[ricmon]

Hi Frank.  I have a pair of Telefunken ECC801S in the line stage and Telefunken ECC83 in the phono stage.  These are the tubes I have been using for the last 3 years.

thanks
Ric

[Opus Flatus]

I had my small chassis Ultra upgraded to the Ultra II. To me it is a big improvement over the original. The old version sounded a little more clinical. The Ultra II is more tube-like in comparison - liquidy and articulate. I really like it pared with my U70. The upgrade was well worth the price.

Merry Christmas Frank and crew and all ACer followers.

[avahifi]

Hi Ric,

Perhaps it is time to try some different brands of 12AT7/ECC81 tubes in the line section of your Ultra II preamp.

"Sterile and thin" is not a characteristic than anyone else has ever reported about an Ultra II.

Regards,

Frank

[ricmon]

Hi Ric,

Perhaps it is time to try some different brands of 12AT7/ECC81 tubes in the line section of your Ultra II preamp.

"Sterile and thin" is not a characteristic than anyone else has ever reported about an Ultra II.

Regards,

Frank

Hi Frank my response to the sound change was not a "negative" response exactly.  I just think the original receipt for the TR-7 was perfect.  However maybe the Ultra II upgrades just need a little time to run in.  After all it had what amounted to major surgery.  But you're right, it may be time for a little tube rolling.

thanks
Ric.

btw: the upgrade to the phone section is super fantastic! 

[ricmon]

Hay Frank just wanted to let you know that all is well with my new Ultra II.  It appears that the source of the problem was the DSpeaker Antimode device.  It's a DSP for the sub woofer.  While the TR-7 was out for upgrades I "cleaned" up  my snake pit of wires and reversed the left/right rca interconnects from the pre-amp(2) output to the DSpeaker device.  I don't quite know how but this kept me from dialing in proper phase at the sub's control panel.  Once I reversed the interconnects, proper phase was restored.  So all that meat on the bone stuff as mentioned earlier returned along with the increase in resolution and other things I mentioned previously.

thanks again
Ric

[festuss]

Sometimes ya gots to get back to the basics.  As in proper phase of all the signals/speakers. 

[ricmon]

Sometimes ya gots to get back to the basics.  As in proper phase of all the signals/speakers.

Yha this was interesting.  I guess the main lesson here is to stick to your guns win listening to or evaluating changes to your system.  I've had a nice system since the 80's and learned a lot about the hobby.  So when I put the preamp back in the system in all it's "upgraded" glory.  I knew that something just wasn't right with the sound.  After going through several checks, the connections to the DSpeacker was the last thing I suspected to be the problem.  As a matter of fact I had almost given up on restoring the sound to my liking, thinking the Ultra II was not for me.  HOWEVER, I did not give up and decided to check the DSpeacker and ...........    not only has the sound been restored to my liking things have take a very nice step forward.  The lesson? ........Believe in your hears, not the hype when buying or evaluating audio equipment.

Ric