[Vinnie R.]

I've settled on the Taks, some Lampi KR 45's, and Psvane WE101D replicas, which offer a nice palette of sonic attributes to choose from.  Haven't heard the PX4's, though, and would like to at some point given all the praise you all have for them.

Hi genjamon,

I really like how you say "... which offer a nice palette of sonic attributes to choose from."

That's exactly how I feel about having a few different DHT favorites around to play with, depending on
what I am listening to and what type of presentation I'm looking for.  Variety is the spice of life. 

My current palette of favorites:

- TAK TA-300B (Holographic, open, clear, grain-less, precise, textured, exquisite. Low hum/microphonics)
- KR PX-4 (Trades-off some of the finest attributes of the TA-300B for a little more bass energy and richness in the midrange.  A fine 'jack-of-all-trades' for me that does is all very well for me.)
- SV811-10 (Warmer, lusher, thicker, mo' bass, fun to play these at louder levels.  Not as quiet in terms of hum/microphonics, but
not terrible).

This palette is pleasing to my palate, and does not ship on a pallet (but it should)... er, never mind

On another note:

I hope you all enjoyed / will enjoy your holidays (Hanukkah, Solstice, Christmas, Newtonmas, Festivus, Kwanzaa, ...etc.)
and may it be filled with a wide variety of music! 

Vinnie

[olegausany]

Hi and Happy holidays to everyone
I want to thank Vinnie for a great product he makes and excellent customer service
Right now I have LIO DHT Pre and DAC 2.0 with stock tubes
I know there are here several users from NYC who have SV811-10 tubes so if anyone can let me borrow them, while they are enjoying something much better, please send me a message. Yes I have heard them during last year tour but back then I had no DAC 2.0 and wasn't using right playback software cause one of them was not available yet, even in the early buggy form, and I was afraid to have problems with the other one since it was looking to complicated. But now I use Roon and want to try SV811-10 again so I can give them proper judgment and decide if I should upgrade

Thanks
Oleg

[LARRY KYOTO]

Vinnie, Hope you are enjoying the holidays with family...as others wrote & I'm sure many feel, thank you for bringing joyous audible times into our homes by way of LIO w/ new DAC 2.0

[Vinnie R.]

Hi and Happy holidays to everyone
I want to thank Vinnie for a great product he makes and excellent customer service
Right now I have LIO DHT Pre and DAC 2.0 with stock tubes
I know there are here several users from NYC who have SV811-10 tubes so if anyone can let me borrow them, while they are enjoying something much better, please send me a message. Yes I have heard them during last year tour but back then I had no DAC 2.0 and wasn't using right playback software cause one of them was not available yet, even in the early buggy form, and I was afraid to have problems with the other one since it was looking to complicated. But now I use Roon and want to try SV811-10 again so I can give them proper judgment and decide if I should upgrade

Thanks
Oleg

Hi Oleg,

Happy Holidays!

Thank you for your kind words. 
Please email me right after the new year.  I have a spare pair that I can let you borrow, and they
will be naturally cryo'd if the weather remains this cold! 

Vinnie, Hope you are enjoying the holidays with family...as others wrote & I'm sure many feel, thank you for bringing joyous audible times into our homes by way of LIO w/ new DAC 2.0

Happy Holidays, Larry!  I am very thankful to you and all my customers. notworthy:

Is this how your winter looks like in Kyoto now? 



Vinnie

[LARRY KYOTO]

Vinnie HNY!... not quite yet this year. Here's how it looked last night & right now from living room window.

[LARRY KYOTO]

[matthewpartrick]

Bought the Svetlanas yesterday, awaiting them and am pretty excited!

Will keep you posted.

[matthewpartrick]

Maybe I can ask for the KR-PX4s as a joint birthday present from my wife and parents and in-laws!

[Vinnie R.]

Maybe I can ask for the KR-PX4s as a joint birthday present from my wife and parents and in-laws!

Hi matthew,

Why not? 


