Project Ember II Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Headphone Amplifiers and Combo (DAC/Amp) Units' started by Skyline, Sep 29, 2015.

  1. Solrighal

    Solrighal Facebook Friend

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    Which is what I should have went on to say; when I move from the HD662EVO to my HD 650's all I need to do is change the output impedance & I'm good to go.

    Yes mate, I'm still around. Rumours of my death & all that... :punk:
     
  2. Skyline

    Skyline Double-blindly done with this hobby

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    It should also be pointed out (and I'm sure I've done it myself in this thread) that Jeremy is awesome. He's the kind of guy I like to support and give my money to.

    This is not a knock against Schiit, obviously, who also has great customer service. Just worth noting since Garage1217 isn't quite as well known.
     
  3. Ringingears

    Ringingears Honorary BFF

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    I second that opinion. Have had a lot of experience with Garage 1217. First class all the way.
     
  4. Ringingears

    Ringingears Honorary BFF

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    Are you using the 6DJ8?
     
  5. Mshenay

    Mshenay Barred from loaner program. DON'T SEND ME GEAR.

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    I'll Third that opinion. I was an ignorant ass who insulted Garage 1217 for like 3 years, simply because they had no enclosure. Well I got the Project Starlight AND the Schiit Vali 2 at the same time to prove my... own ignorance. At the end of the day, I purchased the Starlight [and I had no intention to do so] and became an mouth fomaing fanboi of theirs

    I sold my starlight, but I just purchased the Ember II... and my gawd is sounds magnificent. An I only have Electro Harmonix New Stock 6sn7s!!! AND even better, is I don't have to Bias my tubes any moarm which I never minded doing AND those side mounted Gain jumpers are amazing!

    All in all, I'm pretty stoked
     
  6. Ringingears

    Ringingears Honorary BFF

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    I have often received a negative reaction toward the Ember because it isn't in an enclosure. Before they even listened to it. The opinion usually changes once they hear it. Still one person's marvelous amp is another's meh. So I have never taken it as anything more than different preferences. All I can say is don't judge the Ember II by the fact it is an open design, which IMHO is very nice looking especially with the aluminum face plates. After reading this thread I pulled out my box of tubes. I found a NOS Reflector 6H23n from 1967 which I bought a few years back and only put a few hours on before I switched to something else. Rolled it in. Really brings out the details in a recording while keeping the HD800 treble issue in check. Very nice. Works well with the HD650 too. Need to find my 6N6P and compare. It must be in another box. Too many tubes!
     
  7. Thaitao

    Thaitao New

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    I used to have the Polaris and assume that technicaly, it's in the same league with the Ember, i'm not really a fan of garage 1217 products. My Vali 1 trump it in almost every aspects except versatility, and that's 129$ only. I can't imagine how the Ember compare to Lyr, my be Lyr is not much better than Vali 1.
     
  8. Mshenay

    Mshenay Barred from loaner program. DON'T SEND ME GEAR.

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    Your totally right man! I was in that camp for a long time, hearing really is believing though... and I'm really a fan of theirs! The Ember II has been a god send with my iBasso PB2 being non functional

    I actually REALLY liked the Vali 1, I enjoyed it MUCH more than the Vali 2, though sound wise you can't really compare the Solid State Polaris to the Ember, the Ember II is their flag ship, and coming from the Starlight I can hear an immediate difference.

    An the Starlight mind you, sounded much cleaner with the same stock tube as the Vali 2 did, not only that but my Vali 2 WITH it's enclosure managed to be nosier than the CNC'd Garage 1217 Starlight, and yes both amps were in low gain
     
  9. Thaitao

    Thaitao New

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    Me too, although many people include marv and schiit claim that Vali 2 is superior to Vali 1 in every aspects, but to my ears, Vali 1 sounds much much better, Vali 2 sounds too bland, although using expensive telefuken gold pin tube.
    I know Project Ember is their flagship but Polaris is cheaper because it use jfet for voltage stage instead of tube which is a lot more expensive, the auto bias and auto heater and heater also add a lot the price different. In the end it's the different between jfet votage gain stage and tube gain stage and i have read a lot of comparison between these 2 and always come to conclusion that they are in the same technical level, some prefer the Ember, some prefer the Polaris.
    Do you mean the Starlight sound more detail than Vali 2?
     
  10. Mshenay

    Mshenay Barred from loaner program. DON'T SEND ME GEAR.

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    I do, I found the Starlight to have a better quality of sound over the Vali 2, I believe the issue with the Vali 2 boils down to the stock tube. It was REALLY bad sounding. The Ember II falls into the same camp, the stock tube really does need to be upgraded ASAP to get the most out of the amp. Really, the same can be said for the Starlight

    Still even with the same Reflektor 6n23P tube, the Starlight had a blacker background over the Vali 2, I had each on the lowest gain setting. What you will find though is for Higher impedance headphones, and ortho's the Vali 2 will sound better than the Starlight. How ever for low impedance / sensitive dynamic headphones, the Starlight was better sounding.
     
  11. Mshenay

    Mshenay Barred from loaner program. DON'T SEND ME GEAR.

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    Going in the tube direction, I got my self 3 Sylvania 6sn7s, a 6sn7 GTA Chrome Dome, a run of the mill 6sn7 GT and a Jan-Chs 6sn7w.

