I’ve had a chance to spend some time with some very special amps from the Silvercore house. If you’re unfamiliar, and I’m sure many people will be, Silvercore is Christoph Kraus, an engineer and, I understand, former architect who moved from designing buildings to designing and building amps. Silvercore denotes the exclusive use of silver to wind the output transformers and, in some special cases, the internal wiring of the point-to-point circuitry that reside in the (usually) shiny silver cases.
Most manufacturers will have a core product that establishes their reputation and enables them to build out a stable of products with a house sound. I suspect that for Silvercore this was the 833 amp, now in MK2 guise. This is 30kg rectangular bock of monstrous 833 output tube, EL34 input tubes, at least one (I don’t know the specifics) silver wound output transformer and clearly an awful lot of iron core other transformers. As I said, I’m not an engineer and I don’t care to research the specifics.
But I do care for and appreciate music and in particular the impact that the use of silver, in particular monocrystal silver, can have on emotional engagement of music. So when recently I asked my dealer – Greg Dryglla, the venerable and deeply knowledgeable UK distributor for Lampizator – for a loaner Poseidon to test, he also suggested I compare that upgrade path with a refined version of the 833 amps I got from him four years ago, the ones with full monocrystal silver wiring and output transformer and a very special Phillips TB/1000 output tube. This tube is more or less the 833 equivalents of the fabled Western Electric 300B; a ‘WIGIG’ (when it’s gone, it’s gone) tube with a gloriously smooth and cosseting presentation.
The TB1000 amps represent more less the same investment to acquire as the Poseidon, once trade in against existing components is considered (though the TB1000 amps are double the price of the regular ones I have, whereas the Poseidon is only about 70% more expensive than the Golden Gate I currently have would have cost when new), but Greg assured me would provide a useful contrast as to the direction I might head in.
My own 833s, finished in a less traditional green Hammertone coating, also have silver wound output transformers, as do all Silvercore amps (hence the name 'Silvercore'), it's just not monocrystal silver. The TB1000s also have some additional tweaks to the circuitry.
The standard 833s offer a fine balance between SS drive and authority over the speakers, the kind of attribute that you associate with solid state amplification, and the transparency, fluidity, saturation and sweetness of timbre you chase with DHT single ended triodes. It's a compromise of course, as is everything in our hobby, but it's one I have decided I personally prefer.
The 833 tube was of course designed for huge radio transmission duties, so it can operate at 1.5kw, although it's life is hugely limited at that level; the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long and these tubes would burn so very very brightly at that kind of output! Most other executions with 833 tubes are designed to generate 100+ watts (Wavac and Audio Music), but Christoph, who is Silvercore (he's based in Leipzig and it’s just him), prefers to build them with just 20w of work done so that you get more or less lifetime redundancy. I don't know enough about the technicalities to know what this means in terms of capacitance reserve etc, but I have made comparisons with a few other amps, notably Concert Fidelity ZL120 monobloc amps, which are solid state, 180watts but biased to Class A for the first 30w and use Mosfet transistors. They are wonderfully tube like in their presentation. Harry Pearson even stated that the ZL200s (the step above the ones I tried), are the most tube-like SS amps he’d ever heard and they became his own personal amp).
The CF amps were significantly more costly than my 833s (EUR22k versus EUR15k) but even after an extended period of listening over six months, going back to the 833s made me realise that they are my preferred choice. I adore the way they balance control, saturation and authority, with that sweetness of timbre and transparent, open presentation. The CFs were fabulous, especially being biased so heavily to Class A (which with my 96db speakers meant I suspect they were never out of Class A), but they still sounded stiff and wooden compared to the SETs).
Moving then to the TB1000s, the difference is significant, a genuine paradigm shift but it is not achieved in a way that as obvious as moving to a high-end solid-state amp would be. The comparator to the Poseidon was made because that improvement was very much an ‘in your face’ shift. Sometimes improvements in audio replay are so apparent and obvious that they are startling. They make their presence immediately felt, like a flamboyant and extroverted raconteur arriving at a party and announcing, ‘I’m here!’. The whole party has no choice but to stop what’s is doing and pay attention, and the quality of that flamboyant raconteur are immediately obvious. But just like such an individual, it’s entirely possible that their initially appealing qualities are perhaps superficial. Spend enough time talking with them and the initial appeal wanes as you realise that their qualities are only one or two dimensional. When you hear audio replay significantly improved in obvious areas like bass depth and control, leading edge dynamics and resolution and detail, these objective improvements are obvious and easy to engage with. They make their presence known without ambiguity; they are easy to connect with and experience and it’s often easy to be seduced by them. No one has ever said they don’t want deeper, richer and more controlled bass replay as part of their upgrade path and so when that is offered, it’s so very easy to fall for its charms.
