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Hey folks. Here's a post I made at headfi. In case it's useful.
I see that many of you have or are about get your CTHs. Since I happen to have Serial #00001 I thought I might make a few comments on break in. First, the amp sounds pretty good out of the box, at least to me. But, as we all know tubes take about 50 hours to clear out the impurities still clinging to the various internal parts and SS portions do need some time. I don't think it's necessary to do a marathon break in session for 10,000 hours before listening. My experience has been that after about 25 hours playing music the amp begins to take on its full character. And then after that it evolves into is inherent sound signature. For me, I was able to listen fairly happily even with no hours, noticing the changes at about 25 hours and then better over time. I still have less than 100 hours on the amp. YMMV some. I hope you all like it. It has a long history from a popular and very compact DIY project to a much more sophisticated amp.
Lostdog54
230
Feb 27, 2018
AlexCavalliJust got mine in the mail. Almost two hours in straight out of the box and loving every minute. Alex and Massdrop have out done themselves with this one. Lots more listening to do and the LCX will be here to complete the stack tomorrow. Looking forward to It. Great collaboration! Thanks again
Dogfaceriley
1
Apr 10, 2018
AlexCavalliMr. Cavalli, Will the amp work properly with a 6SN7 tube (with a tube adapter), if the diameter of the tube cavity on the top of the amp is enlarged? Many thanks, Cho
DogfacerileyCho. I'm afraid this won't work. For two reasons one bad and one might-not-sound-good.
1. The 6922 requires 330mA heater current. 6SN7 requires 600mA. The heater supply will start to max out at 400mA. 600mA will probably over-tax it and could cause failure. 2. Plate voltage on the triodes is a little over 100V. 6922 is very happy here, but this plate voltage is low for 6SN7 and probably puts it into a much less linear regime.
Alex
lugnut
103
Apr 14, 2018
AlexCavalliHello, is it safe to use a 7dj8 in the CTH ? Thank You
lugnutProbably not. The heater will run cool, possibly limiting the cathode current which in turn would prevent the auto bias from homing in. If it is able to bias the sound could be a little lean.
Dogfaceriley
1
Nov 27, 2018
AlexCavalliHello, Love the amp! Would listening to the hard to drive HE6 cans at moderate levels be likely to trip the protection circuitry of the amp and shut it down, or would the CTH amp be likely to run out of gain before moderate levels were reached? HE6 sensitivity 82db, The amp has no problem with my HE5 cans which are 87db sensitivity; terrific sounding as well.
DogfacerileyThe max output power is a little over 1W per channel. You might find this ok, but often not enough to satisfy with power sucking headphones like HE6.
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