See post#809. Wires not properly dressed. But the worst is all of the resistors and other parts crossing over each other with no insulation on the bare leads. Many of the uninsulated leads are practically touching other uninsulated leads. Any of these touching could cause a short circuit and may very well have been what blew the capacitor. If I had this amp I would remove the bottom plate and check for shorts before first powering it on. Maybe other builds are better than the one pictured but the pictured one is unacceptable in my opinion.
I have showed the pictures of my amp to some tube amp vendors, and they all told me that the build quality of the Quicksilver is poor, with all of those long resistor leads without any insulation, you are just asking for two to make contact and cause a short.
I have showed the pictures of my amp to some tube amp vendors, and they all told me that the build quality of the Quicksilver is poor, with all of those long resistor leads without any insulation, you are just asking for two to make contact and cause a short.
Yes, for best build, there should be some loose insulation on there. I have rolls of teflon tubing in different sizes that I always used for the the purpose. Easy and quick.
I have modded the amp. The wiring and soldering is very well done imo. As stated above they won't touch as the leads are very stiff and hold position. I have recently built a solid state pass clone and if you have ever made your own amp you can see the quality of the QS build. It's pretty amazing its offered at the price they go for.
I don’t ever plan to open up my Quicksilver, but I’m of the opinion that the sound tells the story not the aesthetics of the wiring. As long as Mike has been making tube amps, I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. If he didn’t, people wouldn’t still be buying his amps. I also get the feeling he’s the type of guy that couldn’t care less what we think of the look of his wiring. He seems like a very pragmatic person to me.
I have showed the pictures of my amp to some tube amp vendors, and they all told me that the build quality of the Quicksilver is poor, with all of those long resistor leads without any insulation, you are just asking for two to make contact and cause a short.
I think it would be nice to have a slip on insulation but you are correct. The soldering is very good and solid, the wires are stiff so unless you open the bottom and push the bare wires together there would be almost zero chance of them ever touching and there is good distance between them. Caps have been known to fail, so I think that the one that did fail, in this thread, should have been fixed with no issue or argument.
According to the tracking info, I’ll be getting my Quicksilver back to me today. It’s been tough week and a half without it. I now know the downside of using tube amplifiers. You never know when an old tube might decide to die spectacularly and take out the amp along with it.
Despite that, I don’t see myself going back to solid states. I’m too invested in the tube sound at this point. That being said, I do plan on picking up one of these Magni Piety amps when they finally get released by Nitsch. It seems like a no brainer for the price.
Recommended. The Utopia + Forza Hybrid is a bit lean straight out of the Hugo 2. The Quicksilver amp adds just the right amount of body to tilt it in the right direction, without making it dark. It's an ideal sound signature. Love that the Quicksilver amp maintains the detail and transparency - wouldn't want to kill what the H2 is capable of.
Back home at last!
I had been planning to go back to my 1955 Mullard EL84s but decided to pop in my other favorites, GE gray oval plate 6BQ5s. These were made in the old Kentucky Ken-Rad factory and are really excellent tubes, well-balanced from top to bottom. They sound great with my ‘54 Amperex long plate 12AX7s. I don’t believe I’ve ever tried this combination. Last time I used the GE tubes, I was using short plate Amperex 12AX7s.
Back home at last!
I had been planning to go back to my 1955 Mullard EL84s but decided to pop in my other favorites, GE gray oval plate 6BQ5s. These were made in the old Kentucky Ken-Rad factory and are really excellent tubes, well-balanced from top to bottom. They sound great with my ‘54 Amperex long plate 12AX7s. I don’t believe I’ve ever tried this combination. Last time I used the GE tubes, I was using short plate Amperex 12AX7s.
What do the Meze Elite sound like on them? I don't recall a lot of people trying planars on the amp but I find it to be very forgiving and fun on the QS
Back home at last!
I had been planning to go back to my 1955 Mullard EL84s but decided to pop in my other favorites, GE gray oval plate 6BQ5s. These were made in the old Kentucky Ken-Rad factory and are really excellent tubes, well-balanced from top to bottom. They sound great with my ‘54 Amperex long plate 12AX7s. I don’t believe I’ve ever tried this combination. Last time I used the GE tubes, I was using short plate Amperex 12AX7s.
What do the Meze Elite sound like on them? I don't recall a lot of people trying planars on the amp but I find it to be very forgiving and fun on the QS
I find the Quicksilver/Meze Elite to be an excellent pairing. Before I got the Elite I had been exclusively using ZMF headphones. They were all 300-ohm dynamics and all sounded great on the Quicksilver. I’ve had multiple versions of the Verite Closed (Manchurian Ash, Olive, Epoxy Stabilized) as well as two different Autuers (Manchurian Ash and Blackwood) and even had a Cocobolo Aeolus for a short time.
The Elite sounds better than all of them in my opinion on the QHA. I feel like tubes make the already natural sounding Elite even more realistic in the vocals. Soundstage is pretty amazing on the Elite, and the QHA enhances that to become even more 3D, with excellent width and depth. I only have one other amp I’ve tried with the Elite, the SW51+. It does an adequate job, but the Quicksilver takes things up a notch in every category. I can’t help but think that the low output impedance on the QHA is a better match with the Elite vs the SW51+.
I plan on picking up the soon-to-be-released Magni Piety to use when I don’t want to worry about warming up the tubes or accidentally leaving the amp on overnight. It has some pretty good reviews from those that have tried it already. For $150, it’s not a huge gamble. I’m also very tempted by the DSHA3F that Nitsch is coming out with. I’ve always wanted a 3F, but I don’t know if I can justify a $2K+ solid state amp. Seems like overkill when I already like my tube setup so much.
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