[augustwest]

mrarroyo -

Congratulation on the MPX3, looks like you got a sweet deal. I've had mine about a year now, and have never tired of it. You'll find this amp offers endless tube rolling combinations and possiblities. It's almost impossible to guess which combination you might ultimately prefer. One thing is for certain, you'll likely have favorite tube sets for your various headphones, as no one set seems to do it all. I use a different set for Grados & a completely different one for the Sennheisers.

happy listening!

- augustwest

 

[mrarroyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by guzziguy /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi Miguel, No, all SP adapters are not equal. Mikhail sells a bunch of adapters. What I can remember off hand is that he sells the "Slam" adapters for the 5687 family of tubes, 7n7 adapters, 6cg7 adapters, ECC1 adapters, ECC2 adapters and 2c51 adapters. All except for the 5687 adapters are for the gain position. Usually the type is specified on the bottom of the adapter. I suspect that you have two 5687 adapters and one 6cg7 adapter. If you were using the 6cg7 adapter with a 5687 tube when testing out the Slam setup, that might explain why you like the EH 6sn7's better. For me, the EH tubes sound very mediocre. HTH.

Hi, as I stated above my amp arrived w/ three(3) slam adapters. Two of them were identical and had two small screws on top holding an steel ring. The third does not have the two screws holding the steel ring down. So far I have not found any markings but I will get a magnifier glass to check again.

Since I have read that the 5687 sound good as output tubes I took the two(2) slam adpaters that look the same and used them w/ two(2) of the Sylvania 5687 as output tubes.

BTW, what is the use of the 6FQ7 or 6CG7 tubes. Driver?

Thanks.

 

[Skylab]

Miguel:

Congrats on joining the SinglePower bunch. I have an Extreme, and love it!

I do agree with what a couple other people have said, the Electro-Harmonix is the LAST 6SN7 I would use. It's pretty awful, IMO. That brown-base JAN-CHS Sylvania in the picture is where I would start with the driver tube.

I cannot help on the output tubes, though, since the Extreme uses 6AS7/5998 type tubes.

Good luck! I know you enjoy rolling op-amps - just wait until you get into tube rolling. I expect you will have a closet full of tubes in now time (as I do

)

 

[Voltron]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab /img/forum/go_quote.gif That brown-base JAN-CHS Sylvania in the picture is where I would start with the driver tube.

Agreed, but your picture also seems to show a Tung-Sol 6SN7 that is not listed in your first post. That may be a good option, but I cannot tell what the details of the tube are without seeing more of it. The third slam adapter that you have is for the 6FQ7 or 6CG7 tubes. I think they were used as drivers in the traditional slam application. You can combine those drivers with a pair of 6SN7s or 5687s as output tubes. Of course, you can also run all three 6SN7s, but I think the only pair you have are the EHs and those do blow compared to almost any decent NOS pair you can find. Still, it is worth trying and gives you the option of a more refined, beautiful sound at the cost of impact and dynamics.

This SLAM options thread is an easy intro into tube options, but there are other more involved SP tube rolling threads that have lots of into.

As for future options, I would strongly recommend getting a good pair of 6bl7gt or 6bx7gt as outputs, and the 2c51 adapter along with a/some Tung-Sol 2c51s for the driver. That is an outstanding combination with both headphones and in Mikhail's as well as my opinion is the best pre-amp combo available. You saved so much on this deal that spending a little on tubes and an adapter would be well worth it.

Enjoy what you have and know that the options are almost endless.

 

[takezo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voltron /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...As for future options, I would strongly recommend getting a good pair of 6bl7gt or 6bx7gt as outputs, and the 2c51 adapter along with a/some Tung-Sol 2c51s for the driver. That is an outstanding combination with both headphones and in Mikhail's as well as my opinion is the best pre-amp combo available. You saved so much on this deal that spending a little on tubes and an adapter would be well worth it...[/i] [/td] [/tr] [/table] i agree, the 2c51/396a/5670/6385 as the driver and a pair of 6bx7gt seems to me one of the finest combo i've yet heard on a tube amp...and the slightly laid-back refined SQ of the mpx3 really brings out the inner detail of complex passages... but i'm not sure what mrarroyo has is a SE with the higher voltage option to take advantage of the 6blgt/6bxgt tubes...

