[RickB]

Remember the "long boxes" that CDs came in back then so they could fit in display cases meant for vinyl?

I always thought it was to keep them from being shoplifted.

 

[33na3rd]

Tube Noob question:

Why are NOS tubes considered to be better sounding than newer ones?

They were generally built better, and lasted much longer. There are many current production tubes that do sound nice, but they just don't last as long. I don't think that they want them to last long....

 

[dhcarquinez]

Same.




I'm particularly looking forward to checking out Big Ass Potato Meditations
.

Eek-A-Mouse is fun.

 

[theeclone]

Eek-A-Mouse is fun.

Agreed!

 

[Paladin79]

If I had to speculate I'd say it's due to the fact that the more people do something, the better they get at doing it. Also, the more competition there is, the better the product tends to be. Back in the day there was a huge industry around tubes. Tons produced with all the associated institutional knowledge. Maybe you could even describe the process as more artisinal than it is now. Meaning, people, even if producing tubes for someone like the military, took pride in their work and had the resources available to really do a good job.

Now there is less competition, less iteration, more about the bottom line. And the companies making the ho-hum sounding tubes can more easily eke out a living due to less competition and perhaps less discerning ears as our culture has moved away from audiophilia being mainstream.

A very good answer IMHO.

 

[Paladin79]

I am running some Elac UB51’s for a test system and I really like the SQ. Plenty of variables on this old Carver preamp.

Now I need a small computer like a MAC mini if anyone knows of a good deal.

 

[JamminVMI]

For one of the EQs @Jason Stoddard actually recommends in the manual inserting the EQ between the preamp and the power amp. That is necessary if one has multiple sources, naturally.

Reading back EQ reviews circa 2021 some claim the Loki Mini + is not as good as the original and noisy. Any truth to that?

Any sound degradation other than the frequency rebalancing?

Not in my rigs.

 

[r2muchstuff]

... I have been wary since I last logged onto my circa 2012 (?) Mac Mini and for what ever conspiratorial reason my iTunes libary disappeared. The Denon does not have fApple Music natively but I could use my still happily functioning iPad Mini 4 to get it there. I currently use and enjoy SiriusXM, Pandora Premium (Family Plan!) and Amazon Music Unlimited. ..


"Foot Stomping Music" by Grand Funk Railroad is on! HUZZAH!

ORT

I too have been wary of Apple Music ever since reports like yours surfaced years ago. I have much music ripped from CDs, in lossless, that I did not want replaced with an online version. And sometimes multiple versions which would be lost.
I stayed conservative. I keep all the ripped music in an old version of iTunes running on older machines which support OS High Sierra since that is the last version to fully support the classic iPods. These Macs are never logged into Apple Music. Notice when I have referred to my main headphone and whole house system/kit I list a Mac Mini 2011 -> DAC ->

In my very recent re-visit to streaming music I am working from a newer computer where none of my ripped music is located. Trying Amazon Prime Music currently with a plan of testing Apple Music free trial next.

Big point here is that my ripped music and streaming will not coincide on a single computer. Apple, Amazon, Spotify or what not.

Good luck and report back with your out come.

 

[A Jedi]

For $109, Magni+ will deliver more power than Rekkr into HE6 @ 50 ohms and as a bonus includes a volume control.

the HE6 is ~83dB/mW efficiency (very low) so 100mW should yield 103dB.

Both Rekkr and Magni+ are powerful enough driving HE6 to cause hearing damage.

Typical full-size dynamic cans with 100-113 dB/mW efficiency need 50x to 1000x less power than HE6 for same SPL

active pre + 2W speaker amp might have more overall gain and hence lower volume control settings (e.g. 9 o’clock is already super loud) vs 10w head amp by itself, leading to a false impression of more power for the 2W amp

Not bashing on Rekkr at all— for speakers or unconventional planars in 4-8 ohm range definitely Rekkr or Gjallarhorn vs Magni / Lyr / Jotunheim. For ultra low z planars (0.5 -2 ohms) or ribbons like lcd-r, sr-1a then Jot A or Jot R.

Transducer first, then find a matching amp.

You missed the entire point of my post. It's not about gain (voltage), it's about current.

I'm not interested in arguing so I'll leave it at that.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Tube Noob question:

Why are NOS tubes considered to be better sounding than newer ones?

For much the same reason why [ insert random product here ] is considered by many to be superior to its modern counterpart: Nostalgia, the old "they don't make 'em like they used to" bias.

That is not to say that there aren't any fantastic NOS tubes out there. Some Melz and Westinghouse 6SN7s, for example, are truly fantastic and can't be beat with new-production equivalents.
But at the same time, there are also some horrendously bad NOS 6SN7s out there (GE, Sylvania, IMHO), as well as some seriously good new-production ones. (Psvane CV181-T MKII, for example.)

Meanwhile, over in the 6922 camp, the new-production Genalex Gold Lion E88CC is pretty much unbeatable in sonic performance. I have yet to hear a NOS tube that comes even close.

For each and every magnificent Melz and Westinghouse out there, there are dozens of NOS duds, too. They're just not talked about as much, because why would you even want to discuss them if they don't sound all that good to begin with?! And new-production tubes aren't quite as collectable (and thus worthy of discussion) as the few really good NOS tubes are. And so you end up with most of the debate that's out there focusing mainly on the handful of noteworthy NOS tube types, and that makes it seem like they'd be the bee's knees.

