Madfloyd's System

wisnon · Jun 25, 2015

I have been to "O"ban and Balamory, ahem, I mean Tobermory.

Geardaddy · Jun 27, 2015

Floyd, did you throw in the towel regarding the B7?

MadFloyd · Jun 27, 2015

Geardaddy said:
Floyd, did you throw in the towel regarding the B7?

Nope. I've been leaving it break in, listening along. I received the balance of my Viero cables this past Monday and had to break them in so today and tomorrow are my days to do some critical evaluations. I got some new tubes to try as well.

wisnon · Jun 27, 2015

Ian, what new tubes did you get? Any new recti?

MadFloyd · Jun 27, 2015

wisnon said:
Ian, what new tubes did you get? Any new recti?

I got a RCA 5R4GY 274B ? DOUBLE ANGLED GETTER JAN RECTIFIER

I also got a pair of JJ Tesla 2A3's

and a pair of JJ 300Bs.

I'm checking them out now. The rectifier (which was used) has make a big difference - removed glare in the upper mids on the Pvsane 101ds.

The 2A3's were used as well. They have much deeper/weighty bass than the 101ds (which are lightweight) but they aren't very open sounding.

Just put the 300Bs in. These need to break in, but they are interesting. I wish I had a pair of 6A3's to try (one of the ones that my unit was shipped with was defective).

wisnon · Jun 27, 2015

Do you have the white base 101ds are the metal base WE replica 101ds? Big differnce between the 2.

I will ask AL in NYC of he has time to send you a loaner pair of 6a3s.
He had a source that sold the sylvanias for $50 a pair...

MadFloyd · Jun 27, 2015

wisnon said:
Do you have the white base 101ds are the metal base WE replica 101ds? Big differnce between the 2.

I will ask AL in NYC of he has time to send you a loaner pair of 6a3s.
He had a source that sold the sylvanias for $50 a pair...

Norman, I have the cheapo ones. Is there really a big difference between the two? Any chance you can describe them?

Thanks for asking Al about the 6A3s.

wisnon · Jun 28, 2015

I have not heard them myself. i have the cheapo ones, BUT I have lots of pals with them who described the differences. First thing to realize is that its a TOTALLY different construcion inside.

Lukasz himself was sketical until he heard a pair and was blown away. You can see on his FB page, he said there is simply no comparison. AL, Andy, Greg, Mike, Shawn, etc all confirmed the same, as did Bonzo, I believe. The weight of feedback leaves me in no doubt.
I myself went the EML mesh 45 route and am comparing to the solid plate at the moment.

I would stay away from 2a3 as they run too hot and dont sound great. Long term, I would not run the 2a3.

Edit, I forgot that my first statement is NOT true.

I did hear them in a brand new GG and the Dac had just been driven 700km and the tubes were brand new. They sounded a lot better the following day and we then compared them to some brand new Gold Lion 300bs and it was no comparison. The 300bs were MUCH worse (but cold of course) and after 5 mins we went back to the 101ds. From poor aural memory, the WE replicas were far better than the cheapos.

bonzo75 · Jun 28, 2015

wisnon said:
I have not heard them myself. i have the cheapo ones, BUT I have lots of pals with them who described the differences. First thing to realize is that its a TOTALLY different construcion inside.

Lukasz himself was sketical until he heard one and was blown away. You can see on his FB page, he said there is simply no comparison. AL, Andy, Greg, Mike, Shawn, etc all confirmed the same, as did Bonzo, I believe. The weight of feedback leaves me in no doubt.
I myself went the EML mesh 45 route and am comparing to the solid plate at the moment.

I would stay away from 2a3 as they run too hot and dont sound great. Long term, I would not run the 2a3.

6A3 > 2A3. Greg told me to get the mesh plate and not solid plate for EML

MadFloyd · Jun 28, 2015

wisnon said:
I have not heard them myself. i have the cheapo ones, BUT I have lots of pals with them who described the differences. First thing to realize is that its a TOTALLY different construcion inside.

Lukasz himself was sketical until he heard a pair and was blown away. You can see on his FB page, he said there is simply no comparison. AL, Andy, Greg, Mike, Shawn, etc all confirmed the same, as did Bonzo, I believe. The weight of feedback leaves me in no doubt.
I myself went the EML mesh 45 route and am comparing to the solid plate at the moment.

I would stay away from 2a3 as they run too hot and dont sound great. Long term, I would not run the 2a3.

Edit, I forgot that my first statement is NOT true.

I did hear them in a brand new GG and the Dac had just been driven 700km and the tubes were brand new. They sounded a lot better the following day and we then compared them to some brand new Gold Lion 300bs and it was no comparison. The 300bs were MUCH worse (but cold of course) and after 5 mins we went back to the 101ds. From poor aural memory, the WE replicas were far better than the cheapos.