Hi Larry,

Very nice living room views.  Perfect for listening - day and night.   

Vinnie

[matthewpartrick]

Ok Svetlanas in the house.  Two questions:

1) is the voltage setting the same as the 2A3s?
2) the top piece of the filament infrastructure is rattling/loose.  Problem or not?

https://imgur.com/gallery/QRL4V

[Vinnie R.]

Ok Svetlanas in the house.  Two questions:

1) is the voltage setting the same as the 2A3s?
2) the top piece of the filament infrastructure is rattling/loose.  Problem or not?

Hi MP,

1) You can use the same setting as the 2A3s (2.5V) for the SV811-10s.  They are a little less noisy this way and output
less heat.

2) It should be Ok if it is not broken loose, but if there is a problem, you'll hear it.

https://imgur.com/gallery/QRL4V

Looks good - now go light 'em up!   

Vinnie

[Vinnie R.]

A little over a month later after posting my impressions of the TAK TA-300B (http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=143241.msg1651853#msg1651853) my impressions have not changed about them.  They still are my favorite with LIO DHT PRE, but I also continue to spend much time listening with the KR PX-4's and enjoying every minute of it!

Have any LIO DHT PRE users tried any other DHT's that have not been discussed much on the VR forum?

Thanks,

Vinnie

[matthewpartrick]

What's the next step up from Svetlanas in terms of pricing?  They ran me about $85 each.  A matched set of PX25s on ebay runs about $800! ouch. 

Any recommendations?  I have the stock 2A3s from EH, and was not a big fan of the Cunninghams.  My next gut reaction is to try the Gold Lions.

[jriggy]

Only having the KR PX-4’s for a few months now, I certainly haven’t made the significant jump up to the TAK 300b’s yet!
Others may disagree, with system synergy and preferences, but if you can’t/don’t want to yet jump to the PX-4’s, IMO the stock EH 2A3’s are the ones... Maybe there is a more afrdable 300b out there that will match well along side the stock tubes for price and performance...but it’s either stock or jump up to KR or TAK if ya ask me. YMMV

[genjamon]

Again, I'm not using LIO - my experience is with a Lampi Big 7 DHT DAC instead.  BUT I would think a lot of relative tube sounds would translate to LIO DHT impressions as well.

Early on, I tried a range of different tube types - all cheaper and used, loaned from friends.  It turned out 300B offered the best overall synergy in my system - and the tubes that did it for me were new stock Gold Lion 300B's.  From there, I went up in price with 300B's and eventually lucked out finding a $700 used pair of Tak's. 

That said, there have been times in the past few years with the Tak's that I was feeling they were too much of a good thing.  That my system was getting overly warm/thick, and I was tempted by some more linear tubes.  In those times, I've been able to try some KR (242's I think?) and Lampi Anniversary EML Globe 45's.  I own the Lampi 45's still, but they're just not quite in the same league as the Tak's, so I usually find my way back to them fairly shortly and try tweaking other parts of the system to achieve synergy again.  I can usually figure something out.

But I guess I started this post because I wanted to mention the Gold Lion 300B's as a more affordable 300B option for those that want to try the 300B tube type.  It's not as refined as those up the food chain, but it gives you a good idea what the 300B sound does.

[ebag4]

I am running the Elrog 300b, I have had the DHT Pre for a month.  The only other tubes I have heard in the DHT LIO were the EH 2A3s that came with it and an old pair of JJ 2A3s.  I ran both of the 2A3s for such a short period that I can't report anything useful regarding their sound, I will play with alternate tubes when I have had more time with the LIO and DHT Pre.  What I can add is that I am really enjoying the Elrogs. It was an easy decision between the tubes I have heard, but to be fair, the Elrogs have been broken in for some time, (they are what I was running in my Bottlehead Kaiju before getting the LIO), the EHs had less than 8 hours on them, the JJs were well broken in, but haven't been played for several years and are possibly worn out.  The Elrogs sound great.  They have great clarity and tone, I would call the bass balanced.  I wasn't able to hear the Elrogs at their best driving my current speakers when in the Kaiju, in the Bottlehead they output about 5 watts and I needed a little more power than that, the LIO remedied that issue. 

