[Pandahead]

Oh you guys are hilarious.

And the way things are going, you're gonna be very lucky if there is a Valhalla 3. Ever.

Warning: mini-chapter ahead.

Today, after months of painful back and forth with transformers, the whole Valhalla 3 thing came to a head. As far as transformers go, we are screwed in any number of ways:

1. A transformer that is perfectly fine, but runs at 90-95 degrees C. No, that's not a misprint. No, that's not Freedum Units. Now, transformers--even base-model, low-spec ones--can run at temperatures that will boil water for years, but your fingers will be less than happy when that transformer sits 1/4" away from an aluminum top panel.​

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2. A transformer that runs cool, but has so much radiated field that it turns the steel bottom chassis into a paint shaker. I mean seriously insane. Like might-suck-your-Vidar-down-into-a-bottomless-magnetic-chasm insane.​

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3. A 2-transformer solution that runs fine, but does not fit the chassis.​

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4. A single larger transformer than runs fine, but does not fit the chassis.​

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5. Two provisional untested solutions, each based on stuff we've never done before, like running heaters in series. Still waiting to hear if the transformer manufacturer laughs those out of the room.​

So right now we have no product. Maybe if we added a fan to #1, but come on, do you guys want a desktop tube amp that has a fan in it? Never mind, I know the answer to that.

On top of all that, in an ultimate ironic note, I got a shipment from a favorite winery today.

One of the wines was a blend. Called "Valhalla."

I almost opened it on the spot.

And I should have. On my way out to the car, I dropped the bottle on the concrete parking lot. It had the expected effect.

The Valhalla curse struck again.



So yeah, I'm kinda done with Valhallas (of any kind) for a while.

Does that mean Valhalla 3 is dead? Not yet, but we don't have a workable solution yet.

It'll happen when, and if, it happens.

Sorry if this idea has been mentioned already in the past 11 pages.

Could you devise a Jason clever, lesson in ingenious heat dissipation the way we do it in Texas, matching two chassis stackable solution?

"Valhalla III is stacked with improved tube sound!"

Just don't do the heat tunnel thing again and send it out with a fire extinguisher. People want to stack! Texas style. Bigger and taller. Taller than a bottle of the best Texas wine.

Paladin needs to keep busy.

All jokes aside going up in limited space is easier than Yggy width components.

A two piece Valhalla III could sit proud atop a stack anchored by the uber cool Bifrost Multibit Autonomy DAC!

Think of the Stellar Sounding Stacks that could be done. Everyone is doing it now with the small stuff. Think a little bigger. There could be a Texas night stand edition set in tiger maple.

Take a poll. Ask if folks here would be willing to pay more for a two piece solution over a one piece solution, which as of now can't be done, as opposed to going wider.

Folks may very well pay bigger to stack smaller.....width wise....... even if it's just for fun and cool. It's a giant part of your Sine Wave.

Just a morning thought from Hill Country.

 

[artur9]

... Notice how I spent my money as he watched and waited for results?

A true friend! I need more like that... :-D

 

[artur9]

Sorry if this idea has been mentioned already in the past 11 pages.

...

"Valhalla III is stacked with improved tube sound!"

Just don't do the heat tunnel thing again and send it out with a fire extinguisher. People want to stack! Texas style. Bigger and taller. Taller than a bottle of the best Texas wine.

...

Valhalla III aka "Texas-Sized Pile of Schiit".

I had a similar thought. Or, steal a beat from some other manufacturers, and make stackable mono Valhahalla 3 (Valhalla 1.5?) and/or reduced power (and heat) Valhalla 3 that can be mono-tized. One Valhalla 3 for N watts, 2 for 2xN watts as monoblocks.

 

[dstrimbu]

Room treatments - the clap test

Darko nails this one IMHO:
(you can watch the whole thing if you want, but this is the most important part to me)

And guess what? YMWV - your mileage WON'T vary - if your room is not properly treated, you're never going to hear what your system is truly capable of...

 

[theveterans]

Room treatments - the clap test

Darko nails this one IMHO:
(you can watch the whole thing if you want, but this is the most important part to me)

And guess what? YMWV - your mileage WON'T vary - if your room is not properly treated, you're never going to hear what your system is truly capable of...

