Donald North Audio — Owners Thread

I guess my aged ears serve as a brighness filter

 

Nah you have great ears in now this for a fact. I’m just sharing my experience that’s all. Mostly that you don’t need to chase down rare unobtanium driver tubes because they are all the same technically. Excerpt the 6CG7 which should just be avoided.

Spend time/effort on the 2a3 tubes and rectifier instead.

 

I actually like Sylvania 6BK7Bs, that's why I have a stash of them. As for 2A3s and rectifiers, I think I'm doing pretty well at this point

 

Definitely! sorry, I was just inspired to make that post which I've been meaning to make for a long time it was not in reference to your like of the Sylania 6BK7B at all.

And your Tatsukie's might sound great with my Stratus and Audeze's, my previous test was with Stellaris and my RD-S12 which just does not work with either DNA amp.

I've got tons of respect for you though, please know that. Publicly acknowledged respect!

And your hearing. We may have different priorities though given your Holo love and my Yggdrasil love and the 6BQ7A vs 6BK7B. but that's normal from person to person.

 

I did some testing today, and compared my Stratus with the Bigger Ben rev 2 with my RD-4 (modified LCD-4)

Holo RED -> AES-> Yggdrasil MIB -> Stratus/Bigger Ben rev 2

The difference was HUGE! I wasn't expecting this. The Bigger Ben rev 2 sounded muted and slow and dull and small and 2 dimensional. The Stratus just jumped out with huge dynamics and resolution though the roof and great tone. The Stratus is honestly like 6 times better than the Bigger Ben rev 2 for the RD-4

However, in the past I have compared my lower impedance orthos like my RD-4z and the Bigger Ben rev 2 sounded significantly better than the Stratus. The Stratus becomes pretty dead with the lower impedance orthos. The Bigger Ben rev 2 is more alive, more dynamic, more resolving. I'm not sure I've found the best amp for these lower impedance phones yet. I got an Oliver Sayes 8998 speaker amp is amazing but too noisy.

Also, for Stratus owners, I did a second comparison of my 3 favorite 2a3 tubes. The Psvane WE275 are so much better than the Acme Globes or Linlai Cossor/Global Elite. More depth, more dynamics, more resolving, they're just explosive in comparison. The others are much more flat, less definition and detail. It's quite a big difference. i'd like to send my second pair of WE275's on a loaner tour to Stratus owners but I'm worried they will discontinue them and want to have backups. But they're highly recommended, and if you get a pair, be sure to get them direct from Psvane, not through Moon Audio or a reseller. Much cheaper.

I also tried rectifiers in my Stratus again, all except my Elrog which I really don't want to like because it's so damn bright! It's literally like a 60w lightbulb. right in my face. But I discovered something surprising- with the Linlaai 2a3's, the National Union 5U4G JAN-CNU VT-244 is much better than the Ken Rad JAN-CKR VT-244. Much better. Brings the amp to life.

And I thought the EML 5U4G was much better in the Stratus than the Stellaris. It does some things better than the Ken Rad, it seems to have more midrange resolution, but i couldn't find a tube compliment that gave me enough bass with it. In the Stellaris, it's very midrange recessed, but not so in the Stratus. When I went back to the Ken Rad, everything just sounded more right.

Just some thoughts...

 

@rhythmdevils does this mean you have been using the MIB over the A2?

 

yeah and liking it! I still need to setup my switcher and go black and forth easily. But twice I have swapped to the A2 and then back to the MIB and preferred the MIB. Not great evidence but I haven’t been up for the switcher a/b still.

 

Did you try them on the Stellaris? If I may ask, how much did you pay for them?

 

I think they are $350 (something around there) directly from Psvane.

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/psvane-tubes-info-for-pyrates.14049/

I did try them in the Stellaris, but no tube compliment worked in the Stellaris for me. The Stellaris just doesn't work with orthos for whatever reason. And the Stratus, like I've said only seems to work with orthos that have a certain impedance. Too low or too high and it's not good at all. So I can't say how they'd sound in the Stellaris.

Let me see if I can get a loaner WE275 from Psvane. They sent me a new cheaper 2a3 tube to send on a loaner but I don't know how much interest there would be in that, but if I added on the WE275 more people would check them both out.

 

Are the new cheaper 2a3s from the Horizon line?

 

I think so yeah I’ll have to double check in a bit I can’t get at them right now. Are you interested in hearing those?

 

I’m really just curious about what’s different construction-wise. But if they’re $150/pair and don’t sound like hot garbage I might just grab a pair on my own.

 

Did you happen to try them with any dynamics or anything else?

 

RD is not fond of dynamics.

 

I don't own any electrodynamic headphone drivers. Only 4 electrodynamic speaker drivers 2 woofer and 2 tweeter

I do think the Stellaris likely sounds the way everyone describes it (awesome) with electrodynamics like the HD650 or og R10 (why do I have to say og R10 now???) or the K1000 etc ie high impedance electrodynamics.

 

I imagine that’s this model, correct?

 

It’s the new “Horizon” model. I forget if it says -at.

they’re off to @yotacowboy to evaluate.

 

I'll take some pics when they get here. Thanks again RD!!

 

Psvane 2A3 offerings are getting out of hand: Horizon, WE275 replica, Acme, ... Is this flood the zone, or is there a method to the madness? As it is, I'd need to take a long vacation and cycle carefully among the 4 2A3 types I already own (stock Psvane 2A3, Psvane Acme, Linlai, Tak) to rehear/rethink things.