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EvoSteven
44
Nov 19, 2015
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This discussion is pretty much dead, but still, here goes:
Opened it up, everything was inside, luckily I had an EU power plug available that fitted into the Bravo Audio power supply, so far so good. No adapter required so yay.
The unit itself is pretty clean and clean, no real complaints. Some things are slightly skewed (inputs and stuff) but I couldn't care less. There was a lot of plastic residue hanging from the sides of the clear plates (plastic strings from manufacturing the unit). Can be taken off by hand, no big deal.
Tube is intact, put it in the V3 and the blue LED started shining. The unit was not and has not been plugged in yet, this means that the capacitors still had some charge in them after about a week of shipping. I do believe this unit was manufactured quite recently.
After some time, the LED started fading. Takes a considerable amount of time though (after like 30 minutes it can still be seen in the dark). Plugged in the unit, ready to confront the HORRIBLE EMI or whatever everyone has been complaining about.
It was not dead silent, not even close. Plugged my phone into it as input and it still hummed. I decided to ignore it and focused on the sound. It sounded... better... in a way. Fuller, maybe warmer. I don't know what dem audiophiles can hear but the difference wasn't that massive to me. Dissapointed? Not entirely.
Fun fact: Touching one of the 4 screws at the side of the plate can remove some hum/hiss, something to do with grounding. You could touch some electronics but eh D: I'd rather not.
The moment I used my PC a lot of the hum disappeared. I do believe my PC is a better "grounder" than my phone is. It was only noticeably audible on low volume or high. But turn the knob 90 degrees so it's pointing to the left, it suddenly was (almost) completely silent.
Now, after some time with it, the hum on low volume is (again almost yet acceptable enough) completely gone. It's basically silent for as loud as it needs to go for me. Note that it's on top of my PC right now, not exactly EMI free. Put your phone next to it or on top of the power supply for some great hums and hisses though. I don't exactly have a lot of space to put it (I even have a router a bit over a meter from it).
The device gets hot, really hot. The tube itself is fine, but the heatsinks are hot!
This was tested with an HD558, not the best at all obviously. My AKG K7xx has been shipped though. Got a DAC incoming as well, might be important as the hum seems quite input dependent.
'fraid this discussion is pretty dead and doubt this will drop again, so down the archives this goes!
Nov 19, 2015
airjames
10
Nov 20, 2015
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EvoStevenI got two, both had the plastic shreds on edges that I hated cleaning by hand. One of them has plastic on top that is cut too close to the tube and touches it.
I will write something up after further testing w/ the following equipment: SMSL M8 DAC with ESS Sabre 9018
and
Monoprice DAC/AMP w/ 1793 Texas Instruments
Philips Fidelio X2 Brainwavz HM5 and also identical NVX xpt100 Altec Lansing IM716 aka Etymotic ER4
AudioTechnica ATH M50 Sony V700DJ handmedowns for fun
Grado SR80 if I can fix them in time
Will take requests for music/times as I am using Tidal (FLAC 1411 kbs) at 24bit/96KHz, 192KHz on pc and 384KHz on mac The songs that I have found so far are:
Daft Punk - Solar Sailer (1:26-1:40 bass and volume changes)
Avenged Sevenfold - Shepherd of Fire (Intro and 2:46-3:30)
Wiz Khalifa - On My Level 3:30-4:00
Mark Ronson,Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk (3:11-3:54)
Kelly Clarkson - Mr. Know It All (2:30-3:18)
Nat King Cole - Stardust (0:00 - 1:40)
So far, I can tell you that I am having fun w/ mostly the Monoprice DAC TI 1793 and the Brainwavz HM5/NVX xPT100 as these sound somehow BETTER to me than my much more expensive Philips Fidelio X2 right now. It just sounds more natural and concert like and extremely exciting and involving. I feel like the bands are playing right in front of me and probably would be more so if they thumped a bit better on the sub low end level. It could be the Fidelio sound leakage that makes vocals sound more muted and midbass seeming less pronounced. Anyways, I will test different settings and try to come up with volumes that work best with the superior SMSL M8 DAC. I will retest w/ cables as the RCA's seem loose and possibly I will need to redo power/USB connections as well on a different machine with less possible interference by disconnecting other devices on the USB. Stay tuned.
Nov 20, 2015
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