My objective is to duplicate the sound of a good jazz venue as best I can. I'll never match it but getting close is fine. I've had various audio components through the years and tubes particularly DHT tubes/ASSET have gotten me the closest. So this is where I will settle down and appreciate.
Balanced AC power is fantastic !! 1800va balanced isolation transformer/conditioner. All aspects of music reproduction are improved for every single component.
Tripoint Tripoint Troy.
A wonderful grounding box component. When added to my system it increased the sense of natural sound quality and emotional engagement. The Troy has a humanistic and “soulful “ quality to it.
Coincident Speaker Tech Total eclipse 2
This wonderful speaker is transparent,open and involving. It`s large yet completely disappears as the source of sound within the room. Very easy to drive,94db and 14 0hm impedance (Minimum 10 ohm). I replaced the stock Solens capacitor with the Duelund CAST in the crossover.
Coincident Statement linestage
Superb performance. In my opinion , a masterpiece by Israel Blume. As would be expected, a wonderful match with its sibling the Frankenstein MK II.
Coincident Speaker Tech Frankenstein mark 2
A terrific 300b SET amplifier that is the foundation of my system. The EML XLS 300b tubes are a superb match with this amplifier.
Acquiring these 300b SET mono blocks changed the course of my music listening experience. They elevated the emotional engagement, tactility and “breath of life “ realism.
Yamamoto YDA-01
Wonderful music lover's DAC that has a very natural/organic sound quality. Duelund CAST addition(output coupling capacitors) makes it sound even better. It has a very minimalist circuit/design that was implemented well.
Ocellia Silver Reference IC
Very natural and pure sounding with excellent tone and timbre preservation.
Ocellia Silver Reference Speaker Cable
Same qualities/ comments as the IC.
Star Sound Technologies Sistrum Apprentice component platforms..
These Star Sound platforms are mandatory in my system. Effectively managing resonance and vibration leads to a very noticeable sound improvement with every component and especially the speakers. Excellent product.
High Fidelity CT1 Ultimate Digital cable
A highly impressive digital cable that mates beautifully into my system. Contributes to the natural sound presentation.
Pro-Ject Audio Systems CD Box RS2T
This is a superb Redbook CD playback transport. It’s both high resolution and impressively natural.
. I’m using the excellent Fidelizer Nikola II LPS. Splendid pairing.
Lavricables Grand and Master series Power Cables.
Pure silver wire and unshielded power cables. These are used with all of my audio components. They are very open, transparent, high resolution with beautiful natural tone and timbre presentation.
Abbas Esoteric Audio 3.2SE
Built by renown Ukrainian Abbas Zulfugarov. NOS DAC utilizing the classic Phillips TDA 1541 multi bit chip. Two 6080 tubes in the analog stage. 5 various rectifier tubes in the power supplies.
3 separate toroidal transformers (And 2 chokes ) for the power supplies.A very serious and successful upper tier DAC implementation. Using with the Abbas SPDIF and power cable.
Brf, Spirit is correct, I welcome any good information that may benefit others who may happen to come across these posts. Spirit, my buddy Jwm just got his Elrogs last week and so far so good. He was assured that the current versions are sorted out and reliable, time will tell. Spirit I hope the 3rd time is the charm for you. These are superb sounding tubes and hopefully the earlier failings have been worked out and put to rest. Dr Schaeffernitcht has been making tubes for 40 years, so I'm confident he's gotten it right with the current batch. The Shuguang B or the Pavanes are viable reliable alternatives (with lesser but still good sound quality). Charles
Brf, sadly I'm coming to agree w/you re Elrog 845s. I'm about to go onto my second replacement pair, that's three pairs in just 8 months. They sound positively dreamy wrt the rather bland stock Shuguang A's, and for a while you're transported to Audio Heaven, but then the hum/buzz/100Hz harmonics start, so strong as to vibrate the drivers themselves, and the Elrog spell is broken. If the Shuguang B's really get within touching distance of my Elrogs and KR's, but w/no reliability issues, then it's a no brainer to move over. So I'll give a last pair of Elrogs a go, but if this ends in frustration, I'll move to the B's. Just to add a twist, I'm going to audition next week the Nat Audio Symmetrical preamp and SE2SE SET monos using NOS 1948 GE 211's, one pair per channel, at 75W/ch 3dB louder than the Black Shadows. Btw, don't worry about monopolising Charles' thread, I'm sure he's happy essential tube advice is being made known, and I have him to thank for easing my passage from SS to SETs, and now you for getting my tube choice correct.
