[theBigD]

Well this isnt really tube rolling but i rolled an hdam into the op-amp portion of the ef1. I put a moon in using the 100mm lead from audio-gd. Ive been rolling a few op amps (8620, ad627) in, and this is the first improvement ive found in op amps, except this is really fully discrete! Its much more resolving, I can clearly hear fingers moving on the fret board, and musicians taking a breath, as well as the sound reverberation of strings much more fully formed. I was listening to primus and thought i was getting distortion from the 100mm lead, because there was so much distortion in the guitar, i swapped the stock op amp in and distortion was barely there. put the moon back in and got the full distortion back, the way the musician intended it. i also have the earth but it didn't sound warm with my akg701s which are my main rig right now. I am hoping to get denon d7000 next week and will be interested to hear if earth or moon synergize better with denon. I also have a sun comming later to try.

The moon also has a wide soundstage with better instument seperation and clarity than the stock op amp. I am using the mullard tube which doesn't have an especially wide soundstage but with the moon in the power portion it really opens it up. The moon also is faster resolving than stock. I think the stock op amp has a bit more bass but it sounds a little muddy and thick.

these are pretty early impressions, with only 4 hours listening to and swapping back and forth. as i understand it hdams take at least 50hours to burn in and many are saying up to 300hours!

anyway this is what attracted me to ef1, the ability to tune the amp for different headphones or music. I was a little dissapointed with the first couple op amps i tried that i thought might be improvements but really weren't. I was begining to wonder why i wanted to change the stock, afterall it sounded pretty good. But now it all seems worth it.

 

[olblueyez]

Put a longplate mullard in my amp tonight, its amazing.

 

[MikeW]

bet it sounds nice, but not to practical.

 

[olblueyez]

Got a square getter and a round getter for 55 bucks.

 

[MikeW]

nice olblueyez, i picked up a amperex holland for 16.95 shipped, seemed like a good deal. should be here in a few days.

 

[Skylab]

Yeah, the long-plate Mullard is SMOOOOOOOOOTH, baby.

 

[theBigD]

Just an update on moon module. some of distortion i was hearing was in fact from the 100mm extension cable. got rid of cable today by stacking two 8pin dip adapter on top of stock and pluggin in module direct kinda like a tube in the front. made it perfect! got about 20 hours burn in on moon, sounds a little bassier than it did. people with more experience with these modules are saying at 50 100 150 and 200 are there will be distinct changes in sound with module. so i will continue burning in moon, it still in every way sounds better than stock, except that it is so transparent i hear more of the defects in actual recording. a side note moon makes rca cleartop a little less bright and more enjoyable to listen to.

 

[dwong]

Interesting use of the discrete Audio-GD opamps bigD. Did you purchase the single OPA or dual OPA version? Post a pic of it, I would like to see. I'm guessing you can't put the plexiglass lid on now with the moon sticking out like that.

 

[theBigD]

you need a dual hdam. right now i am not using plexi-glass, i figure it keeps amp cooler anyway. possibly i could notch plexiglass in the future, kinda like where the tube is in the back. yeah, i need to borrow a camera to get a pic, i think it looks kinda sci-fi cool. cant wait to get the sun it has cool yellow leds in it!

 

[UTF]

I have done about 40 hours burn-in on the amp, but not felt there is a significant change of the sound. To my ears, the amped sound is only a subtle improvement over unamped from the HP output of my Marantz CD player. Basically, the amp brings out more bass (but not punchy) and a kind of smooth (less fatiging) sound. I am not sure if that is what I could expect from the amp or it still needs more break-in time or other treatments.

Yestereday, i tried a holland-made Amperex tube on it. That seems make some difference. It makes music a kind of more surrouding you, though the vocal sounds about same (maybe less bright). It is a kind of interesting to see this difference. But i am not sure I get what is called tube favor, as I read from other threads. Shall I try other tubes?

 

[theBigD]

here are some pics of ef1 with moon hdam.

 

[KevM2]

Looks very interesting. How much would you say the improvement is in sound?

 

[theBigD]

its still a little early to tell. ive only had it burning in for 24 hours and they say 50 hr is first significant change with less graininess in midrange and improved bass response. i would say the grain in the midrange is my only complaint so far, there is just a slight edginess that is pushed forward with the moon that isnt so noticible with stock. it is probably becuase to me the stock sounds a bit muddy and slow. everything is clearer and more distinct and a bit faster with moon. you hear the difference between bass and drum much more clearly and symbals are very distinct and clear. the reverberation with guitar strings is very distinct you hear all around the note, i am listening to system of a down "Revenga", with stock guitar around 1:30 mark soundly like violin, like bow to string, with moon it is very apparent a chord is stuck with pick very sharp and real sounding. I much more enjoy ROCK with moon than with stock, but also ive really liked dianna krall, and patricia barber, ani difranco, all guitar sounds much more real, not smoothed over. Now listening to Junior Wells "Snatch it back and hold it", i prefer stock because bass is a little more prominent and everything is a little smoother. But the harmonica sounds more real with moon, i think everything sounds a bit more lifelike with moon.

I will have to spend some more time after fully buning in moon in comparison with stock. but right now i am willing to say its an improvement but couldnt really say by how much. I like it and will continue to use. I also have the Earth to try later, I put it in for all of several minutes and liked moon better right off. And I have the sun comming in a couple weeks. plus i have lme49860 comming to try. so lots to evaluate, and compare.

 

[theBigD]

another observation. i was listening to godsmack "voodoo" with grado sr125 a typically very in your face can and the moon, and i realized about half way through how everything was very 3d with percusion circling my head and every instrument in its own space, I was really loving it!. put the stock op amp in, and initially kinda liked it because its a little bassier still, but everything went 2d, all the instruments ended up in one position! its harder for me to tell the spatial difference when i use the akg 701 because they already present a large soundstage but with the grados you can really tell the difference. plus there is no sibilance with moon which is easy to tell with grado, which is on par with the stock performance as well.

 

[KevM2]

Thanks for the impressions. Are these something that I can just plug in or do I have to do some fiddling around with them, and what is the price range on these? I'll consider getting some to test out as well.