But extended listening will often reveal that improvement to be one dimensional. Often the more complex qualities of the people we meet at parties might be apparent, but only reveal themselves after longer connections are established; they are more nuanced and difficult to identify. You can quite quickly become aware that the person you’re talking to has a depth of humanity and intrigue to them, but you couldn’t so readily articulate what it is you find appealing when compared to a five minute conversation with the flamboyant raconteur.
This is what moving to the TB1000s is like.
Listening to the TB1000s, I could tell I was in the presence of greatness; the music was more fluid, less strained and with sweeter timbre and superior weight. The sound stage remained unchanged, there was some useful improvement in resolution and detail, but this wasn’t the most apparent improvement. Space between notes, between instruments and pauses was more accurately conveyed and timing was significantly improved. I was most struck by the overall coherence of the music. Complex passages combining four or more musicians into an ensemble suddenly became far more distinct; you could hear the individual instruments, each distinct against a backdrop, but each also in harmony with the others.
That word - ‘coherence’ - is certainly the most resonant adjective to describe how the music is improved. Where I heard the more obvious musical traits improved with the DAC, bass authority, leading edge dynamics, detail etc, the TB1000s were more nuanced but no less enjoyable. The music opened up, strain was released, the timbre was suddenly rich, mellifluous and life like. Music was pouring, rather than jumping out of the speakers, like a rich river of honey.
How much of this was due to the the TB1000 tube rather than the monocrystal wiring is hard to say; I will say that this improvement is something I can attribute to more careful attention to wiring and certainly also to judicious use of monocrystal silver in the signal path as I’ve heard similar improvements recently with speaker cables that use the same material application. But this improvement is also redolent of when I moved from Psvane 300b output tubes on my Golden Gate DAC to original Western Electric 300b tubes; and that is a useful summation of what the TB1000 tube is like. It’s like moving from standard 300b tubes to WE300b tubes. Glorious!
Most manufacturers will have a core product that establishes their reputation and enables them to build out a stable of products with a house sound. I suspect that for Silvercore this was the 833 amp, now in MK2 guise. This is 30kg rectangular bock of monstrous 833 output tube, EL34 input tubes, at least one (I don’t know the specifics) silver wound output transformer and clearly an awful lot of iron core other transformers. As I said, I’m not an engineer and I don’t care to research the specifics.
But I do care for and appreciate music and in particular the impact that the use of silver, in particular monocrystal silver, can have on emotional engagement of music. So when recently I asked my dealer – Greg Dryglla, the venerable and deeply knowledgeable UK distributor for Lampizator – for a loaner Poseidon to test, he also suggested I compare that upgrade path with a refined version of the 833 amps I got from him four years ago, the ones with full monocrystal silver wiring and output transformer and a very special Phillips TB/1000 output tube. This tube is more or less the 833 equivalents of the fabled Western Electric 300B; a ‘WIGIG’ (when it’s gone, it’s gone) tube with a gloriously smooth and cosseting presentation.
The TB1000 amps represent more less the same investment to acquire as the Poseidon, once trade in against existing components is considered (though the TB1000 amps are double the price of the regular ones I have, whereas the Poseidon is only about 70% more expensive than the Golden Gate I currently have would have cost when new), but Greg assured me would provide a useful contrast as to the direction I might head in.
My own 833s, finished in a less traditional green Hammertone coating, also have silver wound output transformers, as do all Silvercore amps (hence the name 'Silvercore'), it's just not monocrystal silver. The TB1000s also have some additional tweaks to the circuitry.
The standard 833s offer a fine balance between SS drive and authority over the speakers, the kind of attribute that you associate with solid state amplification, and the transparency, fluidity, saturation and sweetness of timbre you chase with DHT single ended triodes. It's a compromise of course, as is everything in our hobby, but it's one I have decided I personally prefer.
