Mike - congrats on your new amps.

Your experience with low power SET amps matches mine. Ever since I first heard a top tier SET amp in my system (Ancient Audio Silver Grand Mono - $40k, 300B based SET) I cannot get this sound out of my head.

I have went through countless amps since - Lamm 1.2R, BAT 150SE, ARC Ref110/150, Spectral 260, Pass X.5 and XA.5, Burmester 911, darTZeel, Nagra VPA, Audio Note Japan (Kondo) Ongaku - but nothing could duplicate the performance of the best low powered SET. Dart was probably the closest, giving the sound which is very transparent, smooth, articulate and has outstanding microdynamics - which is why I still keep it.

If you want to persue the SET experiece further, I would try some SET amps using 300B tubes (but only those using some quality iron, rectification, p-to-p wiring throughout, exotic caps like V-Caps or AN Silver etc) or parallel 2A3 to get more headroom.

845, or even 211 tubes, as sugested by some in this thread, will simply not get you there IMO. I had the Audio Note Japan (Kondo) Ongaku on loan for a couple of weeks (211 based SET) - which is one of the finest exaples of the breed - but it was no match for Ancient Audio Silver Grand Mono in terms of resolution, decays, HF clarity and above all - microdynamics. It sounded slow and colored in comparision.

elberoth2 December 25, 2011 23:28

Mike,

Silver soldering crimp connectors was a service offered to me by Hevre at darTZeel factory. Hevre sweared by it. You need to ask Kevin about that upgrade, not sure if they offer it outside the factory, but it is simple tweak, so why not.

Best,
Adam

elberoth2 October 31, 2009 18:44

Mike,

How did you manage to get you amp before me, haveng sent it in for upgrade some 2 months later, and living some 10.000 miles further from Switzerland than I do, is beyond me :-)

Anyway, I should have mine on monday, hope the change is as big to my ears as it is to yours !

BTW - Did you ask Hevre to remove AC socket and speakers crimp connectors, and directly silver soldere wires to the corresponding leads ?

elberoth2 October 31, 2009 08:17

Mike,

Did you have your amp upgraded with darTZeel SCNP network ?

If so, what are your impressions ?

elberoth2 September 28, 2009 22:11

Thanks.

elberoth2 March 19, 2009 15:26

Mike,

Did you have a chance to compare the Zeel cable between the pre and pwr amp to sth else (Valhalla for example) ?

elberoth2 March 19, 2009 00:12

Thnaks Mike. That is a fair answer.

elberoth2 March 27, 2007 09:24

Mike,

If you liked the Halcyonics platform so much, why didn't you get one ?

I mean, 7500$ is a lot of money for most of us, but If you can afford TWO sets of TA Opus SC at 30k each, two speaker systems (EA and vSR 11) etc, then I'm guessing that money is not an issue.

I'm asking since I'm interested in getting Halcyonics platform for myself.

elberoth2 March 26, 2007 21:01

Mike,

Could you share your expirience with the Halcyonics platform ?

You mentioned several times that you use or tried one, but I have never spotted any specific comments.

The Halcyonics unit is probably the most sophisticated solution to vibration control on the market today (and probably the most expensiveone too) so I was wondering how it translates to sound quality.

elberoth2 March 19, 2007 14:14