Totally! Nearfield monitors mitigates sophisticated room treatments hence better sound with minimal room treatment, but the sound doesn't scale as large as 2 channel living room setup of course

 

[sixergixer]

Southern Ontario is a decent hotspot for thunderstorms. Lake-fronts collide here on hot days, generating late-afternoon pop-up storms, plus we get systems coming up from the midwest all the time. Plenty of tornadoes happen here, too, though they tend to be rain-wrapped.

We can get some occasionally violent thunderstorms on the High Desert but very rarely anything that would excite a seasoned chaser.

Although, a few years ago we had a storm roll through that provided my very first glimpse of that eerie green light I've heard about. [Caused by sunlight being filtered through dense quantities of hail, I think I read?] that was fairly cyclical in nature. No tornado but there was a significant downdraft that caused some localized structure damage just north of us.

Was absolutely spectacular to watch!!!

 

[Bowmoreman]

I'm assuming that's a joke. I run a weather page on FB that's somehow amassed 15k followers (it was supposed to be for ~20 family and friends), primarily focused on severe weather for my region (I'm a chaser), and I've had to ban many "chemtrail" conspiracy theorists who poke their heads up every time a pic of a cool cloud formation or one with a contrail is posted. I had a big flurry of 'em when SW Ontario had a wonderful display of Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds across a broad swath of the region this Winter and I posted this pic. Afterwards, I set the filters on the page to auto-block a whole bunch of conspiracy terms. Reality is so much cooler and far more interesting than some of these oddball conspiracy fantasies.

Nice. I myself am quite fond of all the variants of Mammatus cloud formations… they tend to freak people out as well…

No time for tin-foil-hatters…

 

[Paladin79]

Looking forward to seeing your re-freshed turntables.

First we are redoing our floors upstairs, then hopefully I can start. Naturally I will show off some of my turntable work if there is an interest.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Room treatments - the clap test

Darko nails this one IMHO:
(you can watch the whole thing if you want, but this is the most important part to me)

And guess what? YMWV - your mileage WON'T vary - if your room is not properly treated, you're never going to hear what your system is truly capable of...

Not true. If your room is super echo-y, not only will you be able to hear what your system is truly capable of, you'll be able to hear it dozens of times over!

 

[Roy G. Biv]

We can get some occasionally violent thunderstorms on the High Desert but very rarely anything that would excite a seasoned chaser.

Although, a few years ago we had a storm roll through that provided my very first glimpse of that eerie green light I've heard about. [Caused by sunlight being filtered through dense quantities of hail, I think I read?] that was fairly cyclical in nature. No tornado but there was a significant downdraft that caused some localized structure damage just north of us.

Was absolutely spectacular to watch!!!

Green sky = bad sky. I’ve seen that several times just prior to a significant hail event or tornado.

 

[theveterans]

Nice. I myself am quite fond of all the variants of Mammatus cloud formations… they tend to freak people out as well…

No time for tin-foil-hatters…

Back in 2021, I took the prettiest Mammatus cloud that appeared at Olympic Park Seattle! Feels like getting sucked-in a vortex

 

[Moondog55]

Sort of curious about the cost of production of a new tube? I'm sure QC would drive the cost up a bit (a lot?)

The cost of most of the tubes discussed here is less about the cost of production and more about rarity etc?

With regards to Apos Ray tubes, the following is unsubstantiated and unconfirmed...Quality control has zero involvement. A run of PSVane tubes occurs, basic tests occur on individual tubes, the top 4% of the tested tubes are 'cherry-picked' and selected for Apos with a price bump over the 'lower 96'.
With regards to NOS tubes, yes, rarity can send the price skyward. That high price does not necessarily mean that particular tube sounds better than others.

 

[bcowen]

First we are redoing our floors upstairs, then hopefully I can start. Naturally I will show off some of my turntable work if there is an interest.

A Garrard 301 like this for me please. I can supply the LP's, no problem.

 

[bcowen]

One of the few live recordings I use to demo my main system. Giving credit where it is due, I learned about it from @Ripper2860. Oh and in case I never mentioned it, @bcowen told me I ought to check out Melz version of 6sn7's, later on he pointed to one for $20 he said I should try. That was the start of my collecting all the variations I could find. Notice how I spent my money as he watched and waited for results?

I was busy listening to Fotons from every year they were made. My energy is nearly limitless when it comes to audio, but I can't do everything. But belated thanks for picking up the slack.

 

[bcowen]

You speak the truth! Just finished up my AWB earlier this year.

Beautiful work! Very impressive.