The 833 tube was of course designed for huge radio transmission duties, so it can operate at 1.5kw, although it's life is hugely limited at that level; the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long and these tubes would burn so very very brightly at that kind of output! Most other executions with 833 tubes are designed to generate 100+ watts (Wavac and Audio Music), but Christoph, who is Silvercore (he's based in Leipzig and it’s just him), prefers to build them with just 20w of work done so that you get more or less lifetime redundancy. I don't know enough about the technicalities to know what this means in terms of capacitance reserve etc, but I have made comparisons with a few other amps, notably Concert Fidelity ZL120 monobloc amps, which are solid state, 180watts but biased to Class A for the first 30w and use Mosfet transistors. They are wonderfully tube like in their presentation. Harry Pearson even stated that the ZL200s (the step above the ones I tried), are the most tube-like SS amps he’d ever heard and they became his own personal amp).The CF amps were significantly more costly than my 833s (EUR22k versus EUR15k) but even after an extended period of listening over six months, going back to the 833s made me realise that they are my preferred choice. I adore the way they balance control, saturation and authority, with that sweetness of timbre and transparent, open presentation. The CFs were fabulous, especially being biased so heavily to Class A (which with my 96db speakers meant I suspect they were never out of Class A), but they still sounded stiff and wooden compared to the SETs).
Moving then to the TB1000s, the difference is significant, a genuine paradigm shift but it is not achieved in a way that as obvious as moving to a high-end solid-state amp would be. The comparator to the Poseidon was made because that improvement was very much an ‘in your face’ shift. Sometimes improvements in audio replay are so apparent and obvious that they are startling. They make their presence immediately felt, like a flamboyant and extroverted raconteur arriving at a party and announcing, ‘I’m here!’. The whole party has no choice but to stop what’s is doing and pay attention, and the quality of that flamboyant raconteur are immediately obvious. But just like such an individual, it’s entirely possible that their initially appealing qualities are perhaps superficial. Spend enough time talking with them and the initial appeal wanes as you realise that their qualities are only one or two dimensional. When you hear audio replay significantly improved in obvious areas like bass depth and control, leading edge dynamics and resolution and detail, these objective improvements are obvious and easy to engage with. They make their presence known without ambiguity; they are easy to connect with and experience and it’s often easy to be seduced by them. No one has ever said they don’t want deeper, richer and more controlled bass replay as part of their upgrade path and so when that is offered, it’s so very easy to fall for its charms.
But extended listening will often reveal that improvement to be one dimensional. Often the more complex qualities of the people we meet at parties might be apparent, but only reveal themselves after longer connections are established; they are more nuanced and difficult to identify. You can quite quickly become aware that the person you’re talking to has a depth of humanity and intrigue to them, but you couldn’t so readily articulate what it is you find appealing when compared to a five minute conversation with the flamboyant raconteur.This is what moving to the TB1000s is like.
Listening to the TB1000s, I could tell I was in the presence of greatness; the music was more fluid, less strained and with sweeter timbre and superior weight. The sound stage remained unchanged, there was some useful improvement in resolution and detail, but this wasn’t the most apparent improvement. Space between notes, between instruments and pauses was more accurately conveyed and timing was significantly improved. I was most struck by the overall coherence of the music. Complex passages combining four or more musicians into an ensemble suddenly became far more distinct; you could hear the individual instruments, each distinct against a backdrop, but each also in harmony with the others.
That word - ‘coherence’ - is certainly the most resonant adjective to describe how the music is improved. Where I heard the more obvious musical traits improved with the DAC, bass authority, leading edge dynamics, detail etc, the TB1000s were more nuanced but no less enjoyable. The music opened up, strain was released, the timbre was suddenly rich, mellifluous and life like. Music was pouring, rather than jumping out of the speakers, like a rich river of honey.
How much of this was due to the the TB1000 tube rather than the monocrystal wiring is hard to say; I will say that this improvement is something I can attribute to more careful attention to wiring and certainly also to judicious use of monocrystal silver in the signal path as I’ve heard similar improvements recently with speaker cables that use the same material application. But this improvement is also redolent of when I moved from Psvane 300b output tubes on my Golden Gate DAC to original Western Electric 300b tubes; and that is a useful summation of what the TB1000 tube is like. It’s like moving from standard 300b tubes to WE300b tubes. Glorious!
Last edited:
