Donald North Audio — Owners Thread

First off, I kinda agree. The Sino-tube "shoots and ladders" game is kind of out of hand. What I can say is that when there's some kind of "innovation" in materials, I get a little more interested. These Horizon tubes (claim to) use a "new" plating on the anode/plates. And the pics above show a plate color (very light gray) I've not seen before in a power tube. I mentioned in a profile post that right off the bat, with only about 100 hours on them, the Horizon 2A3s are pretty good (subjectively better than Linai WE2A3, but not yet directly compared back and forth yet...) given the cost of $150/matched pair and that potential upside that they're distributed solely through Amazon. Take advantage of the return policy and ability to purchase an extended warranty, if that's your bag.

Gimme a bit of time and I'll be directly comparing: Linlai Elite 2a3 (which supposedly bests the Psvane Acme slightly), Linlai WE2a3, and NOS RCA 2a3 black plates, 1942(? i think? I'll have to check tomorrw..) date codes. All of which run in EC Af, so I'm happy to split impressions off into a new/different thread given I'm not a DNA owner (sniffle).

Also, Maybe I missed it but @earnmyturns I've not seen much talk about the Tak's here and these (both 2a3 and 300B) are on my radar. Impressions would be appreciated, if you're willing to take the time!

Also, full disclosure, I grabbed a pair of the Psvane WE275s given Whitney's reco, and a pair of the Horizon 300Bs given the 2a3s competence so far. Haven't received the WE275s yet and the 300B are queued up for some hijinx this weekend...

 

I mentioned the Taks in passing on a few posts, but nothing detailed. I'm taking time off next week and I'll try do a bit of a Stellaris comparison between the 2A3 tubes I own. Subjectively, I went stock Psvane -> Psvane Acme -> Tak and never looked back, but those were not careful comparisons. Briefly, for my headphones (mainly ZMF dynamics at the time), genres (mainly modern jazz and chamber classical), source (Holo DAC with HQPlayer upsampling and DSD modulation), and taste, it went from lovely but somewhat tame to more dynamic but slightly bloomy for my tastes to just right. Where just right means, shifting Stellaris a notch towards Af (I used to own Afs) while keeping some of the wetter, richer Stellaris signature sound. My ideal amp with the music and other gear I own is something like

Code:

Af (Linlai E-2A3) ---- * ---- Stellaris (Psvane Acme)
                       |
                       |
                       |
                DSHA-3F (nickel)

The Taks bring Stellaris near that * ideal point. But I'd be hard pressed to spin one of those spider charts that the real experts create

There's always the cat-killing curiosity about different tubes... I'm tempted to order a pair of the Horizons.

 

Well, the Horizons I'm listening to are on kind loan from RD, so maybe send him a PM and if he's cool with it, I can send them over to you for an audition after I'm done with them!

 

RD is almost a neighbor, we've exchanged gear for evaluation before, so I suspect he'll be willing to lend these when he gets them back

 

No you can have them right after @yotacowboy no need to send them to me first. I’ll start loaner thread of there’s interest. Also take your bloody time with them anyone who borrows them. Quality impressions and fun. There’s absolutely no rush.

 

Thanks, I'll be ready for them after July 7th!

 

Stellaris tube mystery: I've grumbled before about a hum with Tak 2A3s and Utopia on my Stellaris Special. Eventually I swapped the Tak pair with another one from my remote Stellaris. Seemed to reduce the hum, but not completely. Replaced the Taks with a Psvane ACME pair I had around. No hum, but bloomier than I like. Switched to DSHA-3F for a while, I didn't have time to mess around with trying to debug the hum. Today I had a bit of time. Unplugged and replugged the amp's power cable. Replaced the ACMEs by the Taks, making sure the Taks were perfectly seated. Turned on and waited 20 minutes. Plugged in Utopia. Noticeable hum. Re-adjusted bias pots (which I had done multiple times before). Started with the left channel pot, it was immediate that moving it 30 deg clockwise dropped the hum almost below my hearing. Adjusted the right pot similarly, no hum that I could notice against normal household background. No idea why it worked this time. Not complaining, though.

 

I feel your pain! These noise issues are the worse part of the fun. I especially when they don’t make sense.

 

For me the hum takes about an hour to go away with the Utopia/Stellaris/Tak combo. It's noticeable for me at startup no matter how I adjust the hum pots. Fortunately it goes away, but it just takes a while.

My latest hum/buzz issue is when using the Brimar input tube w/ adapter--the fancy taller adapters introduce a very audible buzz whereas my cheapy ebay ones don't. Anyone have similar issues?

 

I'm also using a Brimar with a fancy adapter and have no buzz, you may have a bad adapter.

 

Can you link the adapter you're using?

 

For me, before, it would not go away over several hours. This time, it was silent after pot adjustment, this was less than 30 mins from switch on.

 

https://pulsetubestore.com/products...uction-base-9-pin-b9a-noval-not-made-in-china

 

This adapter buzzes for me as well. My V2 Stratus with the same adapter didn't, but it buzzes on V3.

 

This adapter (I bought 2) also buzzes for me. What adapter works well in the v3?

 

This adapter doesn’t buzz for me on my V3

 

I'm also using a V3 Stratus. Maybe this more expensive adapter isn't as reliable as going cheaper.

 

This conversation feels like the definition of "toobz".

More seriously, I had an intermittent noise issue recently that I thought was tubes... until I chased my tail for a while and then actually found out was a pair of RCA cables "died" somehow. Have also had random adapter issues before until I found 2 different adapters that just seem to work. Also, sometimes I'll have one random tube that worked fine initially, but later I just can't use a particular tube with a particular tube compliment. Cue another year later and everything is fine again.

 

I don’t know I’m using 3 of them that I leave on tubes and none of them buzz. But who knows.

 

Listening to a fantastic @Donald North chain tonight: Aric Audio 6V6 linestage, Stellaris Special, Klipsch Cornwall IV speakers. Feeding it with through a Holo Audio May or my TT.

Fantastic sound. Will need to start swapping tubes in the Stellaris, the EML solid plates 2A3s aren't my favorites. Not even sure how they got in there actually but sounding very good tonight.