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nicpope
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Sep 30, 2015
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I was pretty intrigued once I picked this thing up as it is quite heavy for its size. It's a stereo class-a design which utilizes a chinese version of the 6v6 for its power section and a chinese version of the 12a()7 dual triode for the preamp section. I started with some go-to references (Talking Heads - Take Me To The River, The Bad Plus - Iron Man) and thought it sounded pretty good. I like both of these tracks because they show off when a system isn't representing dynamic range well.
The amp was interesting enough that I kept playing with it throughout the day. Testing various parameters of it. It has both a low gain and a high gain setting with which you can easily overdrive the amplifier but even for my most difficult set of headphones--a strange one off custom planar set I found in a cupboard my first week at Massdrop--it was capable of providing significant power before objectionable break up. The self noise was evident if not a complete deal breaker.
So my google-fu kicked in when I looked at the tube complement and asked myself, "Dafuq is a 6p6p?" Turns out it's a 6v6...pretty much. And a 6n4 is a 12ax7. Ok, those I know. I ordered a set of matched JJ 6v6's and a JJ 12au7--a dual triode just like the 12ax7 but with lower gain/lower THD since as I mentioned total system gain is not a practical issue with this circuit--and I have to say the improvement was palpable. Mellowed out frequency response, lowered self noise, increased headroom and dynamic range. These things were all evident in spades.
This amp will get your attention right out of the box even though the stock tubes have their issues. I was personally intrigued enough to push the performance of the circuit with a (much) nicer set. Currently wondering what a set of blackplate RCA's would sound like but I'm not sure my wallet can take the hit...