[helljudgement]

Finally got some new tubes! Still waiting on a few, but running them in now. I feel like I'm about to enter a money pit of unknown proportions

Wondering if the heat melt the rubber sleeves on your ACME? I was loaned a pair of 300b and was told by the distributor to remove the sleeves before inserting.

 

[littlej0e]

Well I’ve decided the wa33 elite with JPS wires is my next amp.

only problem is it’s gonna take me about 6 months to get the funds lol. Should pair really well with 1266 and susvara

Congrats! You won’t regret it.

 

[Drewligarchy]

Wondering if the heat melt the rubber sleeves on your ACME? I was loaned a pair of 300b and was told by the distributor to remove the sleeves before inserting.

It hasn't yet - but your probably right, I'm a bit new to this thing. I'll take them off.

Regarding the initial brightness (I've never rolled tubes before), does this tend to lessen a bit after break in, or is it the nature of this tube (I know the 300B is different, but perhaps you experienced some of it).

I have used the stock tubes for 18 months which are not as well extended in the treble, but the spectral tilt is darker on those, so with the Abyss - for instance - you get more bass. I have never really broken in tubes before, so don't know what to expect.

 

[Drewligarchy]

Ok - here is another noob question: Do you guys ever roll tubes for each of your headphones. I am noticing these tubes work better with the Susvara and wake them up a bit. I don't like them on the Abyss as much. Am I going to ruing the teflon sockets if I switch tubes every time I switch headphones?

 

[helljudgement]

It hasn't yet - but your probably right, I'm a bit new to this thing. I'll take them off.

Regarding the initial brightness (I've never rolled tubes before), does this tend to lessen a bit after break in, or is it the nature of this tube (I know the 300B is different, but perhaps you experienced some of it).

I have used the stock tubes for 18 months which are not as well extended in the treble, but the spectral tilt is darker on those, so with the Abyss - for instance - you get more bass. I have never really broken in tubes before, so don't know what to expect.

Probably not a good reference point as I'm using a completely different tube but I personally never found the acme 300b to be bright in nature in fact it seem to tilt very slightly towards warmer tone but that could just be the nature of 300b tubes in general. It could potentially loosen up after running it in for a while so just try running with it for a bit to see if either you or the tubes gets acclimated to the setup. I was told to run it for about a hundred hours or so take that with a grain of salt.

Ok - here is another noob question: Do you guys ever roll tubes for each of your headphones. I am noticing these tubes work better with the Susvara and wake them up a bit. I don't like them on the Abyss as much. Am I going to ruing the teflon sockets if I switch tubes every time I switch headphones?

Changing tubes will definitely wear the sockets over time so I would do it as sparingly as possible. But in general if you take extra care when inserting and removing it should last. I'd recommend just using it for a couple of weeks just to run it in and see if it changes overtime.

 

[Drewligarchy]

Probably not a good reference point as I'm using a completely different tube but I personally never found the acme 300b to be bright in nature in fact it seem to tilt very slightly towards warmer tone but that could just be the nature of 300b tubes in general. It could potentially loosen up after running it in for a while so just try running with it for a bit to see if either you or the tubes gets acclimated to the setup. I was told to run it for about a hundred hours or so take that with a grain of salt.


Changing tubes will definitely wear the sockets over time so I would do it as sparingly as possible. But in general if you take extra care when inserting and removing it should last. I'd recommend just using it for a couple of weeks just to run it in and see if it changes overtime.

Thank you!

 

[mammal]

Changing tubes will definitely wear the sockets over time so I would do it as sparingly as possible. But in general if you take extra care when inserting and removing it should last. I'd recommend just using it for a couple of weeks just to run it in and see if it changes overtime.

Why not to buy tube socket raiser/saver thingy, or how it's called?

 

[atya35mm]

curious, can i ask what level of volume you guys are at with wa33? as my dac can act as a preamp and control volume, i recently set wa33 volume closer to 3 oclock and lowering my dac preamp volume. not sure if i’m imagining this but i seem to get much better sound quality. i havent tried cranking the volume dial all the to max for fear of blowing anything up or tubes.

 

[atya35mm]

Oh wait I think there’s a ps audio YouTube video explaining exactly why this is! I might try volume wide open in my next listening session.

 

[littlej0e]

curious, can i ask what level of volume you guys are at with wa33? as my dac can act as a preamp and control volume, i recently set wa33 volume closer to 3 oclock and lowering my dac preamp volume. not sure if i’m imagining this but i seem to get much better sound quality. i havent tried cranking the volume dial all the to max for fear of blowing anything up or tubes.