Shuguang 845C metal plates have a lower dissipation rating than the standard RCA 845, therefore, they are not considered drop in replacement, however, the 845C will work, and work well, but the tube life will be significantly shortened.
The KR 845 IS NOT a drop in replacement due to their very low 1.0A filament current when compared to 3.25 filament current of the standard 845. That is why you see allot KR's failing in 845 amps.
The Shuguang brass based 845B is the best valued 845 tube. It doesn't do anything wrong.
Psvane is doing an excellent job at manufacturing and MARKETING their premium brand of tubes. Psvane, has target the North American market due to our thirst for high quality new production tubes and especially our willingness to pay a premium for said tubes.
So why didnt Psvane design and market a replica RCA or United 845? Because the Western Electric name has more of a premium marketability than either RCA or United. Western Electric never made a true 845 specd tube and the WE tube (WE284A) that the Psvane WE845 is supposed to be replicated from are not even close in construction. The WE284A was a metal plate whereas the Psvane WE845 has a graphite plate.
Also, if you take a close look at the Psvane WE845, there is evidence that the vacuum evacuation is performed from the top, whereas both the RCA845 and WE285A are evacuated from the bottom, so the manufacturing techniques are not even duplicated. How can these tubes be called Western Electric Replicas????
IMHO, the best sounding and best value Psvane 845 is the T-series Mk2. The WE845 is also good, but for the price I would start looking for vintage United, RCA and GE 845.
Elrog 845, until their QC and reliably improves, I wouldnt touch that tube no matter how good they sound.
Sorry Charles for taking up space on your system page
Early, your feedback on Shuguangs is much appreciated. Do you have any experience of the Shuguang C (Iron base)? It seems my choice is Shuguang B, Shug C, Pvsane T/11, Pvs T/11 Mk2, and Pvs WE Replica/Extreme.
Since there are a number of helpful Coincident speaker owners who stop in this thread from time to time, I thought I'd let you know that someone's looking for some help on deciding whether their room can hold a pair of Total Eclipses (and I'm selfishly curious to read people's suggestions): http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1424923780
No problem, it wasn't clear which Shuguang Spirit had tried in his amplifier. Given his original message to me I naturally assumed he was referring to the various Shuguang offerings compared to the Elrogs.
Spirit, the Bs were not quite as good as the KRs, and better than the WEs. But the KRs both blew out in 6 months. I passed on the Elrogs because of reliability issues. It sucks to have issues with our beloved toys. The Bs will serve you well. Dependability is important. Try rolling the 5687s, and 6922s with proven choices. You know how good the Black Shadows are! Charles, thanks for the scolding. Now you know that Shuguang makes more than one 845 tube. That was the point of my original post.
Have you tried the Shuguang 845Bs? I have had similar frustrations with the KR845 and the Psvane845WE. The Shuguang Bs have not given me any trouble, and sound much better than tha As on my Black Shadows.
Spirit, Yes, I understand clearly your dilemma, you'd hate to give up a proven excellent amplifier due to tube problems/incompatibility. I can appreciate your attraction to the NAT Audio amplifiers. They have a reputation for exceptional music reproduction and rugged construction. I've never heard them but they seem like something I'd really enjoy.
