[karangovil]

Have been keeping an eye out to add a quality SS amp and nabbed a dukei built CFA-3 (yea, I know, I said no more amps... but I swear, only one.. or two more... as long as I can fit it in the rack).

Definitely getting the SS vs. Tube flavors which I hoped for.

After crawling around for a few hours today, cables and rack are neatly re-arranged. Now time to spend the rest of the weekend listening and discovering new synergies

Lovey setup, CFA3 is quite imposing!

What is under the Bricasti?

 

[goldwerger]

Lovey setup, CFA3 is quite imposing!

What is under the Bricasti?

Thank you (yes, it is..)

That's a custom switchbox I commissioned from @HiGHFLYiN9 at Zynsnoix who does excellent work. Here is an older post were I provided some specfics on its design: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hifiman-susvara.853031/page-1210#post-17164001

 

[karangovil]

Thank you (yes, it is..)

That's a custom switchbox I commissioned from @HiGHFLYiN9 at Zynsnoix who does excellent work. Here is an older post were I provided some specfics on its design: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hifiman-susvara.853031/page-1210#post-17164001

That’s a pretty cool box, didn’t know about Zynsonix. These switcher boxes look quite useful with my ever growing pile of gear. Learn something new everyday

 

[Pharmaboy]

Thank you (yes, it is..)

That's a custom switchbox I commissioned from @HiGHFLYiN9 at Zynsnoix who does excellent work. Here is an older post were I provided some specfics on its design: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hifiman-susvara.853031/page-1210#post-17164001

He does beautiful work! Is it fair to ask what this switch cost?

 

[goldwerger]

He does beautiful work! Is it fair to ask what this switch cost?

One thing that will imapct cost dramatically is choice of cabling inside. I did pure silver cables inside. That was a couple of years ago abd was about 2k from memory. Practically, this is like getting a high quality passive preamp without volume control (I considered actually adding a passive attenuator; but decided not to mess with impedances or interfere in anyway with the signal path). Not sure today, and if I used copper cables might have been half that. Then again, inflation etc. He has some ready made switchboxes on his site that start in the $300-400 but once you go custom it's really whatever you choose to build...

 

[goldwerger]

Have been keeping an eye out to add a quality SS amp and nabbed a dukei built CFA-3 (yea, I know, I said no more amps... but I swear, only one.. or two more... as long as I can fit it in the rack).

Definitely getting the SS vs. Tube flavors which I hoped for.

After crawling around for a few hours today, cables and rack are neatly re-arranged. Now time to spend the rest of the weekend listening and discovering new synergies

btw, the CFA-3 I got from @genefruit who commissioned it a year ago from @Dukei . I just got lucky picking that up from him and bypassing the entire build and wait process... so I get no credit except for being in the right place at the right time to pick it up..

 

[genefruit]

btw, the CFA-3 I got from @genefruit who commissioned it a year ago from @Dukei . I just got lucky picking that up from him and bypassing the entire build and wait process... so I get no credit except for being in the right place at the right time to pick it up..

Timing was perfect. I hope it serves you well for a long time. Great amp.

 

[Monsterzero]

Timing was perfect. I hope it serves you well for a long time. Great amp.

How is the Bliss with your VO?

 

[genefruit]

How is the Bliss with your VO?

I find it to be a nice pairing. I've only owned VO and Bliss for a week, so I don't think I'm the best judge. That said, I'm not reaching to turn on the Stellaris as a requirement to enjoy the VO. Today is Aeras>X9000 day. 11 hours so far. Really should find a hobby.

 

[jinxy245]

Have been keeping an eye out to add a quality SS amp and nabbed a dukei built CFA-3 (yea, I know, I said no more amps... but I swear, only one.. or two more... as long as I can fit it in the rack).

Definitely getting the SS vs. Tube flavors which I hoped for.

After crawling around for a few hours today, cables and rack are neatly re-arranged. Now time to spend the rest of the weekend listening and discovering new synergies

Very interesting looking amp...impressions please! (when you get a handle on it & a chance to share of course)

 

[goldwerger]

Very interesting looking amp...impressions please! (when you get a handle on it & a chance to share of course)

will do.. it's my first day of listening to it so will make some mileage before I provide thoughtful impressions but promise to do that. But a few hours in, it's definitely providing the SS contrast to be beloved Nirvana tube amping. The Nirvana, which is a very llinear and powerul amp, has nonetheless the subtle tube amping (which I love!) with textured bass and holographic presentation. The CFA-3 is crisp and clean, with excellent transient response. To be continued..

