[minimus]

Well, I have been waiting a seeming eternity for my Singlepower Extreme to be repaired. Bolder Cabler, which has kindly offered to fix the amp, has said that my amp has a variety of problems and wasn't really manufactured like the other Extremes (shocker!), making diagnosis and repair even more difficult. My concern is that the amp may still be failure-prone even after it comes back from Bolder.

So, with that preface, I am looking for a second tube amp that has really good synergies with the DX1000. I seem to recall reading in another thread that Darkvoice amps pair really well with the DX1000. Should I be looking to buy a specific Darkvoice model? Are there other tube amps that I should have on my short list? Ideally, I am looking to spend less than $1,000 on the amp, but am willing to invest in some NOS tubes to get the most out of the amp.

NB. I would especially love Skylab's opinion on this one. Let's face it, he is like the Yoda of Head-Fi, especially when it comes to tube amps.

 

[argentum]

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/tra...ad-one-381405/

 

[minimus]

thanks for the links to the Trafomatic review. I had not seen that before. However, I am a little concerned that the sound signature is described as forward and that tube rolling is difficult because of the scarcity of the tubes used in the amp.

 

[Skylab]

Well, I use my DX1000's with the Decware CSP-2, and they sound terrific with it. Infinite tube-rolling possibilities, too. The CSP-2 is a great amp in general, but really superb with the DX-1000.

 

[minimus]

Skylab, thanks for the recommendation. I have read your very positive review of the Decware amp. It is especially helpful to know how well it pairs with the DX1000s. The amp looks to be very well designed and built by a reputable US company at an affordable price.

Out of curiosity, did you sell your repaired Singlepower Extreme or did you just take all Singlepower amps out of your signature to avoid any implicit endorsement of Mikhail's dangerous junk? If you kept it, has the Extreme had any functional problems since it was repaired?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Happy Camper]

Mark,

When you get your estimate, would you report your problems in the Extreme thread sticky? Particularly, board style/revision/year.

 

[minimus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happy Camper /img/forum/go_quote.gif Mark, When you get your estimate, would you report your problems in the Extreme thread sticky? Particularly, board style/revision/year.

Sure, I will be happy to do that. Unfortunately, Wayne at Bolder Cable seems to be swamped with Singlepower amps in need of repair, so it could be a while before I will get a diagnosis and repair cost estimate from him

 

[Skylab]

Quote:

Originally Posted by minimus /img/forum/go_quote.gif Out of curiosity, did you sell your repaired Singlepower Extreme or did you just take all Singlepower amps out of your signature to avoid any implicit endorsement of Mikhail's dangerous junk? If you kept it, has the Extreme had any functional problems since it was repaired?

It is the latter. I still have the repaired Extreme, and it sounds terrific with the new transformer - better than it ever did before, and I always thought it sounded good. It's performed perfectly since the repair. As you guessed, I removed the amp from my sig, and from my tube amp review summary, as I do not want anyone new to the forums to even mistakenly think contacting Singlepower is a good idea. Heck, even buying a used Extreme is a bad idea, unless the buyer is 100% sure that it has been competently repaired already.

But having had mine repaired, I will not be selling it - no way I would get enough money for it to justify it, and it sounds terrific.