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GooseEntire1705 OP t1_jasy6b7 wrote

First real sound impressions as I have now received the Sylvania 5814a & Reflektor 6V6GT tubes and I have kept the same stock rectifier tube for now....

Firstly the stock tubes are utter trash and I really didn't like them. The sound was too smoothed over and details were lost in the music and it annoys me how modern tubes are still far off in the quality of the sound compared to vintage tubes. I used the LCD 4 for this session as people say this headphone really scale endlessly to better gear and I can say this session was the best I have heard them and I didn't think it was possible to achieve such results. I have got the Topping A90D and Schiit Lyr + as my other amps and they aren't in the same solar system to the HA-3A with vintage tubes installed. I actually used the stock LCD 4 1/4 jack cable and there was no hissing compared to the XLR connection. The amount of power in the HA-3A meant that I never went past 12 o clock on the volume dial.

So with these new tubes the stage became wider and decay on notes became a lot more apparent. I could really focus on a single note in the background and hear all its decay. Music that I've listened to for years revealed extra hidden details that I could just not hear with my other amps. The background was absolutely dark and clear which was one of the most impressive things because the music feels like its just floating and appearing in a completely dark background and I was truly amazed. The tonality was also perfect in its delivery of the instruments and vocals and nothing was shouty which is tube dependent I guess but this is my 1st try with different tubes so the result is great. The bass had less punch than the Schiit Lyr + (with Sylvania Bad Boy Tube) but I feel like it was more detailed and the decay was a lot better and overall more balanced. It's also incredible of how precise but musical everything was and it all blended together to create some weeping during my listening to tracks like California Hotel (MTV live version). Lastly I didn't notice any fall off in speed and EDM tracks were highly enjoyable to listen to.

I now have the confidence in this amp to save up for the the Abyss AB 1266 Phi TC because I know this amp has the resources to take full advantage of that headphone. The Schiit Lyr + and Topping A90D can kick dust and will be sold. I will only keep the Ifi Zen Can as a backup just in case.

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PutPineappleOnPizza t1_jat1i39 wrote

>stock tubes are utter trash

Amp comes with a full set of JJ tubes lol.

I always wonder why vintage tubes are held in such high regard. I recently got a very old Sylvania 6SN7GTB, the one with a chrome top and yellow font, and to be honest, with the grain of salt that my amp is on the budget side of things, JJ 6SN7, Tung-Sol 6SN7 and EH 6SN7 Gold are all just as good from my testing.

Maybe all of this is very circuitory dependant, but my vintage tube experience has been a letdown so far. Most of the tubes hummed and some sounded very flat. The Sylvania tube sounds great, but it's not a huge change from all the newer stuff I've mentioned.

Just did a quick test with the Sylvania against the JJ6SN7: vocals are a little richer on the NOS tube, but only ever so slightly, like a 5% difference imo

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pFrancisco t1_jatjk01 wrote

As someone who has spent over 15 years contributing to various tube audio forums; building and designing all sorts of tube amplifiers, these reviews make me lol irl. Maybe I’m just over the tube magic already. There is no way the Topping A90D sounds worse than the Cayin. You like the sound of distortion, period.

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pFrancisco t1_jatuabb wrote

It sounds thinner and with less bass because you don't have 2nd and 3rd order harmonics trailing the sound.

Like I said, you like the sound of distortion and that's fine. But the A90D is technically better than any tube amp.

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PutPineappleOnPizza t1_jax8cdm wrote

Nice! For me it was the Sylvania that has absolutely no humming. But I had great luck with Tung-Sol and EH too (after an actual burn in period of 24-48 hours on the EH).

But some tubes crackle when I move my potentiometer, which I find super weird. The Sylvania is the only one not doing that.

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LeEasy t1_jayaylj wrote

Very brave of u for speaking the truth lol, I buy tube amps just for the look, as a person with an EE background and talked multiple amp engineers, I full agree with u, and according to some OEM engineers those tube amp profit margin often times over 100 to its production costs. Any people can read circuitry diagram and have soldering techniques can easily produce those class A tube amps, slap a fancy casing, charging few thousands, brag about tUbe mAgIc, you’re sold, you’re in, and u will be in part of the cult

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pFrancisco t1_jayh5f1 wrote

I also started college as an EE major and switched to Business Administration 🤦🏻‍♂️. Yes, tubes are fun and beautiful to look at, and I still use them every so often, but technically they are inferior to todays technology. I’m especially impressed with the newest class-D amplification from Purifi and Hypex.

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LeEasy t1_jayphu9 wrote

Class D is the future, NAD will be the leading company when people realize they have been brainwashed by all the class A marketing. people resenting them cuz they don’t charge much and don’t have snake oil marketing. Time will tell. It is amassing how those ancient technologies that has been proven inefficient and highly noisy and discarded by almost all other fields are treated like a crown jewel in audio market.

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Gorio1961 t1_jazhwzu wrote

My HA-3A arrived yesterday; I have two sets of matched vintage tubes coming soon. In the meantime, I am putting the stock tubes thru the paces. This is a quality piece of equipment!

I am pretty sure I will be in the market for a new matching DAC (black) with a matching footprint.

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xymordos t1_jazw90b wrote

Yeah it seems to come down to chance sadly. My Sylvania had a buzz that didn't go away after burn in, but the new PSVane's were perfectly fine. I tried some WE403a and the GE replacement and the GE were good but WE weren't.

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MyUserNameIsTooLong1 t1_jazyb2q wrote

Are you a amir fan? Someone openly admitted they could not tell the difference between a single genelec 8361 and a pair revel salon 2? Is that who you are trusting to make subjective arguments about things sounding worse and better? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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TheOneWhoReadsStuff t1_jbajzqy wrote

As a person with little kids and a dog in the house your amp location frightens me.

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