 

[kkrazik2008]

Thank you (yes, it is..)

That's a custom switchbox I commissioned from @HiGHFLYiN9 at Zynsnoix who does excellent work. Here is an older post were I provided some specfics on its design: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hifiman-susvara.853031/page-1210#post-17164001

Wonderful set up, so what is the box on the bottom shelf with XLR and knobs? Is it part of the other same box above?

 

[karangovil]

CFA3 vs Studio B: Synergy with Atrium and VC

I should preface this by saying that I am generally not a big fan of SS amps with ZMFs and mostly got the Dukei built CFA3 for 1266 TC which I almost always use with Studio B as a tube pre. Dukei had mentioned that although CFA3 would work with efficient loads like ZMF and Sennheisers, it really likes power hungry planars. But seeing all this talk about CFA3 in this thread got me curious and thought it might be fun to try some ZMFs so here is a mini comparison with Studio B till @goldwerger gives more detailed comparisons, especially with Caldera.

Disclaimer I am not a reviewer and this is all very subjective and qualitative without any measurements and should be only taken as a comparison and not an absolute review of any sort.

Chain
Source: Qobuz -> Roon -> iFi Zen Stream (ethernet) -> May KTE (BNC)
Tube Amp - Eddie Current Studio B (Wireworld Silver Eclipse 8 RCA), Tube Complement - Elrog 300B Mo, Tung Sol 2C51 1954 (NOS), Mullard metal base 1957 (NOS)
SS Amp - Dukei built 2 chassis CFA3 (Nordost Blue heaven XLR)
Headphones - Atrium (Viking Weave Ansuz XLR), VC (Forza Noir hybrid HPC XLR)

Music Variety of Black Sabbath, Rammstein, Pink Floyd, Black Keys, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan

Impressions Admittedly I was going into this with a bias against SS so I did enlist my wife who pretty much exclusively listens to the VC on BF2-64/Jot2 stack but we ended up with pretty similar conclusions. Here are the key observations:

• The first thing immediate thing of note was that the full bodied sound on Studio B vs very clear and perhaps slightly thinner sound on CFA3. This was to be expected from the 300B nature of the tubes but it was cool how obvious it was.
• Next, the stage although almost identical in size, was again obviously more holographic on Studio B when compared to CFA3. Again, not a surprise given the conventional wisdom of tube amps vs SS amps.
• Now this next one is a bit weird and could be due to sound matching which I tried very hard to do but it's always the hardest part of A/B for me. I don't think changing amps should change frequency response of a headphone but it certainly sounded like the "highs were higher and lows were lower" on Studio B than CFA3 which sounded a bit "compressed", for lack of a better word. I know that sounds very vague but I am not sure how else to explain it and also not sure why that would be.
• Last major thing I noticed was the difference in decay: CFA3 sounded dryer than Studio B which is interesting because Studio B is usually described as a dry tube amp. I am now even more curious to try DNA amps which are described as wetter than EC amps. Perhaps this is specific to Atrium which has longer decays because I didn't notice it as much on the VC.
• Summary - if I close my eyes, the music sounded more natural (analog?) with the tubes on Atrium which is my personal preference.

I did compare Studio B vs CFA3 + Studio B pre which helped provide a little bit of the holographic sound of the tubes but overall the sound was still closer to SS sound than tube. I am now very curious to try the same comparison with Caldera at some point!

 

[AnalogEuphoria]

Took a wrong turn, stumbled in to this thread and came out drooling, some of the most beautiful systems Ive ever seen!

 

[goldwerger]

Wonderful set up, so what is the box on the bottom shelf with XLR and knobs? Is it part of the other same box above?

Thanks! That's another switchbox (from same source, also custom build). It is a 4-pin XLR switcher, which has 3 XLR inputs in the back (each can connect via XLR extension cable to a differently selected amplifier's balanced headphone out), and there are 4 XLR headphone ouputs on the front. This makes for easy A/B testing of various headphones on a given amp, or various amps for a given headphone. Honestly I don't use it much these days, as I find that quick switching is neither pleasurable nor very effective, I rather immerse myself in any combination and let my brain get used to it. But it's still there ready to be plugged if ever needed..