[Paladin79]

LOL! Maybe I should rethink my Christmas gift idea for @Paladin79 this year...

I could use 14 of those just in case my phone dies and I can no longer control my lights with it. On second thought they would probably turn some lights on while I turn others off.
I already bought you a Life Alert beeper for when you have fallen and can’t get back up.

 

[Orange5o]

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.

Hmm, just received a pair of 1959 Fotons today...did I get a good year?

 

[Paladin79]

Hmm, just received a pair of 1959 Fotons today...did I get a good year?

A good year for some tubes. I thought you were buying a Melz Was that not a 1959? Oh and it is always a good idea to replace the solder in the tube pins with Russian tubes from that period, I can help if you need it, as can Bill and he is closer to you.

 

[Orange5o]

I did, and now I'm mixing them up. The 1578 is 1959 and the Foton 6n8s's are 1958!

On a bit of a tube buying binge...

 

[bdem1]

Hello everyone. Looking for opinions. I am getting now into the ""new" digital thing buying a Yggy and playing/streaming my music files. What do you all think of a good FLAC player? Also best music service.

I currently have Amazon music with exclusive mode turned on. Are there better services for high quality...Yggy deserving playback.

Thank you

 

[Paladin79]

I did, and now I'm mixing them up. The 1578 is 1959 and the Foton 6n8s's are 1958!

On a bit of a tube buying binge...

The Fotons prior to the 60’s are decent tubes for the price, I have not compared as many as Bill so he is a better judge. Both brands will need solder replacement. Some just reflow the solder but I prefer to remove the solder, apply liquid flux, then resolder with a silver content solder that Kester used to make.

 

[bcowen]

Hmm, just received a pair of 1959 Fotons today...did I get a good year?

Any of the '50's Fotons are good, IMO. The ribbed plate versions ('51 - '56) are slightly better but the difference is pretty minor.

 

[sixergixer]

Hello everyone. Looking for opinions. I am getting now into the ""new" digital thing buying a Yggy and playing/streaming my music files. What do you all think of a good FLAC player? Also best music service.

I currently have Amazon music with exclusive mode turned on. Are there better services for high quality...Yggy deserving playback.

Thank you

I have been thoroughly enjoying my Cambridge Audio MXN10 streamer. It sounds very good out of its own DAC and I imagine it would feed an Yggy through its coax output very, very nicely. It's not quite WiiM-affordable but is not far off and has an all-metal chassis and a more appealing form factor, in my opinion.

I've been using Qobuz for over four years now, if not longer, and it is definitely my pick of all the services. It integrates nicely into Cambridge's StreamMagic app and sounds awesome! Fantastic editorial content through the Qobuz app as well.

Cheers!

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

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...

His mention of "audiophile ethernet switches" drives me up an acoustically untreated wall. While I appreciate his politeness, the fact remains that ethernet switches are at layer 2 (datalink), and can't *possibly* know the contents of network packets passing through them. The *only* manipulation at layer 2 is VLAN tagging, giving the ability to prioritize traffic as the switch traffic approaches congestion (example: VOIP in enterprise networks). We only "know" about packet content (TCP, UDP, or even Novel's IPX) when we are at layer 3 (network).....

 

[Orange5o]

The Fotons prior to the 60’s are decent tubes for the price, I have not compared as many as Bill so he is a better judge. Both brands will need solder replacement. Some just reflow the solder but I prefer to remove the solder, apply liquid flux, then resolder with a silver content solder that Kester used to make.

Solder replacement eventually, or just needs it now in general?

 

[Joppmann]

What Magnepan model is set up at the Schiitr?

 

[AstronomerXI]

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!!!

Nice! Love me some green storm clouds!

 

[adias]

Hello everyone. Looking for opinions. I am getting now into the ""new" digital thing buying a Yggy and playing/streaming my music files. What do you all think of a good FLAC player? Also best music service.

I currently have Amazon music with exclusive mode turned on. Are there better services for high quality...Yggy deserving playback.

Thank you

I was an Amazon Unlimited subscriber for over a year but found that it is prone to transcoding depending on the player source you are using. I switched to Qobuz and like it; no transcoding issues.

Regarding a streamer - I use a WiiM Pro and connect that via a BlueJeans coax cable to a Yggy+ OG. it works very well and it is very convenient to operate remotely using a smart phone.It supports Chromecast which allows one to use native apps directly.
I also use an iOS device connected via Unison to the DAC and that is marginally better. One needs to be able to count the number of angels dancing on a pinhead to tell the difference, but if you are very critical it is there (marginally). I use the iOS streaming less often due to its lack of convenience, lacking remote control.

Does the WiiM Pro plastic case bother me? No. I doubt it radiates any RF detected by the digital pipeline I use.
Does the internal mic (WiiM claims it is used for synchronization with other devices) bother me? No. I do not even see my device as it is located deep into a shelf behind a lot of stuff. In addition, I placed a felt cover over its mic orifice. I doubt the box will pick up any acoustic field of sigificance, and if it does it’s the music being played back.

As they say… YMMV.

 

[adias]

What Magnepan model is set up at the Schiitr?

IIRC, 1.7 0.7.

 

[Paladin79]

Solder replacement eventually, or just needs it now in general?

You can try them of course, Fotons from my experience can drift in SQ till the solder work is fixed, Melz is either going to give you issues or sound wonderful, eventually it might need the solder replacement. They seem to get a bit noisy if they need the solder work done, a bit of background noise. When right they are one of the most balanced tubes over the entire audible range that you can find, I am biased but they rated at the top in blind tests I helped establish. We used four Incubus amps as the test engines. The Fotons to me have a less accurate bass, slightly muddy but more evident. I do think they exceeded many tubes that cost a lot more, at the time they were plentiful at $20 each or so; they punched well above their weight. It used to be thought that Fotons needed a long burn in but I disproved that by fixing the pin solder.