Well, it's not just me. They are hand made, and the bias may vary btwn pairs, and within pairs. The Black Shadows I've recently learnt can't be user adjusted for bias, the humbucker is internal, and so any pair ideally have to be adjusted for back at the dealer. What a palaver that certainly makes tube love tough to justify from a practical standpoint. There are many comments here on Elrog 845 frustration. But don't get me wrong, the SQ is STELLAR - I will certainly be sad if I have to move away. Not a synergy issue, def mechanical/electrical unreliability. I can stand a fair amount of hum, but harmonics at 100Hz are just too much. My dealer has exhaustively gone thru the amps and there are no faults in the units, we just can't get one tube to behave. It may be the heater. So third pair will need to be asked for. Hence my revisiting Nat Audio, and the SE2SE's which use pairs of '48 NOS GE 211's per channel
Spirit, I reread your post and realize that sound quality isn't the problem but reliability of the tubes. Elrog had some early failure problems initially but my understanding is that this is rectified and the current Elrogs are trouble free. Time will tell. Sound quality hs never been a problem as you cite in your Shuguang comparison. Charles,
Hi Sprit, Well I'm not sure what the issue may be. The North American Elrog distributor has both Audion amps and these tubes and praises them. My friend's Absolare Passion PSET has thd Elrogs and it's the best sound his system has ever produced. I have no reasonable explanation why this isn't the case with you. Could it be faulty tubes? Synergy is very precarious sometimes. I wish I could be of more help for you. Overwhelmingly Elrog owners have raved about these German tubes. Charles,
Charles, can you stop me tearing my hair out? I'm struggling w/Elrog 845s on my Audion Black Shadow SET monos. They sound fantastic, trouncing the stock Shugangs, but after 8 months it looks like I need to send them back to Germany for a SECOND replacement pair. The KR 845's have a bad track record, the Pvsane WE Replicas can be v.noisy leaving the Pvsane T-11's. Your thoughts? Really v.little choice of "posh" 845's. I'm on the verge of passing on Audion for Nat Audio SE2SE SET monos which use 2x NOS 1948 GE211's per channel.
4orreal, Tripoint is a tool to let you hear the outlet, that is the only reason for me bringing it up. Whatever outlet works for you within your synergy of components is ok with me. I'll keep my Maestro. Lets move on and happy listening.
Miguel, I don't want to hijack Charles' system thread. We are all entitled to our opinions. I only wanted to talk about the outlets, not the Tripoint components and how they saound. Replacing a Maestro outlet with a Furutech outlet in a wall is a simpler/cheaper tweak than a Tripoint component; so I do not understand your arguement about the $70,000 Tripoint Emperor and the $210-240 Furutech GTX-D wall receptacle. Let's move on!
Jeff, As wonderful as the Duelund CAST copper are in my speaker I don't doubt their silver foil version is better yet. Their cost was more than I wanted to spend, so the copper foil it was. Many power cord prongs are a copper and bronze alloy, Fernando selected solid silver for its sound quality and I understand that. I'll just have to try them and compare to my current cords. My Ocellia cables use solid silver non plated connectors and they're excellent. So I'm favorable to this approach.
Fernando and I where discussing the outlet threads the other day regarding different folks findings. We came up with the conclusion that some systems will benefit from the platings as it helps smooth out the nasties. By this smoother midrange and high frequencies, of course this comes at a price of the system becoming more editorial. Don't want the plating of an outlet adding bloat and sacrificing immediacy. I rather take care of the problem through grounding, correct mechanical isolation, room acoustics. System synergy at the end of the day will yield different results. I know what works for me under my conditions with my Tripoint technology.
4orreal, Don't believe in plating in outlets, I only trust my ears and not the threads. If you heard my Emperor you would understand my position. I have heard to many flavors through my years of experience. If you find something more refined and humanistic than Tripoint let me know, I'm open minded to hear anything. I haven't heard anything better, just my opinion and one lucky Emperor owner. Not trying to be disrespectful, but I've heard a lot of systems in the last 30 years. Happy listening.
Hi Miguel, Not sure if you have been following the outlet/receptacle debates in some of the threads here on A'gon; but as good as the Maestro Outlet is, it has been bested by the Furutech GTX-D outlets in some systems. That said, I would be very careful with the "Winner against anything else available in the industry" statement. With technology, it is reasonable to say that today's winner/best is obsolete tomorrow.
