[lucasratmundo]

Are those the Audioquest 90 degree adapters? That’s what I’m using. They’re relatively inexpensive.

Yep, Audioquest adapters

 

[domi]

Received my Pendant SE with vintage tubes yesterday! Had a long session with the VC+Pendant pairing last night. So good. I'll go through my headphone collection in the next days/weeks.

Quick tip for those who don't like to see cables coming out of the Pendant's top panel: I used 90-degree RCA and mains adapters (see attached images) to hide the cables a bit. Looks a bit tidier this way.

Looks beautiful! What tubes did it come with?

 

[lucasratmundo]

Looks beautiful! What tubes did it come with?

I'm no expert in tubes but they seem to be Baldwin tubes.

 

[nwavesailor]

Wes S could confirm this. Baldwin are TungSol?

 

[Wes S]

Wes S could confirm this. Baldwin are TungSol?

Baldin is just a rebrander, that used several different U.S. tube brands. I have seen, Westinghouse, Raytheon, RCA and Sylvania. It wouldn't surprise me if they rebranded TungSol too, as they were made in U. S., but I have not seen any.

 

[nwavesailor]

Whoops.................. the 12au7 ones I have are Raytheon production, not TS.

 

[SteveA]

Baldwin as in The Baldwin Piano and Organ Company? I could see where they would rebrand tubes for their organ amplifiers.

 

[Wes S]

Baldwin as in The Baldwin Piano and Organ Company? I could see where they would rebrand tubes for their organ amplifiers.

You are correct.

 

[4LoveOfSound]

Anyone else NOT pickup on the fact the SE only has 1 input instead of 2 like the OG?

 

[4LoveOfSound]

It arrived today, but I haven't had a chance to switch them out yet. I did of course look at it and that was when I realized there is only 1 input. I'm currently using both on the OG.

 

[AngryTank]

It arrived today, but I haven't had a chance to switch them out yet. I did of course look at it and that was when I realized there is only 1 input. I'm currently using both on the OG.

Mine doesn’t arrive until Monday supposedly, but I haven’t looked at the inputs.

 

[4LoveOfSound]

Well she's up and running! I was able to do a side by side comparison with late 2020 OG. I had to use the stock JJ tubes because I don't have a matching second set of power tubes other than the JJs. The new volume control is nice. It clicks with detents and gives a little more usability. Not a ton though. Only about two numbers on the clock. So my OG volume knob was around 7 o'clock on high z, the SE is around 9 o'clock. The volume doesn't ramp up as fast on the SE either. As I stated above, the SE only has one input vs two on the OG. I would have liked to still have the second input, but can live with just one. Sound wise, they are very very close. The SE has a slight edge in my opinion. I find it is slightly clearer sounding, the treble is slightly smoother but not veiled in anyway, bass is comparable. When I put my better tubes in (Hammond black plate EC84, RCA orange label 12au7, Hammond grey plate EC81), what grabbed my attention was that it is more holographic sounding. With instrumental music (piano, cello, acoustic guitar) I can hear more reverb and strings have a longer decay, which I like. I've been listening to these tubes in my OG for over a month pretty much daily. The difference when fired up in the SE was very noticeable. Quality tubes may have more of an effect on the SE...... Noise wise, about the same. My OG is very quiet. It wasn't at first though. I had an audible transformer hum and a relatively annoying hum audible via high z output. As I put more hours on it, the sitting transformer hum went away and the hum via the high z output lessened to where it's barely audible at all anymore. The SE has a similar transformer hum and the high z hum but not nearly as bad as the OG was new. I expect both to go away as the OG's did. The high z hum can only be heard between songs with the SE. My OG you have to pause the song and really listen to hear it now. Low z on both is super quiet. I can update on this as I put more hours on the SE.

Looks wise, I love the walnut burl! My camphor burl OG is pretty tool! I do prefer the walnut burl though. I'll be replacing the black plastic volume knob with a walnut one when ZMF makes them available.

If anyone is looking, or knows someone looking, for a late model OG with a nice camphor burl chassis, I know where you can get one....... I'll be posting mine shortly.

Oh, those are not the stock rubber feet in the photos. I replaced them with SVS SoundPath subwoofer isolation feet.

 

[AngryTank]

What does the packaging look like for the amp?

 

[4LoveOfSound]

What does the packaging look like for the amp?

This case inside a cardboard box.

 

[4LoveOfSound]

UPDATE: The external transformer hum is gone and the high z hum has reduced. Still more than my OG, but significantly less than yesterday. I have about 24 hours on it now.