One week in with the TRP
So last week my TRP arrived, it was a factory upgrade from my original Atlantic Plus Dac. Right from the off this is a very special Dac, very rich sounding, plenty of soundstage width and height and beautiful midrange.
I took it down to my friends at the weekend where we spent a good few hours doing some tube rolling experiments, which included changing the rectifier for the PS Vane ACME 274b, which in all honesty does transform the Dac to another level. The ACME valve removes any hint of grain and adds a wonderful rich texture to the music. I managed to buy one of these myself and currently running it in as it takes a fare few hours to reach its optimum.
Tubes we tried on the day were,
Russian 5C4S Rectifier – This was the tube the Dac shipped with, it’s not a bad tube and delivers the music however you can detect that it’s holding the performance of the Dac back somewhat.
Shuguang EL34 – These were the tubes that the the Dac shipped with, in all honesty they don’t do a bad job but can be bettered obviously for not a great deal of money.
GEC KT66 Original Smoked Glass – For me these were a tad thick sounding and made the music feel a bit too lush sounding
Mullard EL34 – I was expecting a similar presentation to the KT66 tube but in all honesty it was quite the opposite, very open, spacious and again wonderful texture
Telefunken EL34 – Very similar to the Mullard EL34
My friend up samples his PCM files from PCM to DSD 256 and we left it at that for the session. At home I play all my files native and have not felt the need to upsample any files yet.
As we all know its system dependant when tube rolling and what works in one system may or may not work in another system. When I returned home I installed the EH 6CA7 valves and have been running these since as they sound better than the EL34 Shuguang which the Dac shipped with.
Up next for me will be the Genelex KT77 re issue tubes, I feel that from what I have read on here this could be the tube for me. I may also try the Tungsol 5881 tube as recommended
A few pictures from the days session.
Untitled by henleymajor, on Flickr
Untitled by henleymajor, on Flickr
Untitled by henleymajor, on Flickr
Untitled by henleymajor, on Flickr
So last week my TRP arrived, it was a factory upgrade from my original Atlantic Plus Dac. Right from the off this is a very special Dac, very rich sounding, plenty of soundstage width and height and beautiful midrange.
I took it down to my friends at the weekend where we spent a good few hours doing some tube rolling experiments, which included changing the rectifier for the PS Vane ACME 274b, which in all honesty does transform the Dac to another level. The ACME valve removes any hint of grain and adds a wonderful rich texture to the music. I managed to buy one of these myself and currently running it in as it takes a fare few hours to reach its optimum.
Tubes we tried on the day were,
Russian 5C4S Rectifier – This was the tube the Dac shipped with, it’s not a bad tube and delivers the music however you can detect that it’s holding the performance of the Dac back somewhat.
Shuguang EL34 – These were the tubes that the the Dac shipped with, in all honesty they don’t do a bad job but can be bettered obviously for not a great deal of money.
GEC KT66 Original Smoked Glass – For me these were a tad thick sounding and made the music feel a bit too lush sounding
Mullard EL34 – I was expecting a similar presentation to the KT66 tube but in all honesty it was quite the opposite, very open, spacious and again wonderful texture
Telefunken EL34 – Very similar to the Mullard EL34
My friend up samples his PCM files from PCM to DSD 256 and we left it at that for the session. At home I play all my files native and have not felt the need to upsample any files yet.
As we all know its system dependant when tube rolling and what works in one system may or may not work in another system. When I returned home I installed the EH 6CA7 valves and have been running these since as they sound better than the EL34 Shuguang which the Dac shipped with.
Up next for me will be the Genelex KT77 re issue tubes, I feel that from what I have read on here this could be the tube for me. I may also try the Tungsol 5881 tube as recommended
A few pictures from the days session.
Untitled by henleymajor, on Flickr
Untitled by henleymajor, on Flickr
Untitled by henleymajor, on Flickr
Untitled by henleymajor, on Flickr