Recent content by Juancho

I think there was a power amp rectangular looking version and an integrated. The power amp is very decent and has the early output transformers. I did a choke psu conversion on one of these recently. The 800 integrated should be pretty good too, but probably uses the later output transformers...

2nd the above. I have Zen Mini with LPS. Great sound, great app. Long term free support. No downside IMO

One wonders why he's selling after 3 hours use but be that as it may, mine took a lot longer than 3 hours to reach its peak and sounded pretty mechanical up to that point. I'm still not sure whether it's better or not than my own version TDA1541 DAC with tube output stage. They both sound...

Klipsch Cornwall 4s or Fortes. None better!

How does that work? Yet to hear in person but you've had an audition?

That's correct. And the trannies I've tried all run quietly and coolly given a reasonable spec

You don't need a custom transformer. 30v from my mains voltage of 249 gives a nominal 219 so perfect. Valve amps are generally more sensitive because of the multiplier effect of high ht voltage-eg 10% on 400v = 440v which may be getting marginal for many valve circuits. Plus 10% on 6.3v heaters...

+1 for bucking transformers. I fit them all the time for clients

Harma str. You can then decide on whether or not you want balanced or not.....

I only worried about it when I owned some JBL s2 9800s which retailed at £38k (I bought secondhand, much more cheaply.....) As these grew older I was concerned that if ever had to sort out a horn I was either in for some ferrofluid replacement or a very expensive list price horn!

For 12AX7s or ECC83s as we call them, Watford Valves do the very fine sounding Harma strs

What he says. Also, different valve manufacturers seem to have different strengths. I've never liked EH valves or found them to be good sounding, but their gold pin 6SN7s sound great and are robust enough to withstand the demands of my Mastersounds where most NOS don't. For 6922s/ ECC88 Genalex...

A Leben would do the trick very nicely. But my 845 PSEs are also silent. No hum no hiss-just a growl as the voltage comes up. Cayin amps I know also turn in 90db signal to noise ratios

That's my experience too with my own brand DACs and preamps and commercial power amps. As I noted elsewhere I think the Starkrimson GAN amp does 95% what the best tube amps do, so it makes a great summer amp or alternate. Not without issues tho, as sold it cuts out when the mains goes above 243v...

As an ex Bartok owner I was very under-whelmed by the Bartok's performance for its price. The dCS Forum was full of people saying (I paraphrase) 'I wasn't happy with dCS until I got to Rossini level' which did nothing to soothe my post purchase dissonance. Suggest you browse there to see...