I just went to the facebook page to see if I could fine some comments on the 101ds and found this:

2A3 JJ is a huge surprise - it is too good to be true. It is in Golden Gate league, with the best tubes there are. It has this "something" that is immensely musical and true. I love it.

I'm not saying I agree, just thought it was an interesting coincidence.

wisnon · Jun 28, 2015

MadFloyd said:
I just went to the facebook page to see if I could fine some comments on the 101ds and found this:

2A3 JJ is a huge surprise - it is too good to be true. It is in Golden Gate league, with the best tubes there are. It has this "something" that is immensely musical and true. I love it.

I'm not saying I agree, just thought it was an interesting coincidence.

Hi Ian,

I know all this and spoke to Lukasz a day or 2 ago for more details. 2a3s seem to run too hot for long term and yes the JJs sound good according to Lukasz, but i also heard that they may not be that reliable, so I opined to him that he shoud test for a while before committing.

I think on that same FB he did say it was below the EML mesh and the WE replica 101ds.

MadFloyd · Jun 28, 2015

OK, so I've had the JJ 300Bs on for 24 hours. They remain harsh. I guess these are not the ones.

wisnon · Jun 29, 2015

Do you have EML 45 mesh plate?

MadFloyd · Jun 29, 2015

wisnon said:
Do you have EML 45 mesh plate?

Nope. Should I?

I switched back to my Analog DAC this morning and noticed the bass was not great. I then set JRiver to not convert to DSD and it got a lot better. So now I'm suspicious of what JRiver's conversion is doing (and yes, I know you have said it's not good), but I've never broken in the PCM portion of the B7 so I can't really test it.

Nobody ever speaks of the Lampi's PCM mode. Is it because it's not great or that converting to DSD is just a bit better?

wisnon · Jun 29, 2015

Yes, the Meshie is one of Lukasz's favourite as well as the Lampi B7 tube roller's page on faceBook.

Bonzo has TONS to say about Lampi PCM, as well as AL and I. Lots of folks get blown away by the immediate seductiveness of the chipless DSD, but after break-in, the PCM to me, is almost equal to the DSD. Unfortunately it takes longer to break in (partly because people focus on the DSD and dont give the PCM time). Its even worse for the GG, where PCM break-in is even longer and really needs like 400 hours. Mike last time he spoke of the PCM said it was getting better on his GG, but no follow up. Trust me, Lampi B7 PCM is super. Be patient and get some nice tubes. Changing tubes means changing the Dac presentation and that flexibility is awesome. You doint need to go crazy, just get a select few top performers and sit back and relax into them. You look set on the recti front and just need a pair of 45 Meshies, WE replica 101ds and or a pair of Elrogs/EML Anniversary Globes.

Yes, JRiver is NOT the shot for upconversion...the free Foobar is way better. Since you are a ROON guy, I did hear this weekend that they are working on a HQP embedding in Roon as the playback engine and it should be ready by end of the Summer. A new pal came by to listen to my Lampi with a view to getting a Lite 7 and he bought Roon (lifetime subscription) and gave me this HQP info.

bonzo75 · Jun 29, 2015

The lampi's pcm mode is fantastic and all my feedback was based on PCM. Just that dsd is better, and upsampling might be better only if you upsample via HQP, not Jriver. That's why I suggested you play pure dsd from channel classics downloads or just play PCM. Don't upsample

MadFloyd · Jun 29, 2015

OK, so now I need to break in the PCM mode pronto!

I also need to get a hold of some better tubes real quick...

bonzo75 · Jun 29, 2015

MadFloyd said:
OK, so now I need to break in the PCM mode pronto!

I also need to get a hold of some better tubes real quick...

Hi my previous hunch was right don't do too many changes. You have some decent tubes for evaluation. The problem was with the settings. I initially thought your dac had a problem, but now as you confirmed, it seems the jriver upsampling to DSD is causing low bass overall. So I suggest with the tubes you have, stay put, and break in PCM, or try native DSD like that Mahler I mentioned.

bonzo75 · Jun 29, 2015

wisnon said:
Yes, JRiver is NOT the shot for upconversion...the free Foobar is way better. Since you are a ROON guy, I did hear this weekend that they are working on a HQP embedding in Roon as the playback engine and it should be ready by end of the Summer. A new pal came by to listen to my Lampi with a view to getting a Lite 7 and he bout Roon and gave me this HQP info.

Awesome news

wisnon · Jun 29, 2015

bonzo75 said:
Hi my previous hunch was right don't do too many changes. You have some decent tubes for evaluation. The problem was with the settings. I initially thought your dac had a problem, but now as you confirmed, it seems the jriver upsampling to DSD is causing low bass overall. So I suggest with the tubes you have, stay put, and break in PCM, or try native DSD like that Mahler I mentioned.

He has the white base cheapo 101ds...it would be nice for him to have the WE replicas or some nice Psvane/Sophia royal pricess 300Bs, no?

With JRiver, native rate playback in either DSD or PCM is the way to go.

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