That's just the internet doing its thing, I suppose.

So, personally? I don't think that NOS sounds any better or worse than new production. Some NOS tubes outperform their new production counterparts, while other new production tubes leave their NOS brethren in the dust. It really depends on the specific tube you're looking at.

 

[Ripper2860]

Pffft. Everyone knows NOS tubes are better because they don't have Russian or Chinese listening devices incorporated. How do you think the term 'microphonic' for tubes came about?

 

[Paladin79]

For much the same reason why [ insert random product here ] is considered by many to be superior to its modern counterpart: Nostalgia, the old "they don't make 'em like they used to" bias.

That is not to say that there aren't any fantastic NOS tubes out there. Some Melz and Westinghouse 6SN7s, for example, are truly fantastic and can't be beat with new-production equivalents.
But at the same time, there are also some horrendously bad NOS 6SN7s out there (GE, Sylvania, IMHO), as well as some seriously good new-production ones. (Psvane CV181-T MKII, for example.)

Meanwhile, over in the 6922 camp, the new-production Genalex Gold Lion E88CC is pretty much unbeatable in sonic performance. I have yet to hear a NOS tube that comes even close.

For each and every magnificent Melz and Westinghouse out there, there are dozens of NOS duds, too. They're just not talked about as much, because why would you even want to discuss them if they don't sound all that good to begin with?! And new-production tubes aren't quite as collectable (and thus worthy of discussion) as the few really good NOS tubes are. And so you end up with most of the debate that's out there focusing mainly on the handful of noteworthy NOS tube types, and that makes it seem like they'd be the bee's knees.

That's just the internet doing its thing, I suppose.

So, personally? I don't think that NOS sounds any better or worse than new production. Some NOS tubes outperform their new production counterparts, while other new production tubes leave their NOS brethren in the dust. It really depends on the specific tube you're looking at.

Well I sent the Melz and Westinghouse, which other NOS have you tried? I will agree that plenty folks take advantage of others, and it takes a while to learn whom to trust. Sorry if you got burned. Owning a tube tester never hurts. Tubes require research and knowledge IMHO, some have done the work.

 

[theeclone]

On the right are some tubes that I felt were "meh" in the lyr 3. All had low-ish hours on them but were fully burned in. On the left are some NOS Sylvania 6sn7gta's. I liked all of them, least of all the brown "W" version but still better than the newer tubes. Also had a ken rad that I liked better too.

Maybe part of it is a question of bang for the buck. Those Sylvanias I thought were fantastic for the money. The newer tubes on the right, if I recall were in the same price ballpark.

But hey, to each their own! Being a subjectivist is fun

 

[ejk1]

Some members posted they were going to try the new amps Rekkr and Gjallarhorn with some Zu speakers. Has anyone done this yet?

 

[Cliffh93]

I found my Sennheiser RS195 headphones! I got them a few years ago and at first used them a lot and then...gone?! charged them up over the course of the day and evening and have them plugged into my Denon AVR-X4300H now and am listening to "Classic Vinyl". But as is so often the case with me, I have a question about a music service.

fApple Music. Does any one have it and like it? I have been wary since I last logged onto my circa 2012 (?) Mac Mini and for what ever conspiratorial reason my iTunes libary disappeared. The Denon does not have fApple Music natively but I could use my still happily functioning iPad Mini 4 to get it there. I currently use and enjoy SiriusXM, Pandora Premium (Family Plan!) and Amazon Music Unlimited. I have never gone to the Tidal Bowl as I did not wish to support cRap fArteests and that is who owned it although I think that primary owner ship has changed.

I get a head ache every time I write or TRY to say Qobuz. Childish? Yup and proudly so! But I digress - So honest opinions on fApple Music please. I am again using Carplay in my vehicles and I suppose it would work okie-dokie (?). I do not really care about Codecs as I can not tell the difference between Mp3 (not the cool Piaggio scooter!) and Amazon's UHD. I just want to be happy. A dear friend that uses Bluesound in his home told me he likes the algorithm employed by Pandora and I have been a paying customer for over a decade now. I was a fApple enthusiast during the iPod era and still have a 2nd generation click wheel iPod that is nearly immaculate.

Please excuse the usual toadish ramblin'. I really do value the opinions of all here and just want to know if there is something about fApple Music that would be worthy of me risking the trial period. Oh! Riahnnon Giddons is a Goddess and I really enjoyed her work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops and have a couple of albums of her solo work too.

My sincere thanks to any that provide their thoughts on fApple Music.
I have called it that for quite some time now. Our family, much to the chagrin of my spousal unit, will ofttimes butcher words/names. For example we call Outback Steakhouse, "Outhouse Steakback". My wife claims it is no longer "cute" but annoying. Personally I think she is talking about me. I refuse to grow normal.


"Foot Stomping Music" by Grand Funk Railroad is on! HUZZAH!

ORT

I tried it on a free trial last summer but was not impressed. I would get a gap about every 20 minutes or so, Qobuz maybe once each day. I also have 55 Gb of CD rips that I uploaded to iTunes a decade or so ago, which Apple Music pretended didn’t exist on some of my devices. My Qobuz experience has been much better, the recommendation algorithm isn’t the best (they love Hip Hop and I do not) but I know what I’m looking for and almost always find it.