[OctavianH]

Friday Beerday guys!

I've started with some decent romantic music, how a weekend should start.

 

[OctavianH]

Nighty night!

 

[hpamdr]

Nighty night!

Those meter are really looking nice with orange/yellow light the pictures are great (specially in dark room) !
I really like the analog/old fashioned touch of it, if i have to put it in my main system as pre-amplifier or speaker amplifier i would love to have it.

// @OctavianH , do you drive your adam A5X directly from TT or through Elise or Eternity ?

 

[OctavianH]

// @OctavianH , do you drive your adam A5X directly from TT or through Elise or Eternity ?

No, I use TT2 only for Eternity. The speakers, which are quite decent according to my ears (well, I am a headphone guy, just use them for gaming), are connected to another DAC via USB: audio-gd NFB11.32.

Please ignore the dust and the box near, that's a mini PC I use for other "experiments". So I use this one for speakers, and TT2 only for Eternity, TT2 has inputs USB from JCAT Femto and Toslink from CXC CD transport.

 

[OctavianH]

Today I will focus on inputs.

Of course, it is too early to say anything, I want to wait until the amplifier has at least 50 hours. The only thing I will say is that the influence of the inputs in the overall signature is it smaller than on Elise. There are differences, but not so big as I knew them. This is what I expected, output rolling is more important in Eternity.

 

[SonicTrance]

Today I will focus on inputs.







Of course, it is too early to say anything, I want to wait until the amplifier has at least 50 hours. The only thing I will say is that the influence of the inputs in the overall signature is it smaller than on Elise. There are differences, but not so big as I knew them. This is what I expected, output rolling is more important in Eternity.

Great! I see you're nailing the bias points for the different tubes!

 

[OctavianH]

Great! I see you're nailing the bias points for the different tubes!

Yes, I start to get used to roll and I am not so stressed about forgetting something. Great that you made the multiturn trimers increase the current clockwise, exactly in the same direction as the needle of the mA meter goes, so I can easily remember which direction to rotate. Another + on usability.

What I am doing now is to roll several types just as a generic tour to get an idea what signature I obtain. No critical listening, I am not good at that either, I just roll to add or remove something. A kind of cooking, you put this, you put that, and the taste adjustes. It is also the first time I put inputs with different bias on the amp. Before I was just putting equivalents so input switch did not matter. Now, it matters because if I put it to double triode, with -3.2V for 6N7G I think I'll blow the input stage. Brrr.

 

[SonicTrance]

Great that you made the multiturn trimers increase the current clockwise, exactly in the same direction as the needle of the mA meter goes, so I can easily remember which direction to rotate. Another + on usability.

Thanks!
I thought it'd make most sense to increase the current while turning clockwise!

Now, it matters because if I put it to double triode, with -3.2V for 6N7G I think I'll blow the input stage. Brrr.

Be careful and all shall be well!

 

[OctavianH]

Thanks!
I thought it'd make most sense to increase the current while turning clockwise!

Yes, it is very logic and easy for the brain. You look on the meter and see that you have to move the needle right, you turn right and so on. Good decision.

 

[hpamdr]

Yes, it is very logic and easy for the brain. You look on the meter and see that you have to move the needle right, you turn right and so on. Good decision.

You could make a diagram/list for tube rolling like:
Verify the amp is off. (Turn off wait 5min)
Turn volume to zero.
Unplug headphone.
Remove tubes to roll.
Turn on
Set bias to matching Vg
Use DMM on Vdc red/black. (lower bias to keep small margin for fine tune)
Turn off.
Wait 5 minutes.
Plug new tubes.
Plug headphone or load.
Turn on.
Wait 5 minutes. (Keep eyes on metter both sides to not go over limits)
Fine tune. (For some Output tube you should wait more to have it well excited)
Fine tune to have medium value L/R on target 4/20
Select output an start to listen set Volume to wanted level.
Enjoy
Print it and put it next to tube drawer.

 

[OctavianH]

Yes, it is a good procedure. But I do things in the following way:
- I always turn to 0 the volume when turning off and always rise it from 0 only when the mA meters reached the 4/20mA (or close to it, but needles reached final destination)
- I never remove the headphone, I think in time the 6.3mm jack will loose its grip and as far as I understood from Tomas is not needed
- I splitted all the switches of the amp in 2 categories, first one switches which can be used during operation and second one switches which need before a turn off ("Impedance switch" and "VU meters off" is in the first category, the rest of them in the second)
- I always wait 5 minutes without touching anything (not removing tubes) after each Turn Off.

These 4 rules are helping me a lot. Please correct me if I am doing something wrong, I guess except removing headphone it is the same as you.

 

[SonicTrance]

- I splitted all the switches of the amp in 2 categories, first one switches which can be used during operation and second one switches which need before a turn off ("Impedance switch" and "VU meters off" is in the first category, the rest of them in the second)

You can also switch the meter L/R switch while amp is ON. Just make sure to let the amp settle for a couple minutes after ONE switch. Don't toggle both input and output switches at once! The safest way is to just toggle these with amp OFF! I don't recommend beer drinking while switching them, lol!

Anyway, if you do toggle the meter switches with amp ON, please do remove the headphones as there will be a "pop" when switching.

 

[OctavianH]

Anyway, if you do toggle the meter switches with amp ON, please do remove the headphones as there will be a "pop" when switching.

This is the reason I included the meter L/R switches in the second category, to avoid removing the headphone. But since I was able to measure all my tubes, I marked in my notes the strongest one (strongest = the one which has the highest current from the pair at the same grid bias). I always put on left socket the strong tube from the pair. I always keep the meter switch to L. In this way I ensure that I monitor the highest current from the pair when the amplifier is starting. If I have to switch off, I'll set the switch to R at next startup just to see how much lower the other tube goes. I always dwell 10% lower the required current just to be safe. Until now this methodology worked.

And yeap, tube rolling ON = beer rolling OFF. Or was it the other way? Hmm. LOL.

 

[SonicTrance]

This is the reason I included the meter L/R switches in the second category, to avoid removing the headphone. But since I was able to measure all my tubes, I marked in my notes the strongest one (strongest = the one which has the highest current from the pair at the same grid bias). I always put on left socket the strong tube from the pair. I always keep the meter switch to L. In this way I ensure that I monitor the highest current from the pair when the amplifier is starting. If I have to switch off, I'll set the switch to R at next startup just to see how much lower the other tube goes. I always dwell 10% lower the required current just to be safe. Until now this methodology worked.

And yeap, tube rolling ON = beer rolling OFF. Or was it the other way? Hmm. LOL.

Excellent!

 

[OctavianH]

And the reason I wanted to have an amplifier called Eternity:

I think this album breaks the barriers of its genre, it is much more than this and deserves to have an amplifier named after it, at least for me. Highly recommended for everyone.