[nismohks]

does it make a click when its all the way in?

at the moment, they can still wiggle slightly when i tought them with my finger, however i will try again once the damn tubes cool down

will report back later

 

[vvanrij]

Don't push em in too far, don't force anything, just push it to the stop. Anyway, disconnect your source (the input rca's) to isolate the problem. My zero dac makes some slight noise at volumes above high listening volume, so I should never listen to it that loud, but my MKIVse is as said before 'dead-silent'!

 

[nismohks]

yer i fixed the tubes by pushing them more firmly and i can say that its MUCH MUCh better.

virtually all static is gone so its all good

one thing, how do i clean the damn tubes? im pretty sure i got some hand oil on some of them. so just want to give them a nice clean just for safe guarding.

also, do i have to feed music through it to make it count as burn in? or just leave it on?

is it just me or does the unit get warm on the case etc ...? im running it at 240V australian voltage

 

[TheMarchingMule]

1.) Clean the tube contacts, or the glass?

2.) Burn-in, you need music running through it; the IV cannot just be on

3.) Yes the unit does tend to get warm, but it's nothing to be alarmed about

4.) Can you stop saying 'damn'?

Quote:

Originally Posted by nismohks /img/forum/go_quote.gif yer i fixed the tubes by pushing them more firmly and i can say that its MUCH MUCh better. virtually all static is gone so its all good one thing, how do i clean the damn tubes? im pretty sure i got some hand oil on some of them. so just want to give them a nice clean just for safe guarding. also, do i have to feed music through it to make it count as burn in? or just leave it on? is it just me or does the unit get warm on the case etc ...? im running it at 240V australian voltage

 

[nismohks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMarchingMule /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1.) Clean the tube contacts, or the glass? 2.) Burn-in, you need music running through it; the IV cannot just be on 3.) Yes the unit does tend to get warm, but it's nothing to be alarmed about 4.) Can you stop saying 'damn'?

1) glass, but also just realised the contacts arent in the best shape either...

2) yer tahts what i thought

3) yer it gets quite warm. nothing too hot to touch however but now i absolutely gotta remember to turn it off at night

4) if you insist take in mind i havent slept for around 40 hours (cant sleep on plane and woke up early on the date of departure and its not night here in australia yet ) so sorry, my vocab aint in the best state at the moment

Cheers!

 

[Penchum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nismohks /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1) glass, but also just realised the contacts arent in the best shape either... 2) yer tahts what i thought 3) yer it gets quite warm. nothing too hot to touch however but now i absolutely gotta remember to turn it off at night 4) if you insist take in mind i havent slept for around 40 hours (cant sleep on plane and woke up early on the date of departure and its not night here in australia yet ) so sorry, my vocab aint in the best state at the moment Cheers!

For the tube glass, windex type cleaners are ok, but these may remove some of the printing on the tube. A soft dry cloth will remove most finger prints without messing with the printing. For tube pins, use Deoxit or some type of "tuner/electronics cleaner" and lightly brush them with an old tooth brush.

A quick burn-in rule of thumb: No more than 8 hours in one session, with a complete cool down to room temperature, before starting the next session. I use the alarm in my cell phone, to remind me when to cool the unit off.

The heat from tube amps always seems excessive when you don't have a tube based reference to compare it with. It will most likely be the hottest piece of audio equipment you own.

Best practices: Never leave it on while you are gone. Don't touch the tubes while it is running. Make sure it has plenty of free space around it, so it can shed it's heat to the open air. Don't feed it a pint because it is your new best friend.

 

[vvanrij]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penchum /img/forum/go_quote.gif Don't feed it a pint because it is your new best friend.

GUILTY!

 

[wae5]

I usually use my MKIV SE as a pre amp for my MKV. Today, I discovered I don't need to turn on the MKIV SE to listen to the MKV. To do this I must turn the SE volume control all the way up and when I do the MKV sounds just as good as it always does. Has anyone else tried this? Does it affect the sound?

 

[vvanrij]

You mean, you can pass sound through your MKIV, without having it on :| I gotta try this

 

[wae5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vvanrij /img/forum/go_quote.gif You mean, you can pass sound through your MKIV, without having it on :| I gotta try this

I suspect if the MKIV SE is used this way the SE's volume control acts as a passive, variable resistor so when the volume is turned all the way up there's unity gain or so I've heard.

 

[vvanrij]

I tried it, but the volume is really really low, and I also got some unpleasent pops, so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I prefer connecting source -> receiver -> MKIVse instead of the other way around

 

[wae5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vvanrij /img/forum/go_quote.gif I tried it, but the volume is really really low, and I also got some unpleasent pops, so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I prefer connecting source -> receiver -> MKIVse instead of the other way around

That's strange because the MKV sound is neither too low nor distorted when I do this. Normally I listen at a level of 30 on the MKV when the MKIV SE is turned on and used it as active pre amp. When the MKIV SE is turned off in pass through mode, I turn its volume control all the way up and listen at a setting of 50 on the MKV. I don't think this can do any harm so if you want to daisy chain amps this is a good way to do it. BTW, my Stax SR-1/MK-2 amp does this too (Stax lists it as a feature) so I doubt if it's harmful to do this with the MKIV SE. I'm now listening to my MS1 this way and it never sounded better and even my fussy HT880 purrs nicely along.

PS I may have a MKIV SE V2.

 

[Rocky]

I finally got my MK IVse yesterday!
It was shipped on june 27th and arrived yesterday, july 8th. The norwegian customs decided to keep it to themselvs for a few days, so it was actually in Norway july 2nd.
When I got the package I noticed it was pretty banged up. There was even a small hole in one of the corners of the package. This all scared me a bit, and I was afraid the amp might be damaged. I was very pleased to find out that it was in perfect condition after tearing up the cardboard box.

I set the amp up on my desk and hooked it up to my audiotrak hd2 soundcard. Plugged the power in and turned the amp on. Everything worked perfectly.

I sold my Heed CanAmp to purchase this amp, and I was a little worried I might regret selling it. But the MK IVse has totally reassured me that I have nothing to regret. This amp sounds so good with my hd650's. Im already more pleased with the sound coming from this non-burnt in amp than I was with my fully burnt-in Heed. Im not good at describing sound, so I won't do it
But all I can say is that this amp was totally worth replacing with the canamp. Im gonna enjoy this one tremendously. Thanks alot to Penchum for this great review, which made me buy this wonderful amp!

 

[vvanrij]

Awesome, glad to hear you like it! It does defintly get better with burn in, most noticble thing to me was that the bass was muddy, and is now very accurate, and that the high's extend further. Enjoy!

 

[nismohks]

did anyone else's mkivse came with tubes which had oxidised contact legs?

i took my tubes out and found that the legs was not the usual shiny gold colour, but more of an oxidised yellow brown colour. it is not rusted, but you can see where it has made contact with the actual connections within the connector by shiny gold being revealed.

how can i clean this? should i jsut hit it with some fine grade sand paper?