Hi, does anyone have any experience with or thoughts on pairing the Pathos inpol ear with the Holo May DAC? Is the Pathos able to drive the Holo May DAC without issues? Are the 2 units a good match? Thanks, James

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Try a PM to xtr4. He has that combo.

 

[Musikfan]

Try a PM to xtr4. He has that combo.

Thanks! Have a nice weekend

 

[decur]

Hi, does anyone have any experience with or thoughts on pairing the Pathos inpol ear with the Holo May DAC? Is the Pathos able to drive the Holo May DAC without issues? Are the 2 units a good match? Thanks, James

The 6volt balanced output maybe to much for the inpol ear,but you could use the unbalanced output of may