[Powermankw]

I hope you find a way to audition tube gear (I mean an amp that's all tube). Tubes can make a special kind of musical magic.

As for hybrids, one of the cheapest ones around is actually a very competent, good-sounding demonstration of the breed: it's the humble xDuoo TA-20. It's very small, very powerful, can be used single-ended or balanced in both the inputs & outputs, and sounds way better than the price would suggest. I had one in 2019. Only got it because I wanted to check it out. Ended up selling--but honestly, I was shocked at how good this thing was. It drove all my headphones with ease and sounded quite good.

IMO this amp would be a great "starter" hybrid--a taste of what bigger/badder hybrids can do.

It sells for $399 list (ebay, amazon) or for ~$300 on Drop, when they have stock (not offered at present, but probably will be again):
https://drop.com/buy/xduoo-ta-20-balanced-headphone-amp

They come up F.S. often. Here's a representative Head-Fi listing ($325 w/add'l tubes):
https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/xduoo-ta-20-with-extra-tubes.6964/

Oh... And reading back... You had a V281. So how does it compare? Cause of course I am looking at that and a Burson Solo 3X.

 

[Pharmaboy]

Oh... And reading back... You had a V281. So how does it compare? Cause of course I am looking at that and a Burson Solo 3X.

I have 7 amps currently, and had/sold any number of others. The V281 is the best of the best IMO. I say that not only for its terrific sound (the ideal SS sound for my tastes)--but also because of its unusual/available nowhere else I/O flexibility and diverse gain adjustments (separate adjustments for HP output vs preamp output. Since I have gain issues in my desktop system and use the V281 as my main system preamp as well as main HP amp, this amp is the best thing that happened to my system in the past 15 years or so.

Drop is currently selling the smaller brother of the V291, the V280--the same amp but without the preamp output and circuitry for that. It's smaller but has the same power specs as the V281 for headphones:

https://drop.com/buy/violectric-hpa-v280-final-edition-headphone-amplifier

If you do your listening single-ended and don't need a preamp, I can strongly recommend the (now discontinued) Lake People G109-A (Lake People is the company that owns/operates Violectric). I'm thinking of selling mine soon. If you want to know more about it, pls PM me.

 

[gefski]

I have 7 amps currently, and had/sold any number of others. The V281 is the best of the best IMO. I say that not only for its terrific sound (the ideal SS sound for my tastes)--but also because of its unusual/available nowhere else I/O flexibility and diverse gain adjustments (separate adjustments for HP output vs preamp output. Since I have gain issues in my desktop system and use the V281 as my main system preamp as well as main HP amp, this amp is the best thing that happened to my system in the past 15 years or so.

Drop is currently selling the smaller brother of the V291, the V280--the same amp but without the preamp output and circuitry for that. It's smaller but has the same power specs as the V281 for headphones:

https://drop.com/buy/violectric-hpa-v280-final-edition-headphone-amplifier

If you do your listening single-ended and don't need a preamp, I can strongly recommend the (now discontinued) Lake People G109-A (Lake People is the company that owns/operates Violectric). I'm thinking of selling mine soon. If you want to know more about it, pls PM me.

Yep, the one thing I wish the QS had — even a two step gain switch would be good. It just comes on a bit too fast for me.

 

[jonathan c]

Yep, the one thing I wish the QS had — even a two step gain switch would be good. It just comes on a bit too fast for me.

If you used 12AT7 tubes (60x amplification factor) rather than 12AX7 tubes (100x amplification factor), would that help? (The filament current etc would still be the same.)

 

[Pharmaboy]

If you used 12AT7 tubes (60x amplification factor) rather than 12AX7 tubes (100x amplification factor), would that help? (The filament current etc would still be the same.)

That came up last month (I think it was) in this thread. Or maybe October. Anyway, one person had tried it, and it sounded good (and didn't fry the amp...that's kind of important). Mike Sanders doesn't recommend it, but underpowering the circuit from the driver tubes no doubt is better than overpowering it.

If I get my own QS, I plan to try a pair of very nice NOS 12AT7's that are currently in my Woo WA3 (with adapters) in place of stock 6922s.

I've had amps in both my main system & side-system here over the years that flat-out had too much gain. I have an emergency tactic for dealing with it (a transformer-based passive volume controller in line before the amp), but never want to actually do that. Adding wire & a box to the system, regardless of their transparency, isn't a great recipe for success.

Another solution to amps' gain issue is to have a DAC with a transparent volume pot. I'm working on that...

 

[jonathan c]

That came up last month (I think it was) in this thread. Or maybe October. Anyway, one person had tried it, and it sounded good (and didn't fry the amp...that's kind of important). Mike Sanders doesn't recommend it, but underpowering the circuit from the driver tubes no doubt is better than overpowering it.

If I get my own QS, I plan to try a pair of very nice NOS 12AT7's that are currently in my Woo WA3 (with adapters) in place of stock 6922s.

I've had amps in both my main system & side-system here over the years that flat-out had too much gain. I have an emergency tactic for dealing with it (a transformer-based passive volume controller in line before the amp), but never want to actually do that. Adding wire & a box to the system, regardless of their transparency, isn't a great recipe for success.

Another solution to amps' gain issue is to have a DAC with a transparent volume pot. I'm working on that...

The Sonnet Morpheus perhaps…NOS…R2R…(for testimonial —> @Wes S)

 

[vlach]

Another solution to amps' gain issue is to have a DAC with a transparent volume pot. I'm working on that...