 

[purk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by takezo /img/forum/go_quote.gif i agree, the 2c51/396a/5670/6385 as the driver and a pair of 6bx7gt seems to me one of the finest combo i've yet heard on a tube amp...and the slightly laid-back refined SQ of the mpx3 really brings out the inner detail of complex passages... but i'm not sure what mrarroyo has is a SE with the higher voltage option to take advantage of the 6blgt/6bxgt tubes...

I don't think he has that option. Like you, the best option is to use the 6BL7GT/6BX7gt as the output tubes. That is a $300 upgrade option though, which to me very well worth the price.

 

[mrarroyo]

Right now, of the tubes I have tried my favorite tube combo is:

- Light brown base Sylvania 6SN7WGT as the driver
- Sylvania 5687 as the output tubes (2)

Yesterday I met w/ volon1 and we tried some of the 6SN7's he has. A pair of them sounded very nicely w/ a pair of GE 5687 as output. However he had a very small tube on an special adpater which I swear it was a Western Electric 396a/2c51 which looked like:

Anyways, we tried that tube as a driver in some kind of adapter made by Mikael and we heard distortion on the right channel. Volume was low so we stopped the testing. I do not know if it was caused by the tube or because the adpater was for vorlon1's Singlepower Extreme. Any thoughts?

 

[Voltron]

Quote:

Originally Posted by takezo /img/forum/go_quote.gif i agree, the 2c51/396a/5670/6385 as the driver and a pair of 6bx7gt seems to me one of the finest combo i've yet heard on a tube amp...and the slightly laid-back refined SQ of the mpx3 really brings out the inner detail of complex passages... but i'm not sure what mrarroyo has is a SE with the higher voltage option to take advantage of the 6blgt/6bxgt tubes...

Quote:

Originally Posted by purk /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't think he has that option. Like you, the best option is to use the 6BL7GT/6BX7gt as the output tubes. That is a $300 upgrade option though, which to me very well worth the price.

Oops, I think you guys are right. Sorry about getting your hopes up, but the rest of the tube options are great and you could always upgrade later!

 

[takezo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...Anyways, we tried that tube as a driver in some kind of adapter made by Mikael and we heard distortion on the right channel. Volume was low so we stopped the testing. I do not know if it was caused by the tube or because the adpater was for vorlon1's Singlepower Extreme. Any thoughts?

you may want to try taking the tube out of the adapter and reposition it.
sometimes a full flush contact is not made when inserting the tube into the
adapter. you should feel or hear a click when the pins are fully inserted.
cleaning the pins of the tubes may help too...

singlepower adapters are made to work in any of their amps within given
parameters. i think 2c51 tubes should work on your mpx3 slam but others
with more experiences may want to chime in...

 

[Von Soundcard]

Does the MPX (also) use the output tubes from Extreme (6AS7 / 5998 / 7236) ? Is so what are the differences between those tube families and the ones only available with MPX (5687 / 6bl7gt etc.) ?

 

[purk]

Nope....I believe the MPX3 uses different output tubes than the Extreme. The MPX3 can use 6SN7,6BL7/6BX7, and 5687 as the output tubes.

 

[Von Soundcard]

The 6sn7 is an input tube (shared with Extreme). So we are sure the MPX cannot use any of the Extreme's output tubes, not even by adapters ?

 

[sacd lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Von Soundcard /img/forum/go_quote.gif The 6sn7 is an input tube (shared with Extreme). So we are sure the MPX cannot use any of the Extreme's output tubes, not even by adapters ?

Absolutely no .... 6as7 and equivalent output tubes would make the MPX3 go up in smoke.

 

[Skylab]

For a headphone amp the 6SN7 can be used as an output tube. Both the 6SN7 and 6AS7 are dual-triodes, it's just that the 6AS7 is much more powerful.

The 6BL7 and 6BX7 also are more powerful tubes than the 6SN7.

 

[Von Soundcard]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab /img/forum/go_quote.gif For a headphone amp the 6SN7 can be used as an output tube.

But can it be used for this headphone amp ? And if so is it practical with most good phones (Senn, AKG, AT etc.) ? Perhaps variants of the tube that are more powerful (6SN7xxx or equivalents) ? If so you could have and all round 6SN7 MPX3 (input and output), which is a musical idea

Quote:

Originally Posted by sacd lover /img/forum/go_quote.gif Absolutely no .... 6as7 and equivalent output tubes would make the MPX3 go up in smoke.

That is unfortunate. I would still like to know what are the differences between the Extreme's families of tubes (like the 6AS7, 5998, 7236) and MPX's tubes (5687, 6bl7, 6bx7).