TBI Millenia MG3 Class BD Integrated Audio Amplifier..A Modern Day Giant Killer!

brother love · « **Reply #300 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 03:14 pm »

Quote from: ebag4 on 7 Oct 2012, 06:27 pm

I would like to try it with my V1s if possible. I am in the Louisville KY area.

Thanks,
Ed

I'm in Knoxville, TN. I wouldn't mind being added to the list. Since Ed is not too far away from me, that might work smoothly.

Tom, Didn't you have a Virtue Audio Sensation int. amp w/ Dodd tube buffer & battery? Any comparison to the TBI Millenia MG3 that you could comment on ? Drop me a message if it needs to be offline.

morganc · « **Reply #301 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 03:55 pm »

I'm interested in this amp and excited to try it in my rig. My current set-up sounds pretty good

this AM.

Mac Mini-->Audiphileo2-->metrum Octave-->allnic L-3000-->Art Audio Px-25-->Zu Definition mk III's.

I'm in San Francisco if anyone nearby wants to come over and help me evaluate the amp when it arrives, just PM me.

I have had a Pass XA 30.5, Coincident Frankenstein, Decware Torii, and many others pass through here in the last few years........(those along with the PX-25 were my favorites).

Gopher · « **Reply #302 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 03:58 pm »

Quote from: morganc on 17 Oct 2012, 03:55 pm

I'm interested in this amp and excited to try it in my rig. My current set-up sounds pretty good this AM.

Mac Mini-->Audiphileo2-->metrum Octave-->allnic L-3000-->Art Audio Px-25-->Zu Definition mk III's.

I'm in San Francisco if anyone nearby wants to come over and help me evaluate the amp when it arrives, just PM me.

I have had a Pass XA 30.5, Coincident Frankenstein, Decware Torii, and many others pass through here in the last few years........(those along with the PX-25 were my favorites).

I'll be interested in your findings with the same source and practically the same speakers as I evaluated it with...

Rclark · « **Reply #303 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 06:33 pm »

@ Tom, no hell yes I wanna try it, if it's good should make a nice headphone amp. @ Wisnon, those look pretty cool, I'll read more about them later. @ Rodge, I've got 8ohm monitors to test the amp with. Not power hungry.

wisnon · « **Reply #304 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 06:56 pm »

Quote from: Rclark on 17 Oct 2012, 06:33 pm

@ Tom, no hell yes I wanna try it, if it's good should make a nice headphone amp. @ Wisnon, those look pretty cool, I'll read more about them later. @ Rodge, I've got 8ohm monitors to test the amp with. Not power hungry.

www.rowen.ch for more details.

rodge827 · « **Reply #305 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 09:43 pm »

Quote from: Rclark on 17 Oct 2012, 06:33 pm

@ Rodge, I've got 8ohm monitors to test the amp with. Not power hungry.

Cool

What brand ?

Rclark · « **Reply #306 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 10:12 pm »

I built these as my first speaker

http://gr-research.com/insigniaupgrade.aspx

With the Virtue they scream so 35 watts is plenty. I ran them for a month, got mmg's and never looked back. The only time I listened to them since was in a shootout I had with the GR N1X, and they fared well, surprisingly, and actually had a nicer midrange than the N, which should bode well for testing the TBI.

rodge827 · « **Reply #307 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 10:52 pm »

Very nice

Rclark · « **Reply #308 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 11:05 pm »

Yeah that kit really teaches you the value of crossover type and parts quality, and enclosure quality, and controlling resonances, etc. Quite a large upgrade, huge actually.

OzarkTom · « **Reply #309 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 11:21 pm »

roscoeiii recveived the tour amp today.

So far, Rex and Freo-1 has said that this power supply mod has made the amp on AC sound 20-25% better than the previous tour amp did on battery. That is a significant improvement when you talk about mods in this hobby.

I will receive mine tomorrow. I cannot wait.

morganc · « **Reply #310 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 11:26 pm »

Quote from: Gopher on 17 Oct 2012, 03:58 pm

I'll be interested in your findings with the same source and practically the same speakers as I evaluated it with...

Sure thing Gopher

morganc · « **Reply #311 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 11:29 pm »

Quote from: OzarkTom on 17 Oct 2012, 11:21 pm

roscoeiii recveived the tour amp today.

So far, Rex and Freo-1 has said that this power supply mod has made the amp on AC sound 20-25% better than the previous tour amp did on battery. That is a significant improvement when you talk about mods in this hobby.

I will receive mine tomorrow. I cannot wait.

