Quick Product Poll! Tube Buffer with Volume Control?

modwright · « **Reply #120 on:** 29 May 2019, 06:23 pm »

Thank you! I am working on two big integrated amp designs right now and trying to get them finalized. There is clearly enough interest in this product and I will now start putting it tall together in the enclosure design as well as the options available and layout. I will post images and have more questions in terms of market research as I move forward into this next phase.

Thank you all!

Dan

The Rang · « **Reply #121 on:** 2 Aug 2019, 12:33 am »

What’s the status on this?

Busy working on the new integrated I assume

modwright · « **Reply #122 on:** 2 Aug 2019, 08:45 am »

I am actually in Europe with my son at the moment. We are on a train from Berlin to Amsterdam.

I will be back to work on the 12th of August. I am finalizing two integrated amp designs and will be getting this to market too.

Thanks,

Dan

rollo · « **Reply #123 on:** 2 Aug 2019, 03:16 pm »

Hey Dan enjoy the trip. BTW great idea. Integrated amps are IMO the way to go.

charles

Sailorboy · « **Reply #124 on:** 2 Aug 2019, 09:29 pm »

What a cool thing to do, its these sort of things that make great memories...enjoy the trip.

I wasn't sure if the draft design ended up with a remote control for the volume or not, so just wanted to put my view on this.
I understood the original target market was for people that had mostly an all Digital chain in their system (excluding amplifier and speakers of course). If that is still the case, and if you were putting a volume control in the design, doesn't an R/C become almost mandatory for digital sources. My reasoning is that for Digital streaming from web based streaming services volume varies so much in between albums and across streaming services, and especially internet radio. My experience is that volume adjustment through an evening of listening would occur at least a dozen times, perhaps more, and its a pain getting off the couch to constantly adjust volume, and not to mention volume adjustment (read fighting

) when two people are listening. Its not so bad if you are streaming from locally stored music files and have enabled volume levelling , although some implementations of software levelling leave much to be desired as well.

I dont have a problem with excluding a volume control, there are pretty good volume controls in DACs these days and they all have R/Cs, but if you do have one I think an R/C has to be included. Perhaps it could be an option to have a volume control switched in or out of the circuit...not sure if this feature would be detrimental to sound.

cheers
Colin

modwright · « **Reply #125 on:** 4 Aug 2019, 07:22 am »

Good point and noted. If VC is included, R/C would be too, as well as a defeat/bypass option.

Thanks!

The Rang · « **Reply #126 on:** 6 Aug 2019, 01:37 am »

Let us know what Amsterdam is like.
Never been there, or the continent at all for that matter.
My younger sister lives there, thinking of checking it out (she’ll know where all the good record stores are

)

modwright · « **Reply #127 on:** 9 Aug 2019, 05:00 pm »

Amsterdam is a fun and crazy city. We were there for the weekend and there was a celebration going on, so it was doubly crazy. Very beautiful city and great architecture. Second to Prague, it was one of my favorites. We visited Munich, Prague, Berlin and Amsterdam. We enjoyed Prague the most and will definitely return!

Thanks,

Dan

mresseguie · « **Reply #128 on:** 9 Aug 2019, 05:28 pm »

Dan,

This is OT, but inline with your last post.

Did you use a travel company to arrange your trip to Munich, Prague, Berlin and Amsterdam, or did you make all arrangements yourself?

I'll sheepishly admit that I've never been to Europe. 98% of all my travels have been in Asia, and 2% have been in Canada and Central/South America.

Michael

modwright · « **Reply #129 on:** 9 Aug 2019, 06:16 pm »

Well, it is funny that you should ask. I did it all myself and it worked out for the most part, but I will share my experiences about what NOT to do!

First of all, booking airfare is easy and I use Hopper to book airfare. This app is great, because you can put in the times and where you want to go and it will tell you what current fares are, if they are likely to go up or not and when is a good time to purchase. So, that is how to handle airfare to-from Europe.

I would recommend planning your trip, so that you fly into City A, and fly out of City B, where you plan to end your trip. In our case, we started in Munich, then took a train to Prague, train to Berlin, train to Amsterdam and I had planned a final train back to Munich, but it would have been 10-14 hours by train and in the end, I spent $300 for two one-way plane tix and it was a 1:20 flt. I would have booked us into Munich and out of Amsterdam, but I bought the plane tickets before I knew exactly where we were going.

Within Europe, you can travel by train, which is easy and relatively affordable. I spent about $800 on a 15-day twin German rail pass, for two of us, that allowed us to travel on any trains in Germany at any time, within that 15 day window. It also covered domestic trains in the cities, BUT NOT SUBWAYS! I also made a bad assumption that it covered trains from Germany to adjacent countries, on German trains! Not so! I ended up paying a bit more, for the train leg from the border of Germany and Czech, to Prague, and from the border of Germany and NL to Amsterdam. I probably would have been better off with a Eurail pass, which costs a bit more, but covers trains to all countries.

Now, I would also consider the cost of flying between countries within Europe also, because this is faster and may surprise you at the cost. Trains are convenient and inexpensive. Recommended for max 4-5 hour trips between cities. When you factor in the time to get to the airport, security, the flight itself and then from the airport to the city, often a 4 hour train ride is just as fast as a 1 hour flight! Trains are easy to hop on and off, no security and airport delays.

As for accommodations: AIRBNB! It is THAT simple! This is the BEST WAY TO GO! Look at ratings and see what is there, but you will save money and we had GREAT experiences with this! In Prague, we had an entire flat to ourselves for about $75/night! In no case did we pay over $100/night for Airbnb's, while we paid over $150/night at average hotels and they were not as comfortable.

