Amp for Acoustic Zen Crescendo 2 ?

@wig

I have a few questions on your amp.

- Do you hear any hum/buzz through your speakers a foot away? 3 feet away?

- Do the transformers make a mechanical buzz noise you can hear when the room is quiet? Not through the speakers, but simply emanating from the physical amp.

- How loudly do you listen when you go loud? Did you ever capture with a db meter?

- How many hours are those 805 tubes good for in that amp before they need replacing?

- Do you know if the amp is circuit board built or hard wired/tag strip. I could not find internal pics of your amp. Other LM amps are a combo of point to point wiring with only a two or three very small circuit boards.

- Finally, can you bypass the volume control with a direct input option on the back of the amp?


Thanks!

Bill

wig,
Thanks for posting.  
grannyring,
Thanks for the battery of pertinent questions.  I'm all ears! 

Wig,
I’m glad you responded to thread as you’ve used multiple amplifiers with your Crescendos and in truth you have much valued experience in general. To the best of my knowledge the 508ia is hard wired and can used as strictly a power amplifier via bypassing the preamplifier section.From what I’ve read by numerous Line Magnetic owners the amplifiers are "very" quiet. I’m sure wig can address all of Grannyring’s inquiries.
Charles

Wig,
You’ve had the EML 300b tubes for 4 days, let me know how they perform as driver stage tubes. I’ve used the EML XLS for over 3 years in my amplifier as output tubes and they are stellar! Wig, you're as impressed with the 508ia as waltersalas. I completely trust both of you,  no doubt that this is a superb sounding amplifier. 
Charles

@ Grannyring

- Do you hear any hum/buzz through your speakers a foot away? 3 feet away?

Slight hum with ear on speaker but can't hear it a foot from speaker

- Do the transformers make a mechanical buzz noise you can hear when the room is quiet? Not through the speakers, but simply emanating from the physical amp.

No

- How loudly do you listen when you go loud? Did you ever capture with a db meter?

Will capture my normal listening levels tonight when kids are in bed.

- How many hours are those 805 tubes good for in that amp before they need replacing?

They say up to 5,000 hrs. I have about 2,600 hrs. on mine with no issues; solid bias with no drifting

- Do you know if the amp is circuit board built or hard wired/tag strip. I could not find internal pics of your amp. Other LM amps are a combo of point to point wiring with only a two or three very small circuit boards.

All hand-wired point-to-point connections but there is a PCB with about 15 small Caps

- Finally, can you bypass the volume control with a direct input option on the back of the amp?

Yes; Pre-Amp in to bypass LM Line-Stage

Wig