I will try to do some comparisons of different tubes after I live with this combo for a while, for now I am very happy camper.

Best,
Ed

[decur]

I still have never heard any 300b tube,that has what i consider realistic bass!
I really like the kr px4,for its tight "solid" bass you notice,this when playing hard hitting rock and roll.
Im wondering if there is a 300b out there that can deliver "real bass"

[Vinnie R.]

Only having the KR PX-4’s for a few months now, I certainly haven’t made the significant jump up to the TAK 300b’s yet!
Others may disagree, with system synergy and preferences, but if you can’t/don’t want to yet jump to the PX-4’s, IMO the stock EH 2A3’s are the ones... Maybe there is a more afrdable 300b out there that will match well along side the stock tubes for price and performance...but it’s either stock or jump up to KR or TAK if ya ask me. YMMV

I tend to agree with jriggy here, based on my own experiences tube rolling. 

Out of all the lower-cost tubes (price range: $100 - $200 per tube), the stock EH 2A3 gold-grid were the best ones that I found.  They are very linear, extended, quiet (internally, they are well-shielded to they don't pick on 50/60Hz hum in the air), and a great place to start (or even finish) with your LIO DHT PRE.   

[Even if the EH 2A3 Gold Grid was the only tube that worked with LIO DHT PRE, I'd take it any day over the AVC/Tubestage, no matter what 6922 variant was used.  In the LIO DHT PRE circuit, it just goes places that the 9-pin tubes never can, unfortunately.] 

There are many others to try in that price range (e.g. Gold Lion 300B, EH makes a 300B gold grid, Svetlana SV811, and various NOS finds on ebay).  They are all different flavors, but in terms of total performance, I found there are generally in the same league.

Once you jump to some of the pricier models discussed here (KR PX-4 & TAK TA300B are the two best examples that I know of at this time), the increase in performance becomes much more substantial.

Again, I'm not using LIO - my experience is with a Lampi Big 7 DHT DAC instead.

...That said, there have been times in the past few years with the Tak's that I was feeling they were too much of a good thing.  That my system was getting overly warm/thick, and I was tempted by some more linear tubes.

This brings up a good point, genjamon - the circuit you use a DHT in will most likely have even more of a influence over what you hear than the tube itself.  I am sure the Lampi circuit is much different than LIO DHT PRE (even though they both can use some of the same tubes), so it is no wonder that you're findings with the TAK TA300B and them being "overly warm/thick" at times does not mirror mine at all. 

I am running the Elrog 300b, I have had the DHT Pre for a month.

I will try to do some comparisons of different tubes after I live with this combo for a while, for now I am very happy camper.

Thanks for posting, Ed!  I'm keen to try that Elrog 300B's (I was just speaking to the USA importer about it today, and he said Elrog builds-to-order and it takes time to get some in stock, but he's going to let me try a pair when available).  I'm glad you are enjoying
it!

I still have never heard any 300b tube,that has what i consider realistic bass!
I really like the kr px4,for its tight "solid" bass you notice,this when playing hard hitting rock and roll.
Im wondering if there is a 300b out there that can deliver "real bass"

Hi decur,

I'll bring the TAK 300B to AXPONA (along with the KR PX-4).  I think you'll be very surprised.  The bass
is very good on the TAK 300B, as is everything else.  You'll be the judge. 

Vinnie

[decur]

Thanks Vinnie,
Looking forward to hearing the taks,especially with that green vinyl album of yours,
ZZ Top tres hombres

[Urassner]

Has anyone tried the Emission Labs PX4 tubes? I wonder how they compare to the much lauded KR Audio PX4.
I contacted Tubesusa.com, but they are not carrying KR Audio anymore.
I will have my DHT coming in a few weeks and want to be prepared.