I was late getting the new tubes recommended by the influencers. Better being late than never. What a startling and overwhelming revelation! My Horizon has become a new DAC thanks for a quartet of Telefunken c3gs, WF SRS553 (or SFR P17C lately) and Telefunken G2504 rectifier – HUGE improvement in transparency, soundstage, dynamic force and musicality. Breathtaking and exhilarating! I literally lost breath for a few seconds upon first hearing, though the tubes and adapters were not broken in. Used to run Horizon with Mullard ECC32, KT 170 and Takatuski 274B and loved the sound from those tubes. But I have not heard my Horizon until now (at least not in its fuller potential and glory). Good as the old tubes were, they cannot be mentioned in the same breath as the new ones. The TP adapters from Laszlo (
@takacs75) are wonderful! Laszlo is exceptionally helpful and caring; he guarantees satisfaction of the TP adapters. The tubes and adapters are pricey, but for roughly the same cost, these tubes with the TP adapters easily surpass Taiko Switch + network card in SQ improvement scores. In hindsight, I wished I had moved faster (when the tube prices had not skyrocketed), spending my funds first on these tubes, which have breathed new life into the relatively new Horizon. Of the new tubes, the TFN c3gs have the greatest sound effect (testified by the influencers, see, e.g., posts ## 1248 and 1317). Some people assert that tubes color sound and prefer solid state sound which are purported to be neutral. My personal experience (from use of several R2R SS DACs in the past) is that such assertion is false based on erroneous assumptions. SS colors sound too (but in a different way); absolute linearity is a dream because all electronic components color sound. Regardless, these new tubes do not color Horizon the way assumed by tube-haters: they do not make the sound warmer or more euphoric; on the contrary, they make Horizon sound more linear, transparent, dynamic and balanced in the sound spectrum. Hair on fire when I first heard such hugely improved transparency and soundstage.