@mrdecibel
First I’m not using this post to sell amplifiers, that is up to you. However I can understand and appreciate your frustration with the tube amps you have owned. Here is why.
Noise is simply due to designer who doesn’t hear or mind the noise, probably has no internal limits for what is low noise, or doesn’t know how to measure noise. It could be a noisy tube.
Microphonics are generally created in the first tube of the amp, the input tube. You just have to find a good one. I do grade tubes for noise and microphonics.
A good amplifier needs to have its bias adjusted perhaps twice a year or when you hear something change radically.
Good amplifiers warm up and are 99% there in about 5-10 minutes. There is no good reason to warm them up or leave them on. They play in the first 30 seconds and don’t sound bad as they come up slowly.
Muddy bass is generally due to low damping factor. Get a damping factor of at least 8-10. More than that wont make much difference and high damping tube amps are often unstable due to too much feedback.
I will be the first. I never owned an amp of yours. I have owned other tube amps by several other manufacturers. I gave up on them, and this has been through a pair of modified and tweek’d pair of Klipsch Lascala. Why did I give up on them ? Noise, microphoncs, pretty often biasing, warm up time ( I leave ss amps continuously because of the superior sq ). and " timing " in the bass ( muddy ). I go passive through a Dac. Should I try an amp of yours, and why ? I listen loudly to rock and jazz. Thank you... Enjoy ! MrD.
First I’m not using this post to sell amplifiers, that is up to you. However I can understand and appreciate your frustration with the tube amps you have owned. Here is why.
Noise is simply due to designer who doesn’t hear or mind the noise, probably has no internal limits for what is low noise, or doesn’t know how to measure noise. It could be a noisy tube.
Microphonics are generally created in the first tube of the amp, the input tube. You just have to find a good one. I do grade tubes for noise and microphonics.
A good amplifier needs to have its bias adjusted perhaps twice a year or when you hear something change radically.
Good amplifiers warm up and are 99% there in about 5-10 minutes. There is no good reason to warm them up or leave them on. They play in the first 30 seconds and don’t sound bad as they come up slowly.
Muddy bass is generally due to low damping factor. Get a damping factor of at least 8-10. More than that wont make much difference and high damping tube amps are often unstable due to too much feedback.
BTW, I am believer in both pcs and fuses. Enjoy ! MrDThats fine with me. Just don't use premium fuses in the B+ circuit of any power amp. There is a lot of energy stored in the filter caps and it has to go somewhere. A high interrupting fuse does the proper job of leaving most of the energy in the filter caps rather than tearing a path of destruction through your amplifier..