Exacoustatowner
1000+ Head-Fier
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- Feb 8, 2015
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Hello guys, I just recently bought a [COLOR=222222]1975 6N23P Reflektor SWGP tube in mint condition, I thought I would share my impressions since I've heard this tube spoken about on this thread with such high regard (I was using these on my Project EMber 2.0 amp with HD 650 'cans and a decent DAC). Be prepared for a surprise.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=222222]JJ ECC82 (stock tube with Ember 2 amp)[/COLOR][COLOR=222222]
[/COLOR][COLOR=222222]Clarity: 5.5/10. THD: 7/10 (higher THD is worse). Bass: there but somewhat muddy / not a pleasing presentation, maybe be a bit rolled off in the subbass. Energy: 2/10. Impact: 2/10. Overall impression not even on the same playing field as being 'refined', weak soundstage & impact 'slam', sounds like very high THD resulting in a very very fake-'ish sound. My ranking 2/10[/COLOR]
[COLOR=222222]1975 6N23P Reflektor SWGP Silver Shields (somebody called this a 'Holy Grail'???)[/COLOR]
[COLOR=222222]Clarity: 5.7/10. THD: 6.5/10. Bass: able to reproduce proper bass frequencies including sub-bass, but muddy and not at all a pleasing presentation. Energy: 3/10. Impact: 2.5/10. Overall impression about 20% more refined than the above: improved clarity, soundstage, FR & impact than the above by about 20%, but remains 'unlistenable' to me and much, much much more to be desired in a sound signature. My ranking: 3/10.[/COLOR]
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For a little background, I am a music producer, and with my interactions with Head-Fi'ers at meets and online I have found myself to be an especially analytical listener. And as far as the reason I have rated the 'holy grails', so lowly, it's simply because I have tried to many other hi-end setups at meets and of my own, so for me, the bar for what I expect out of sound has been raised all the way to the Woo Audio / Eddie Current / Stax / Yggy level.
So after a long, critical listen to the Reflektor tubes, I put in the stock ECC82 tubes shown at top, which made me realise the Reflektor was only about 20% more refined. Next I had popped in my 'Franker Ember' tube setup into the Ember amp, which consists of dual Ken-Rad 7193 tubes connected via both a 6SN7 and 7193 adapter, and WOW, wow, wow! I know this defines logic but my brain kept shouting out a number: "48x better!" I noticed an improvement all across the board: far superior dynamics, larger / more lifelike soundstage, energy, realism & detail, dramatic enough to make me so I'll never touch the Reflektor again.
Then into the stratosphere of sonic perfection (all IMO), the Liquid Carbon amp sounds twice as good as the Ember 2 setup above, and the Eddie Current Zana Deux sounds almost twice as good as the LC, and (I've heard) that the Eddie Current Studio"wasn't even in the same league" as the Zana Deux. Here are these absolute TOTL multi-thousand dollar tube amps from Eddie Current:
So as you can see there is amazingly greater potential for sound that can be had than the first 2 entry-level tubes mentioned above. I'm leaning towards giving up on tubes of those size, because IMO, the general rule of thumb is that larger tubes sound better. And since the Schiit Lyr and Project Ember may both use the same type of tubes, I'm willing to bet that the awesome 7193 tubes would be possible on the Lyr amp. But it would have to be connected to the Lyr as two separate tubes rather than the dual 'Franken Ember' setup, so you'd have to do some checking for possible adapters to use for it, and the case may need to be removed from the Lyr to make them fit.
If anybody's still interested to buy a Reflektor tube, send me a PM and I'll be happy to sell it.
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I'm confused. Did you try a matched pair of Reflektor SWPG 75 in a Lyr or a single in something else?