Hi Tom,
Who does the Mod and what is the cost?
Thanks,
Morgan

Freo-1 · « **Reply #312 on:** 17 Oct 2012, 11:39 pm »

Quote from: morganc on 17 Oct 2012, 11:29 pm

Hi Tom,
Who does the Mod and what is the cost?
Thanks,
Morgan

Check out the following thread:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=110713.msg1143809;topicseen#new

OzarkTom · « **Reply #313 on:** 21 Oct 2012, 01:48 pm »

After spending three evenings with my updated amp, I have some good news amd possibly some bad news. So the tour members might want to read this and be warned.

The battery side of the amp is very slightly improved over the previous tour amp, but the AC section has been improved by leaps and bounds. The AC is now better with more depth and even a bigger soundstage because of the improvement of the transparency. Holographic imaging has further improved with the AC. On some recordings, I am now in the middle of the soundstage. Now how did that happen?

But that means the amp is now so transparent and revealing, you might want to use it with warmer sounding cables and IC's, copper and no silver. If anything in your system is bright sounding, this amp will not conceal it on AC.

Now more bad news. If your AC is not good enough, like mine, you will easily hear the AC glare that I complain about in every AC amp that I have ever owned here in the last 30 years. But if that happens during the day, just switch it to battery and the glare will disappear. If I wait until late at night, my AC glare will disappear also.

I guess in a way, this is now like owning two amps in one. If you want the ultimate in detail and transparency, use the AC. If you want the softer more rounded sound, use the battery. Either way, this amp now sounds wonderful.

lpost · « **Reply #314 on:** 23 Oct 2012, 12:47 am »

Is it possible to be added to the end of the tour list? I have a decware mini torii amp I would like to put it up against...driving tekton lore speakers. Mark in Pa.

munosmario · « **Reply #315 on:** 23 Oct 2012, 04:45 am »

Quote from: OzarkTom on 21 Oct 2012, 01:48 pm

I guess in a way, this is now like owning two amps in one. If you want the ultimate in detail and transparency, use the AC. If you want the softer more rounded sound, use the battery. Either way, this amp now sounds wonderful.

Well, Tom....which one is, then, the Giant Killer? Are both Giant Killers or the one with improved AC PS is a Killer of a former Giant Killer?

Seriously, both cannot be right in terms of getting closer to reproduce the "ultimate absolute sound" ...that is, if we believe this is the objective. Otherwise, we are just dealing with different preferences regarding shades or flavors of sonic "ice cream" and, accordingly, we can perfectly love more than one flavor....and other people may perfectly well love other or similar flavor (s) of a more expensive ice cream...and we all have fun eating our favorite flavors (and, perhaps, nothing is really being killed)

In any event, based on your posted observations, if you use your improved AC PS Millenia with a power regenerator unit (like I do, as I mentioned before, with my stock Millenia --no AC PS upgrade yet), then, I am sure you will be using yours on AC power all day.

Cheers......................Mario

OzarkTom · « **Reply #316 on:** 23 Oct 2012, 08:02 am »

I am all ears Nario. What power regenerator unit are you using? I have tried many power conditioners in the past and they all constricted the tansparency, soundstage and dynamics here at my place.

Get your amp modded, you will be amazed.

wisnon · « **Reply #317 on:** 23 Oct 2012, 10:44 am »

Wyred 4 Sound does this with their STP-SE preamp...I wonder if this principle is similar to what the poster meant when speaking of power regeneration.

When they say passive, they mean as in no gain. We all know that all passive preamps have many issues regarding input and output impedances because of the lack of drive current. The result is a loose, floppy bottom end, and a constricted, dry top end. To solve this, they inserted their Ultra-transparent discrete buffer stages to address this issue. With a 25A Schottky bridge rectifier connected through 164,560+uF of capacitance in their proprietary Triple-Ripple-Reduction power supply circuit, the STP preamp has more capacitance than some amplifiers! By the time power reserves supply the audio chain with power, there is no hint of noise left. 2 stages of filtering by high-end Nichicon Bi-polar MUSE audio grade capacitors

Mister Pig · « **Reply #318 on:** 23 Oct 2012, 03:05 pm »

Well I got the Millenia amplifier with power supply upgrades the other day. I got it hooked up to some secondary gear right now, and am in the process of breaking it in. I found that the first amplifier settled in nicely at the 50 hour mark, so I am going to give this amp 50 hours and see what occurs. Looking forward to these listening sessions, as I also have the first version of the amplifier on hand to compare against.

Regards
Mister Pig

Freo-1 · « **Reply #319 on:** 23 Oct 2012, 03:51 pm »

Very cool, Mister Pig.

Looking forward to reading your observations.