The Mjolnir 2 thread

I'm looking at that those tubes on account of Garns and phillipmorgan mentioning the 396a as lending depth to the Mjo2's stage. To be honest I didn't realize that that price was for a single tube. I've clicked a LOT of links this morning looking for that tube among others from reputable dealers (as opposed to ebay sellers from Bulgaria who may be very legit but I would never know it). Bear with me for not seeing that that was a single tube price. From your response I take it that $200 would be considered very overpriced.

 

@BillOhio Last I looked Brent Jessie has lower prices for the WE396A. He's considered a very reputable dealer.

 

Much Appreciated. I'll Google Brent Jessie directly.

edit: Brent Jessee, yeah? Just making sure I'm on the right web page. http://www.audiotubes.com/

edit: Yep, $100 per matched pair. All together you guys will have saved me $150 Canadian or so after the exchange and shipping. Very Much Appreciated.

They say that the GE Brand 396a's perform identically and those are $30 a pair. I haven't seen the GEs mentioned in the thread, unless I missed it.

 

I'm using philipmorgan's mj2 with the WE tubes and I'll attest to how nice they sound. There's definitely some holographic magic in those tubes. And Brent jessee is super reputable. I'd be curious to hear the GE tube as a good backup if they're cheaper and sound similar. In fact iFi has some GE tubes they sell but at a crazy markup of like 100/pair, which to me defeats the purpose of going the GE route.

 

Well, seeing as how I just saved $150, cough, I have it in mind to get a pair of the WEs and a pair of the GEs. If there is a difference between the two then my guess is that it would be very subtle. It seems like the WEs are the brand that is tried and true though so I'll go with those and know that I have at least 1 set of SBAF approved tubes. If the GEs sound just as good then I guess I'll be covered for 20,000 hours, which is nice.

I don't think I'll need an adapter?

 

yeah you'll need one! something like this i believe:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2pc-Gold-pl...111735?hash=item2c9e670177:g:~IoAAOSw~OVWwGvh

 

Thank You Sir, you guys are great.

 

Or start with the JAN 5670w to test the waters?

Also - check out my Mjolnir2 tube write up. There's many good tubes for Mjolnir2 that serves different purposes at different price points.

A couple of questions to try and help you bit more before you pull the trigger on $100 tube pairs: are you unhappy with the sound of your rig today?
What's the tubes you're running in Mjolnir2 today?

 

to quote the king of the tube sluts, maybe just get the WE 396a and don't spend more on additional tubes or worry about tubes anymore

 

You would really hate that I spent $250 on a matched pair of early 1960's NOS Siemens CCa tubes....more than once!

They sound wonderful, by the way!!

 

Long live the king...

 

The point I'm trying to make here is: I'll happily recommend the $100 tube - if it serves a purpose and if the investment has been thought through.
I'm not convinced that @BillOhio will be happier with the 396a than with any other set of tubes, especially since he hasn't noticed what tubes he already have or even if he's unhappy with the sound he's getting so far.

I'm writing this with kindness and with a sincere will to help and to advice, not to claim having the one and only truth. If that's how it comes across, I apologize.

The 396a is a great pairing with Mjolnir2 and HD800 no doubt about it, may well be the best I've heard.

 

What makes you think and post that I would hate that?

 

I think Bill did mention that he was after stage depth. In fact, seems like Bill did the right thing and read through the thread and figured out what he was after, and was just checking he had it right. I think the important advice here was "don't pay $200 for a pair"

 

You're probably right. I just hope he's gets happy with what he decides to get.

 

Hey All, I took a break from responding as I drove down to MidTown Toronto and picked up a new pair of Ether Flows which are sitting here in the box beside me.

@Garns Hello Sir, good to see you here. @Changeling Thank You much for your input which has helped me to save some cash and is definitely appreciated.

Re the Tubes: I'm partly focused on the 396a as I have some confidence in Garn's perspective after he kindly helped me get my PC Soundcard/SPDIF connections in order and his posts around this site read as informed and reasonable. I didn't realize at the time that Garns and I, I believe, will be running the same chain of RME 9632/Gungnir Multibit/Mjo2/Ether Flow. That it worked out this way is almost completely dumb luck incidental (aside from all of these components being pretty mainstream on Audiophile forums) but as long as someone with a similar/same chain as mine has suggested having success with a pair of $100 tubes it's worth the cash to me to try those out. I can't spend cash like this forever but that last $100 is almost incidental compared to what I've recently purchased and if it brings together all the gear that I've bought recently, cool.

My other point of interest in the 396a is that, for the two weeks that I've been running the Gungnir Multibit/Mjo2,T5pGen2s, I've been listening to the best sounding headphone setup I, as an obvious novice, have ever heard and I suspect (hope like Hell) that that system is about to take one more noticeable step up once these Ether Flows are broken in (although I'm pretty confident that the current Beyer's are underrated by some around here). I've been a heavy headphone user for the last 6 years but it was always heavy use of my D2K's with an Audioengine 'Dac/Amp' that is pretty modest by forum standards. But on a point where ignorance might have otherwise been bliss for many many years if I had been able to stay off of these damn forums, I did see the comment that the sound stage is pretty shallow and I have to acknowledge that. I hadn't realized that the stage is shallow but now that I've seen the comment, even as a noob I hear it. I actually think my DAP might have more depth than my stack right now. If the 396a is thought to deepen the stage then that's worth the price to me.

Like you say, I don't know what tubes I have in my Amp other than that they are 6922s, but they are the only tubes I've ever heard and as such I have no frame of reference as to whether they are relatively good, as tubes go, or not. The system is good, sure, but the tubes were a freebee and have me expecting that a relatively small bit of cash might tie together a system that is an overall hefty investment/indulgence to me.

And yeah, not paying $200 is a bonus

I appreciate the insight and perspective very much, Thanks Everyone!
-Bill

 

In the Vali2 thread there's been a discussion on low vs high gain setting.
Is there a similar consensus or thoughts on Mjolnir2's gain setting - with HD800?
With my current setup I've got -6db headroom in jRiver to avoid clipping in subsequent stages (@atomicbob IVS). I'm finding that for especially classical albums I need to turn volume up to around 2-3 o'clock.

 

For dynamics I would say high gain all the way. With HD650 I thought low gain on the Mjolnir 2 had both worse macrodynamics and worse microdynamics (you might say "veiled"). The only aspect in which I preferred low gain was that the occasional slight edginess in the treble was tamed.

 

Thanks @Garns . I went bananas on HDTracks and I'm now deep into Simon Rattles Beethoven cycle with the Berlin Phil.

 

What exactly does the gain switch do from an electrical perspective? Why would both macro-dynamics and micro-dynamics be worse using the low gain or why would they improve using high gain? Isn't the gain applied equally across the frequency range?

I ask because I have a Mjolnir 2 and HD 650 headphones. Once I volume match I don't seem to hear the differences you describe. I am running balanced from my DAC to my headphones.