The All Purpose Advice Thread

Discussion in 'Advice Threads' started by purr1n, Sep 26, 2015.

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  1. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    A possibly stupid question...

    I know that some balanced amps have underwhelming SE outs, possibly due to sketchy summing or similar- e.g. the Mjolnir 2. However, what I want to know is do similar warnings apply to many balanced DACs- that the SE outs will be underwhelming?

    For example, if you had a high quality SE amp, would you be leaving a lot of sound quality on the table, if you ran (for example) a Gungnir Multibit or Yggdrasil SE into it?

    I know that the answer potentially varies from model to model, but specifically with those two, is there an issue?
     
  2. doublea

    doublea New

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    I'm sure this has been answered several dozen times, but I'm looking for an amp for the 6XX series and I've read some less than stellar comments about the pairing with a magni2u. I'd like to keep the price under or around $200 for the amp and so far the ones I've been looking at are the magni2u and the little dot mk2, which is currently on massdrop for $120. Has anyone tried this pairing? As a side note, I have some quite power hungry T50rp's (heavily modded, less efficient than stock) so I'm not even sure the little dot could power them. I'm more than happy to tube roll with the leftover $80 in case that would be beneficial.
     
  3. thegunner100

    thegunner100 Hentai Master Chief

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    What's your dac? You could go for a Vali 2 or try to stretch your budget a little more for a used Valhalla 2. The HD600 (didn't have my hd650s at the time) didn't wow me with the Magni 2U but was amazing with the Valhalla 2 back then. If you don't have a decent dac, a GOv2 or GO2a (or some variant) would probably serve you better.
     
  4. doublea

    doublea New

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    Right now, no dedicated dac, but I'm pretty set on getting a Modibit which I'll also be feeding out to my speakers. Valhalla2 is a bit much of a stretch, and I'd prefer a smaller amp since my desk space is pretty limited in my current place.
     
  5. Skyline

    Skyline Double-blindly done with this hobby

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    Vali 2 it is, then. Hands down.
     
  6. thegunner100

    thegunner100 Hentai Master Chief

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  7. doublea

    doublea New

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    Is there a thread anywhere with information regarding Vali2 tube rolling (ideally with measurements)? If I'm going to be using a tube amp, I feel like I might as well push for warmth since I listen to a decent amount of rock/heavy metal and electronica.
     
  8. Skyline

    Skyline Double-blindly done with this hobby

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  9. doublea

    doublea New

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    This "budget amp" you speak of, any idea if it was under development or NDA pre-announcement? Ideally I'd like to pick up an amp within the next month since the amp I'm currently using (Micca Origen) has no line in and doesn't sound any different from the front out on my case.
     
  10. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    If you're on a budget, do not go down the rabbit hole of tube rolling.
     
  11. doublea

    doublea New

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    What could possibly go wrong?
    Edit: [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2016
  12. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    The rules are a bit different with the Vali 2. The best aftermarket tube is only about $20, amazingly, and of course you only need one of them. Extreme silliness not required.

    Luckily, the thread linked more or less comes to a good conclusion and ends up with an overall favourite, which is remarkably helpful. Just grabbing the suggested tube will be fine for 99% of folks, and a nice upgrade. It's a lovely little amp.
    You can drop in the EH6CG7 and stop worrying, leaving more time to listen to the music :headbang:
     
  13. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Audiophile tweaking is death upon your wallet.
    edit: if you don't control yourself that is, but there's a slippery slope
     
  14. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    Yeah, the excessive, wanky HF-style "tube rolling" threads where pretentious eejits spend more than the cost of the amp, and eventually blow the thing up is the road to madness. It's worth reading Marvey's angry smackdown of such nonsense, starting here, and then getting slightly more measured and informative.

    However, a cheap proven upgrade (that we can blame Mike Moffat for liking, even) for the Vali 2 is perfectly safe... So far *twitch*.
     
  15. Mystic

    Mystic Mystique's Spiritual Advisor

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    Upgrading from my Valhalla 2, trying to decide between two amps.

    DNA Sonett (ver1)
    and
    Glenn OTL (with transformer upgrade)

    Would much appreciate some opinions. The Sonett will cost me a few hundred less. But I don't want price to be the deciding factor.

    I mainly use high Z Senns.
     
  16. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    What's the general price point on the Glenn OTL?
     
  17. Madaboutaudio

    Madaboutaudio Friend

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    Agree on this totally. I have admittedly burnt quite abit of cash on stupid tweaks but my two cents is that we should not totally outright dismiss tweaking since some low cost/free tweaks# can actually help to eliminate certain audio gremlins(hums, noise, sonic/digital artifacts) that causes listener fatigue*

    I am totally against dangerous and mega expensive tweaks but at the same time there exist tweaks that cost money but will work to improve sound quality(eg. Wyrd)

    #Examples will include isolating your audio equipment's power cords and cables away from electrically noisy fans, motors, computers, routers, lights. Or things like cleaning your connector jacks or rebooting your computer once awhile, and as well as removing excessive ear wax.

    *
     
  18. Mikoss

    Mikoss Friend

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    "A lot of sound quality" is fairly subjective. Say for example, that you have a great balanced amp, being fed from Yggdrasil fully balanced, and it sounded great. Then you compared it to a SE amp that sounded better... This is an entirely plausible scenario, as SE designed amps could definitely sound better, regardless of their design to not take a balanced signal in.

    Would the same SE amp sound better if it was able to take a balanced signal? Perhaps... you could try the Iso-box PC-2XR on a case by case basis. By most accounts, the SE outputs on Yggdrasil and Gungnir Multibit aren't "gimped", so any differences probably wouldn't be described as "a lot". But then this is where the subjective comes back into play. My thought is that I don't go chasing down amps capable of taking a balanced signal... I chase down amps that sound awesome.

    I'd recommend reading the Yggdrasil reviews from here and CS with regards to SE vs balanced differences. I personally haven't bothered springing for the iso-box, but it would be interesting to read some impressions with the MB DACs.
     
  19. thegunner100

    thegunner100 Hentai Master Chief

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    Balanced transformers can also degrade sound quality too, which is why Donald hasn't offered balanced inputs on his amps until the Stellaris with its super expensive Audio Note transformers.
     
  20. Malabargold

    Malabargold Flipper

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    I just noticed Audio Notes top model output transformer is $15,000 each...
     
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