Do you not think that your opinion of the sound of these tubes is "right?"
It was meant as humor but if it was offensive I apologize.
Lampizator Valve / Tube Rolling Review Thread
- Thread starter Zero000
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Do you not think that your opinion of the sound of these tubes is "right?"
It was meant as humor but if it was offensive I apologize.
Does any tube roller have experience with the Tubeampdoctor supplied tubes? https://www.tubeampdoctor.com/en/
For 845, Those having viva and Nagra reported the stock tubes worked best and rolling did not help as the amps were that way voiced. KR 845 IIRC is a different spec
Just looked at their stock and pls bare in mind I don't have any personal experience with 845 but knowing from several trusted people on the performance of ACME 211 I would try out my luck with ACME 845. Recti wise from their stock I don't see anything special. Again if you can use 274b go with ACME (no brainer)..
The KR 211 was better than the new acme 211, and RCA, GE, are both better than KR, and Amperex much better than those. Haven't heard United which is supposed to be with the Amperex
It will be my first post in whatsbestforum.
I have been reading all the posts according to Lampi DAC since I got my GG2. You guys truly helped me a lot on picking dacs and tubes, but I often got very confused with what Bonzo said about GG/Pacific and TAK tubes because it is opposite to what people I know told me. So I would like to share some of my experience about tubes and about incoming Pacific in the future (It will arrive sometime next week if there is no surprise).
I have been using the RK version of PX25 with KR 5U4G and they sound amazing as many have described in this thread. After a while I got a little bored (not negatively), and want to seek for more fun about tubes. I was considering about Elrog, Tak, and newly reproduced WE-300b. Many of my friends recommended Tak saying that it is the finest tubes in the world in current production, they look amazing and sound amazing too. However, I was very much concerned due to what Bonzo said. In the end, I was about to go for Elrog, but Lukasz, at this point, actually recommended me to have a try with Tak. So, I ordered a matched quad TA-300B and one TA-274B and they arrived 5 days ago.
The build quality of Tak is just flawless, way better than my old tubes including PX25 RK. The sound of Tak, to me, is much clean (in background) and detailed compared to PX25 RK. The imaging of Tak is more stable and accurate than RK's. More importantly, I feel that Tak's texture and transparency are indeed better than RK's. However, RK is better in terms of dynamic and bass. And also, RK sounds more relaxing and juicy (tubing) than Tak.
I have to say, if we are ONLY talking about sound quality, Tak is the winner (overall) in my system. PX25 RK is still fun to listen tho, I won't sell them because of having Tak. I would agree with Bonzo about Tak is more likely to push forward the midrange but I would disagree that Tak is "boring". Indeed, Tak has less characters or color than PX25 RK does, but it is more likely to present the real characters of the records. I wouldn't call it "boring".
I have been reading all the posts according to Lampi DAC since I got my GG2. You guys truly helped me a lot on picking dacs and tubes, but I often got very confused with what Bonzo said about GG/Pacific and TAK tubes because it is opposite to what people I know told me. So I would like to share some of my experience about tubes and about incoming Pacific in the future (It will arrive sometime next week if there is no surprise).
I have been using the RK version of PX25 with KR 5U4G and they sound amazing as many have described in this thread. After a while I got a little bored (not negatively), and want to seek for more fun about tubes. I was considering about Elrog, Tak, and newly reproduced WE-300b. Many of my friends recommended Tak saying that it is the finest tubes in the world in current production, they look amazing and sound amazing too. However, I was very much concerned due to what Bonzo said. In the end, I was about to go for Elrog, but Lukasz, at this point, actually recommended me to have a try with Tak. So, I ordered a matched quad TA-300B and one TA-274B and they arrived 5 days ago.
The build quality of Tak is just flawless, way better than my old tubes including PX25 RK. The sound of Tak, to me, is much clean (in background) and detailed compared to PX25 RK. The imaging of Tak is more stable and accurate than RK's. More importantly, I feel that Tak's texture and transparency are indeed better than RK's. However, RK is better in terms of dynamic and bass. And also, RK sounds more relaxing and juicy (tubing) than Tak.
I have to say, if we are ONLY talking about sound quality, Tak is the winner (overall) in my system. PX25 RK is still fun to listen tho, I won't sell them because of having Tak. I would agree with Bonzo about Tak is more likely to push forward the midrange but I would disagree that Tak is "boring". Indeed, Tak has less characters or color than PX25 RK does, but it is more likely to present the real characters of the records. I wouldn't call it "boring".
So if you agree it pushes forwards the midrange, for me that it is a boring thing. It sounds like Tak no matter what recording you play. I am listening to Tak more than the music.
Anyway, the second point is, if you get KR PX25, 242 and Lampi 45s, and incite a couple of friends over with different preamps, or drive over to theirs with your Lampi and tubes, you can roll and see that each one has different characters that will show differently in different systems.
Ps: I don't like elrog in Lampi either, except in amps I prefer it to Tak
Anyway, the second point is, if you get KR PX25, 242 and Lampi 45s, and incite a couple of friends over with different preamps, or drive over to theirs with your Lampi and tubes, you can roll and see that each one has different characters that will show differently in different systems.
Ps: I don't like elrog in Lampi either, except in amps I prefer it to Tak
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No, you are right, I didn't. I spent a lot of time just comparing the whole set of Tak vs the set of RK for these days. Just to mention, my rect. for PX25 RK is KR 5U4G (not the RK version). But your point reminds me to have a try with PX25RK+TA-274B. It might work as a better combo.
I guess you just don't like the feeling of midrange gets pushed forward.
You are right, if you can recognize this type of character, you definitely can tell if you are listening to Tak or not.
However, I guess it is just true for every other tubes too. For instance, PX25 RK's characters are much stronger than Tak. The tubing feeling, the extended bass, the overall smoothness, etc. They appear in every records I hear too. Why would I get sick or bored of hearing these characters in my record if they are what I want?
I appear to have stopped tube rolling. It has become pointless since getting the Tesla AD1.
Apart from a bit of rolling between the three pairs of AD1 to see if I can hear a difference. The disturbing thing is I think I can hear slight differences. The strongest pair seem to have the tightest bass. However the second strongest pair appear to sound the best overall i.e. the most natural bass. They are the pair that measure to spec, not over spec. I've really tried to eliminate the fact I know this from the compares.
So how the tube measures does affect its sound. I guess that's unsurprising. But if you have older tubes that don't measure so well, you might not be hearing what they were once capable of.
Apart from a bit of rolling between the three pairs of AD1 to see if I can hear a difference. The disturbing thing is I think I can hear slight differences. The strongest pair seem to have the tightest bass. However the second strongest pair appear to sound the best overall i.e. the most natural bass. They are the pair that measure to spec, not over spec. I've really tried to eliminate the fact I know this from the compares.
So how the tube measures does affect its sound. I guess that's unsurprising. But if you have older tubes that don't measure so well, you might not be hearing what they were once capable of.
Another point is if you have a GG or BIg 7 without the multi position rotary switch, then given the circuit doesn't know what's in the DAC, I am unsure what effect the circuit has on tubes that measure well below spec. I guess it is possible it is actually beneficial.
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