    Of the three, the GTA had a very fun sound, little emphasis on the mids and fun bass, resolved deatiails really well, but lacked the 3D placement on the basic 6sn7 GT
    The Basic 6sn7 GT, black base, green label, had a good sound stage, but was noisy. Cost me less than my NOS Electro Harmonnix 6sn7s and was on par with them, sound stage was a tad better, but with the noise it's hard to say

    Out of the three, the 6sn7W Jan-Chs, really impressed me, it was a short bottle Chrom Dome like the 6sn7 GTA, but a lot less fun. Bass had more focus, almost "bass light" mids have the same sweetness, but not as forward as the 6sn7 GTA, imaging was on par with the basic 6sn7 GT but with MUCH less noise overall!

    [​IMG]

    Pics of the two 6sn7 Chrome Domes, on the right the GTA, on the left the JAN-CHS

    [​IMG]

    The basic 6sn7 GT, what isn't pictured is my little Tin Foil contraption, I found it helped cut down SOME of the noise,


    Moving forward, I purchased another 2 6sn7 Sylvanias, a JAN-CHS VT231 Green Lable, tall bottle Bottom Getter with the two rectangle plates and a Black Base white Lable VT 231, bottom getter, tall bottle with the same rectangle plates

    I hear the green label has the better bass, so I'm curious how each one sounds, compared to my JAN-CHS 6sn7w. Price wise, that JAN-CHS 6sn7w was a doosey, could have gotten a schiit Modi but... tubes are more fun, that and I had some eBay bucks to blow through
     
  12. Mshenay

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    Some good news, I've got the Focal Elear with me this week, I'm pairing it with my Ember II and my lovely 6sn7W. So far, I'm finding I really do like the timbre of the Elear x Ember II over my HE 4 x NFB10ES2, I did try the HE 4 with the Ember II, I wasn't a big fan.
     
  13. bilboda

    bilboda Florida boomer

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    [​IMG]

    The ember is unbeatable with it's versatility. Here it is with 2 6l5's. I have alsoused 6j5, 6f8g, 6sn7, 12au7, just plug and play. There may be as many as 50 tube types available. Tube rollers dream.
     
  14. Mshenay

    Mshenay Barred from loaner program. DON'T SEND ME GEAR.

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    Very nice man! I'm not quite ready to get into Duals yet lol, sticking with single tubes for now. What is your ideal sound preference with tubes?
     
  15. bilboda

    bilboda Florida boomer

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    Sound preference? Faithful reproduction+. An improvement over what the engineer heard when the music was produced. Probably not definable but still. If I get detail, soundstage, plankton? non etched clarity. I am finding a lot of that thru my newest source, rpi/502dac to Modi Multibit via spdif, Ember as pre to Adcom GFA 535 and DCM Timewindow 3, or amp to HD650 but I know I have a ways to go so I try to equalize pc playback for dialogue, my weakness, either my ears or the media, the cause.
    I have 6n6p-ir on the way, reputed to tick all the boxes. Can't really say how the tubes color the sound. Gonna try a 6dj8 that I forgot I had. We'll see
     
  16. Skyline

    Skyline Double-blindly done with this hobby

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    FWIW, the 6dj8 was my preference for the 650. Seemed to cut through the veil and bring the headphones to life.

    The 6N6P was fantastic with my HE-500s, but left the 650s a little dull and lifeless.

    We all hear things differently, of course...
     
  17. bilboda

    bilboda Florida boomer

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    First thing I noticed about the 6dj8 was it's clarity, not sure if it is etched yet as I am listening to Buddy Guy and his guitar can get edgy, Very clear vocals. This is thru speakers. I am waiting on a driver for my HD650. I got distracted while adjusting the contact spring and the driver wire came loose from the spring contact. All the kings horses, etc cannot get it reattached.
     
  18. Solrighal

    Solrighal Facebook Friend

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    My favourite valve (so far) is a NOS JAN 6SN7GT VT-231 made for the Canadian Armed Forces in June 1945. It has a liquid smoothness with tremendous detail & dynamics. It wasn't cheap though.
     
  19. bilboda

    bilboda Florida boomer

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    There is the 6n6p, 6n6p-i and the 6n6p-ir. The last one is the one I hoping will give me the best sound

    This 6dj8 is kcking butt now that I have my new HD650 driver installed. So clear. Much better then the speakers which I thought were pretty nice.
     
  20. Mshenay

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    So I got my next batch of Testers in, I've only listened to the Black Label VT 231 Sylvania 6SN7 GT so far, I accidentally bought two of them one JAN CHS and one Not, what I thought was a green label JAN CHS was in fact a white, oh well.

    But thus far, the Black Label Tall Bottle Front facing Bottom Getter Flash'd VT 231 has a very simmilar tone and sound stage as my 6sn7W jan-chs, but it lacks the mirco detail of the 6sn7W. For $40 it wasn't a bad buy, not as fun as the 6sn7 GTA Chrome Dome [$38], but it had a more balanced tone than the Chrome Dome did,

    Here's the 6sn7 GT Black Label Tall Bottle, Bottom Gett Flash'd Sylvania

    [​IMG]

    I still prefer my 6sn7W jan-Chs green label Chrome dome short bottle, Though I do have a White Label 6sn7 GT Jan-CHS vt231 1944 dated [even had an ORIGINAL box... half falling apart but still very cool] and a Green Label Variant of the Same tube in bound to me. I'll let you guys know what I think of them soon!

    Also I've been using the Elear to test and compare these tubes,
     

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