FS: Modded Quicksilver HPA Bundles (8 sets of tubes and iFi Grd Defender)

Pains me to sell this as it is such a wonderful piece with a lot of great tube options, but I am majorly downscaling my investments in the headphone side of the hobby as 2 channel listening takes up 95% of my time.



This Quicksilver headphone amp was modded by @Azimuth for his personal use until he ended up scoring a DNA Starlett at which point I upgraded from a stock QS HPA to this. Let me tell you, the mods make a huge difference and smooth out a lot of the rough points of the stock amp. I would not have lived with the stock amp long-term, but was perfectly happy with this as a "downgrade" from owning the DNA Starlett/ZDS recently. Someone could ride off into the sunset with this and be perfectly happy assuming they have the right DAC/headphone synergy. Here is a list of the mods:

Coupling caps changed to Dueluend CAST 630v Cu-Sn
Replaced main power capacitor to slighly larger value cap
Replaced all power caps to high ripple current Nichicon
Cathode bias caps changed to bi-polar
Preamp plate resistor changed to carbon comp
LED cathode bias on first pre-amp stage
Added Copper shielding to output transformers
Power LED changed to green with proper diode to run off heater taps (protects power transformer)
Chrome transformer cover added

Have lots of tubes for you to play with. 3 sets of EL 84 tubes (JJ stock tubes, Tungsram, and Ei). 4 sets of 12AT7 tubes scored from @Slade01 , and a set of 6N23P with the proper adapters. Note the Ei are not shown in this photo as they are currently on loan to a member, will get them to whoever buys this bundle.



Also including an iFi Grd Defender with this bundle. It seems whatever type of grounding scheme Quicksilver uses on this amp makes it very susceptible to ground loops (pretty much every owner I have talked to has dealt with it). Thank you iFi, b because this product sorts it out. A must-own with this amp it seems.



Asking $1250 (PRICE DROP TO $1150) shipped for friends and contributors. Passing along the great deals I got from @Azimuth and @Slade01 so this great amp can find a home where it will get the love it deserves. If you are interested in the amp but not some parts of the bundled stuff let me know and we can chat price. Does not include original box but will pack well.



Only major scratch on the amp pictured here:

 

Bump for the purpose of price drop down to $1198. For the same price as a new stock unit you get the complete mods/parts, tons of great lightly used NOS tubes, and the $100 iFi grd defender. Going to post up at higher price on other marketplaces next week, but would rather keep this in the SBAF family.

 

I can't think of a sub-$2k amp I'd rather have other than total Unobtanium Craig 1-offs. I haven't heard a Starlett so don't know if it would be worth saving up and being very patient for a year while you wait, but I can say that I bought one of these (un-modded) a while back just because I wanted to hear it and I liked it a whole lot.

I was already waist deep in big glass amps so I knew it was just a short love affair going in, but it was enough to make me heartily recommend this amp to anyone who wants a mostly neutral with a tasteful touch of tubey goodness type sound.

If I were less crazy I could happily just enjoy one of these as a daily driver probably forever. Unfortunately I caught The Sickness. Don't be me. Be a normal, rational human, save yourself a ton of money, and just ride off into the sunset with (your Sennheisers and) this amp.

It gets the Erroneous seal of approval for sure.

 

This amp stock is great, with the mods i can only imagine. Glws.

 

One last SBAF bump before I post to other marketplaces.

 

This is up on head-fi now, but I would still love for it to stay in the SBAF given all of @Azimuth 's hard work on this. Price drop to $1150, shipping still included and everything bundled.

 

Sold over on head-fi, @shotgunshane @jexby please close