The Nad M51 works well in that capacity in my side-system. No bits are truncated until you attenuate the volume down to -66dB.

 

[Ticonz]

Do you have an outboard DAC or are you using your motherboards headphone jack

I haven't had the time to really dive into the issue until recently but I sort of figured out what is causing the minor feedback while gaming. It seems to have something to do with my computer monitor being at 144 hz. When I capped my fps and monitor to 60 hz.. the issue went away. If i incrementally increase the hz on my monitor.. the sound gets louder until it hits its loudest at 144 hz which is the max my monitor will do without overclocking it. Only happens while gaming.. so odd but I pretty much game with my topping D90 as the amp and then when listening to music.. i'll swap to the Quicksilver haha. I haven't tried moving the whole setup away from my computer but I only really listen to my Headphones while using it.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

Yep, the one thing I wish the QS had — even a two step gain switch would be good. It just comes on a bit too fast for me.

I don’t have direct experience with these things, but I almost bought them back when I wanted more range on the volume knob of my Emotiva A100 speaker amp when used with headphones. I’m not sure how much more range they would provide on the Quicksilver, but they might be worth a shot.

Harrison Labs 12dB Attenuator Pair

 

[Pharmaboy]

I don’t have direct experience with these things, but I almost bought them back when I wanted more range on the volume knob of my Emotiva A100 speaker amp when used with headphones. I’m not sure how much more range they would provide on the Quicksilver, but they might be worth a shot.

Harrison Labs 12dB Attenuator Pair

I researched these pretty extensively at one point. I'd be concerned about a loss of resolution due to inexpensive caps being used. If you read enough user comments about these & other products by this company, you'll find negative comments along those lines.

One way to resolve this dilemma is to have a really high quality passive volume control in line ahead of the amp. I have a pretty good one (transformer based). I've done this a few times with other "hot" amps, the sound of which I felt like chasing despite the gain being too high for my setup.

Then again, adding a box + a 2nd pair of interconnects always feels like a step backwards to me. Sort of like using EQ, something I've thus far avoided in headphone audio. In the long run, it's better to simply have a two stage gain setting on the amp itself...

 

[ckhirnigs113]

I trust @Pharmaboy and his research on these things. It might not be the best option after all. I personally don’t have any issues with channel imbalance with my Quicksilver so I’ve never considered purchasing them for this amp. I’m usually at 9:00 or above when listening.

 

[gefski]

I appreciate the good comments here about reducing the gain on the QS. Like @Pharmaboy, I’m caught between my desire for a little less gain and not wanting to put anything else in the signal path.

Right now I’m running a pair of matched JJ EL844 (low power EL84) and will see how I like them over a few days. Background noise (with no signal) is lower, and initially they’re pretty sweet & smooth. But there seems little or no reduction in gain (which is what Mike Sanders said when I inquired). With GE longplate 12AX7.

 

[vlach]

I appreciate the good comments here about reducing the gain on the QS. Like @Pharmaboy, I’m caught between my desire for a little less gain and not wanting to put anything else in the signal path.

Right now I’m running a pair of matched JJ EL844 (low power EL84) and will see how I like them over a few days. Background noise (with no signal) is lower, and initially they’re pretty sweet & smooth. But there seems little or no reduction in gain (which is what Mike Sanders said when I inquired). With GE longplate 12AX7.

Another cheap and simple alternative would be to insert inline attenuators.

 

[gefski]

Another cheap and simple alternative would be to insert inline attenuators.

Yeah, those Harrison Labs that @ckhirnigs113 posted look decent, and they’re U.S. made. That kind of stuff is always handy to have in the toolbox even if I don’t use them now.

On the other hand, maybe I should quit worrying about the gain and just listen to the music!

 

[Vonx]

Hey Guys,
wondering what tubes everyone is using with this beauty? Can it be tuned to be more euphonic without sacrificing the other qualities?
Does changing the tubes make a significant difference?

The RCA black plate 12AT7's do exactly this for me. Most forward, wet, warm, and natural mids I have heard on the amp so far. Definitely an unashamed n shape tube fr response, but with better technicalities than stock whilst also sounding a bit more lifelike. The highest extremes do roll off a little bit on both ends though, but the tradeoff is definitely worth it for me. I'm really, really happy with this pairing along with the stock jj el84's.

Prior to using those, I also really enjoyed the Baldwin branded Matsushita 12au7's. Neutral but warm tilted, better FR extension than both the stock tubes or RCAs, and also significantly more natural sounding and less etched than the stock tubes. They don't draw me in quite as much as the RCAs though, mostly because I prefer little more warmth and mids bloom.

The stock 12ax7's are... well, they don't make the amp sound bad, but they do limit it a bit I think. Sounds more solid state, not as natural, a little etched and rough around the edges.

For output tubes, I've only tried the stock JJ's and the Mullard New production EL84s. The stock JJ's are fine, pretty good actually. I can't really point out faults with the JJ's yet as I've only heard things that are worse. The NP Mullards EL84s were a step down in basically every way from the stock JJs, in technicalities, naturalness, air, extension, bass quality, everything. YMMV.

Now that I have some input tubes I love, I'm going to try to roll the outputs one more time with a pair of early 60's hammond amperex organ pulls I just found on ebay.

As it is, I'm loving the QS with the RCA's and the stock JJ's. and don't really feel the need to change the sound at all, just curiosity now

Using it with HD6xx's and HD800SDR