I'm currently at 3 o'clock volume at high gain and low impedance on my WA33 EE JPS to drive my Abyss 1266s. Don't worry, you aren't going to blow up anything. I think music sounds significantly better using low gain, but it doesn't drive the TCs loud enough, even with my DSP volume maxed out in Roon. I'm waiting on my preamp to arrive to help increase the input volume so I can hopefully go back to the low gain setting. I don't think you are imagining anything at all. I used the WA33 as a preamp for my old HSA-1b + SR1a combo and I could definitely hear a difference, especially between high and low gain settings.

Also, I don't know how your DAC controls the volume, but I recently learned you should never use a digital volume control. With each 6dB attenuation you lose one bit of resolution. DSP = very convenient, but bad for resolution.

 

[joseph69]

@Drewligarchy
Am I understanding this correctly that you're using an ACME 300B in your WA33, or am I missing something?

 

[Drewligarchy]

@Drewligarchy
Am I understanding this correctly that you're using an ACME 300B in your WA33, or am I missing something?

Hi Joseph - hope you are well.

No, I am using the ACME 2a3s. After about 7-8 hours the highs have started to settle a little. I wasn’t expecting them to be so bright out of the box.

 

[Drewligarchy]

I'm currently at 3 o'clock volume at high gain and low impedance on my WA33 EE JPS to drive my Abyss 1266s. Don't worry, you aren't going to blow up anything. I think music sounds significantly better using low gain, but it doesn't drive the TCs loud enough, even with my DSP volume maxed out in Roon. I'm waiting on my preamp to arrive to help increase the input volume so I can hopefully go back to the low gain setting. I don't think you are imagining anything at all. I used the WA33 as a preamp for my old HSA-1b + SR1a combo and I could definitely hear a difference, especially between high and low gain settings.

Also, I don't know how your DAC controls the volume, but I recently learned you should never use a digital volume control. With each 6dB attenuation you lose one bit of resolution. DSP = very convenient, but bad for resolution.

Depends on the DAC. For instance Chord Dave volume control is quite transparent and you don’t lose bits.

 

[littlej0e]

Depends on the DAC. For instance Chord Dave volume control is quite transparent and you don’t lose bits.

I remember reading the Dave has "lossless" digital volume control, but I actually never saw the specifics of how they achieved this and the lack of detailed info immediately raised my BS flag. Digital volume attenuation without bit loss is impossible. Perhaps Chord is controlling the volume in the analog stage and it isn't really digital?!? The only way I could see Chord's "lossless" digital control working is if they jacked up the digital volume processing to 32 bits as this would (probably) reduce bit loss beyond the level human hearing...but that still isn't "lossless". If that's what they did, then they should call it something else because as stated, Chord means "lossless" in the same way MQA meant "lossless" haha.

The amount of baseless claims, paid-for-reviews, and propaganda in the audio industry is absolutely stunning.

 

[mammal]

I remember reading the Dave has "lossless" digital volume control, but I actually never saw the specifics of how they achieved this and the lack of detailed info immediately raised my BS flag. Digital volume attenuation without bit loss is impossible. Perhaps Chord is controlling the volume in the analog stage and it isn't really digital?!? The only way I could see Chord's "lossless" digital control working is if they jacked up the digital volume processing to 32 bits as this would (probably) reduce bit loss beyond the level human hearing...but that still isn't "lossless". If that's what they did, then they should call it something else because as stated, Chord means "lossless" in the same way MQA meant "lossless" haha.

The amount of baseless claims, paid-for-reviews, and propaganda in the audio industry is absolutely stunning.

I agree with your sentiment on BS done by audio companies, gear reviewers and such. But, on the other side, we all strive for best quality and sometimes we convince ourselves we hear bits. I for one don’t, and volume knob on my Bartok does not bother me, that it is implemented in the digital domain (I assume?). My ears are so crap I need a balance shifted by 3dB anyway. So maybe lossless digital volume knob isn’t mathematically possible (I really don’t know), BUT, it could still be a “decent” volume knob, aka, transparent enough. As for lossless formats, I agree with you that it is bad when marketing lets us believe word lossless means lossless (like your example in MQA), but there isn’t subsitute to testing - can you tell a difference between a well recorded/mixed/stored FLAC and its MP3 equivalent? I have failed this test countless of times myself.