So, you could use a travel agent, but I really don't think it is necessary. It really depends on who you want to travel. This was my 16 year old son and myself. We had a backpack each, med size and no checked baggage. We wanted to be flexible and free to change our minds about where we wanted to go. The rail passes made sense in this regard.

Once you arrive in a city, public transport is very easy and inexpensive in most cities. Worst case there is also uber, for a bit more, if you in a pinch or don't want to deal with subway or train.

So to sum up:

Pack as lightly as possible, so you are not lugging a bunch of luggage around.

Use Hopper or other site to find the best flight rates and times.

Decide on rail or planes within Europe. We had a good experience with trains, just get the right kind of pass.

Airbnb is the cheapest and most comfortable accommodation option in my opinion!

Public transport within Europe is cheap, fast and easy.

Use a credit card WITHOUT international transaction fees as this will give you the best exchange rate for all transactions. You will need minimal cash in Euros, etc. Cash exchange is NOT going to be at the best possible rate.

I highly recommend Prague and Amsterdam! Munich was preferred by us for the German experience. There is also France, Italy, Greece of course. I am just sharing our experiences and I hope that it helps.

Thanks,

Dan

mresseguie · « **Reply #130 on:** 9 Aug 2019, 06:41 pm »

Dan,

Very cool. Thank you!

My wife and I had hoped to go this year, but things and events kept us from going.

modwright · « **Reply #131 on:** 10 Aug 2019, 05:42 pm »

You are most welcome. My son and I did the trip kind of like college students but without hostels and a bit more resources

.

I hope that you and your wife find the time to go. Truly well worth it!

Dan

OCD · « **Reply #132 on:** 13 Aug 2019, 07:57 am »

Hi,

I'm interested, my wants would be as follows,

1: No volume control so Unity gain I guess
2: Remote for all functions ie:Power on/off and input select(No Input select knob required), 3.5mm mono plug on the rear of the enclosure to integrate into a IR
repeater setup, all of my gear sits in another room
without line of sight.
3: 2...max 3 inputs, 1 of them being HT/BP, must automatically default to this input when powered down(same as your LS36.5 if I've read the manual right?), 2
outputs
4: 6SN7 tube compatability(I have a few already, and like to roll occasionally).
5: 240v, I'm in Australia!

I have a 5.2 system, when listening to music its 2.2, currently have a tube line amp that I had custom made here in Aus by a well respected tube amp maker, all hand soldered, point to point, Alps Blue 100k pot(which sits at 12 o'clock and never moves as volume control is upstream) I love the sound of it, it has HT bypass too, a no brainer for someone like me who doesn't have the space or funds for a dedicated 2 channel system, as much as I would like one, I had a Parasound P5 for awhile, very convenient, but hated the sound of it, fatigue after an hour of listening. Got my tube line amp and peace was restored, to my galaxy anyway!, but not very convenient without any sort of remote.

My DAC is a miniDSP 2x4 HD(stop laughing!), however its perfect for my needs and sounds better than the P5 ever did, even before my line amp was added, as it has very fine control over input/output levels, XO's etc. My subs bypass the lineamp, as I feel that they sound better without the tube stage added, 'tighter' for want of a better word.

A steel case with a 5mm thick aluminium facia is perfect. To help keep costs down make the backplate modular so it can be used on different input/output versions of said buffer.

Anyway, looking forward to what you come up with,

modwright · « **Reply #133 on:** 13 Aug 2019, 04:27 pm »

OK, thanks. And the really big question here of course, is what do you expect to pay for this, as described, at retail?

I appreciate your input!

Dan

GregC · « **Reply #134 on:** 13 Aug 2019, 04:31 pm »

Hi Dan,

Welcome back, I am glad you had a memorable trip with your son.

Greg

modwright · « **Reply #135 on:** 13 Aug 2019, 05:52 pm »

Thanks GregC!

Dan

MttBsh · « **Reply #136 on:** 13 Aug 2019, 06:33 pm »

Quote from: modwright on 9 Aug 2019, 06:16 pm

I highly recommend Prague and Amsterdam! Munich was preferred by us for the German experience. There is also France, Italy, Greece of course. I am just sharing our experiences and I hope that it helps.

Thanks,

Dan

I would like to also recommend Spain. My wife and I just returned from a 3 week trip that started in Madrid, then Barcelona, then Nice and finally a week in Paris. As much as I love Paris - and Nice was particularly beautiful, driving along the cliffs to Monaco - Barcelona for me was probably the highlight, an absolutely beautiful city. It's like a warmer and decidedly less expensive version of Paris, nestled on Mediterranean, we stayed at an affordable AIRBNB right on tree lined La Rambla boulevard where some of the best restaurants and entertainment are just steps away. Can't recommend it enough.

Oh, and Dan, thanks for the updates on the tube buffer!

modwright · « **Reply #137 on:** 13 Aug 2019, 07:44 pm »

Thanks, while I have been in Paris only briefly, I get the feeling that there are other places equally if not more beautiful and I have certainly heard of Spain being quite beautiful!

Dan

OCD · « **Reply #138 on:** 14 Aug 2019, 12:17 am »

Quote from: modwright on 13 Aug 2019, 04:27 pm

OK, thanks. And the really big question here of course, is what do you expect to pay for this, as described, at retail?

I appreciate your input!

Dan

US$1500 or less, too much competion is this space, ie: Schiit Freya+, Musical Paradise MP-701, WBA-Firebird, and a bit more Tubes4Hifi SP-14

Hope this helps

modwright · « **Reply #139 on:** 14 Aug 2019, 01:15 am »

Fair enough. I was not planning to be extremely cheap, but also not super expensive. That range is right where I was thinking, +/- depending on options.

Thanks,

Dan