[nlitworld]

Yup the stock tubes are junk. Just using them for break in. I have some Gold Lion KT88s and some EL34s to play around with. Going to be replacing the coupling caps, and at some point, replacing the transformers. Probably a few other mods as well.

Try the Psvane EL34PH tubes in there. Open, airy big clear sound but with no bite like the Gold Lion KT77.

[Tyson]

Try the Psvane EL34PH tubes in there. Open, airy big clear sound but with no bite like the Gold Lion KT77.

Those are my choice for a modern EL34, too.  Psvane makes good tubes.  Reliable, too. 

[mkrawcz]

The R8 was fun while it lasted. Something went wrong inside with one of the channels so I’m returning it rather than mess with it. I’m going to try the Muzishare X7 for the same price in Amazon. It actually looks like a much better design, using better parts, better transformers, and even has a balanced input. The drawback is it won’t take EL34 tubes like the R8, but that’s ok. I like the KT88s.

[mkrawcz]

Muzishare X7. Literally just got it and fired it up. Straight away, this is a better amp across the board than the Willlsenton R8. This thing is the real deal. I’m not even sure I have the mod it other than tubes and it’s not even broken in. We will see just how good it gets.

[js1955]

Muzishare X7. Literally just got it and fired it up. Straight away, this is a better amp across the board than the Willlsenton R8. This thing is the real deal. I’m not even sure I have the mod it other than tubes and it’s not even broken in. We will see just how good it gets.

FWIW, Skunkie Designs has nothing good to say about the R8.   Matter of fact, she pretty much thinks it's junk.  Says the X7 uses  much better quality parts and superior build, and she much prefers it at the same price point.

Direct comparison of both here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjGefU2qB-0

If you search "willsenton" on her channel you will get much more detail on her views about the R8.  She covers it in several videos.

[mkrawcz]

FWIW, Skunkie Designs has nothing good to say about the R8.   Matter of fact, she pretty much thinks it's junk.  Says the X7 uses  much better quality parts and superior build, and she much prefers it at the same price point.

Direct comparison of both here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjGefU2qB-0

If you search "willsenton" on her channel you will get much more detail on her views about the R8.  She covers it in several videos.

A lot of her issues were with older runs of the R8, but yea, it still has issues and mine was broken. The Muzishare is a way better design. 

[js1955]

Glad it's working for ya!     

[mkrawcz]

Swapped out the coupling caps on the Muzishare X7 for Duelund JDM copper foils. Now this amp really sings.

[nlitworld]

Swapped out the coupling caps on the Muzishare X7 for Duelund JDM copper foils. Now this amp really sings.

That's awesome!  If you want to up the clarity a bit more, KLE RCA and Binding Posts. I swear by that mod it's so easy and effective. Even the basic Copper Harmony ones up the game compared to whatever stock ones are on there.

[mkrawcz]

That's awesome!  If you want to up the clarity a bit more, KLE RCA and Binding Posts. I swear by that mod it's so easy and effective. Even the basic Copper Harmony ones up the game compared to whatever stock ones are on there.

Thanks for the suggestion! I may change out the posts at some point. I just decided that I needed to order the ANK Audio EL34 kit with C-Core transformers. So that is using up the funds for now. I think that amp with Duelund Copper caps will be really good.

[nlitworld]

I just decided that I needed to order the ANK Audio EL34 kit with C-Core transformers. I think that amp with Duelund Copper caps will be really good.

That'll be a great build. I'm halfway done shopping parts for a Tubes4HiFi EL84 build (same circuit as ANK) so I know the need for prioritizing funds on better projects. It's a tough life we have... 

[mkrawcz]

Just got this ANK El34 up and running and I’m really impressed. Need to let it break in for a while but I can tell this one will be hard to top of all the amps I’ve tried.

[BrandonB]

Just got this ANK El34 up and running and I’m really impressed. Need to let it break in for a while but I can tell this one will be hard to top of all the amps I’ve tried.

ANK kits looks really nice.  Most of their kits include chokes in the power supply.  Benjamin with Mojo Audio talks about chokes in the power supply keeps the time and timbre of the music.  He talks about this being his secret sauce to his DAC's. Even though he only builds DAC's he talks about chokes being important in all components including amplifiers and preamps etc. 

[mkrawcz]

I should provide a little disclaimer about ANK Audio. Yes, the kits sound outstanding, however, the owner of the company is a horrible businessman. I have built 2 kits from him. Both were sent with numerous amounts of missing parts that I paid a lot of money for. I never had parts missing from any of the dozen or so kits I have built. Even though it's all over the forums about what others have experienced with this (and even a published reviewer), I gave him the benefit of the doubt, politely asked him to not leave parts out of this kit this time. Well, the kit was missing half the resistors for the main board, No ANK Copper foil caps, no EL34 tubes, half the speaker bindings posts, one RCA jack, the ANK RCA cable, and not enough of the rest of the wiring to finish the amp. Then I contact him, (He's your best buddy in email conversations) he promises it will all ship out tomorrow, I wait 2 days ask him for a tracking number, he says "I will send the tracking tonight", never did. I ask again, he didn't ship it, and I would know because I can see whenever anything ships to my house from UPS. This went on for over a week and he kept lying to me until I finally threatened to file a claim with Paypal. Then all of a sudden, he ships it that day. I don't know what the guy's problem is, but it seems like most people who buy a kit from him go through this same experience and it's not pleasant. It takes the fun right out of it. So beware, if you want world class tube sound at a bargain price, there is a caveat.

[BrandonB]

There are some very talented builders in this thread.  I have questions about some technical stuff and would like some input from some of you with electrical engineering experience.  I have spoken to the owner of Mojo Audio and he talks about his secret sauce being large chokes in the power supply.  His latest model DAC's are Dual Mono with 2 large chokes and the DAC chips are R2R old school.  From what I can tell the other parts in the DAC are high quality.  He also talks about chokes in preamps amps etc.  He says that the reason company's don't use chokes is because of cost.  People reviewing his equipment has said it sounds great with great Timbre and time but not overly detailed.   I can only think of a few other companys that uses  large chokes in their power supply which include ANK DAC's, Schitt Tyres mono blocks and more expensive SMc Audio stuff.  I just want to get some of your opinions about this.  Especially compared to the later R2R stuff from Holo Audio and Denafrips.

[Jaytor]

There are some very talented builders in this thread.  I have questions about some technical stuff and would like some input from some of you with electrical engineering experience.  I have spoken to the owner of Mojo Audio and he talks about his secret sauce being large chokes in the power supply.  His latest model DAC's are Dual Mono with 2 large chokes and the DAC chips are R2R old school.  From what I can tell the other parts in the DAC are high quality.  He also talks about chokes in preamps amps etc.  He says that the reason company's don't use chokes is because of cost.  People reviewing his equipment has said it sounds great with great Timbre and time but not overly detailed.   I can only think of a few other companys that uses  large chokes in their power supply which include ANK DAC's, Schitt Tyres mono blocks and more expensive SMc Audio stuff.  I just want to get some of your opinions about this.  Especially compared to the later R2R stuff from Holo Audio and Denafrips.

The other downside of chokes is their size (and weight). But a choke feeding a capacitor is a second order filter while a resistor feeding a cap is only first order, so a power supply filter incorporating chokes can provide a lot more filtering. If the supply is designed as a choke input supply (meaning no capacitor between the rectifier and first choke), the amount of switching noise generated is significantly reduced, but it also means the choke has to handle significantly larger peak currents and voltages.

Chokes generally do a better job filtering high frequency garbage that is difficult for active regulators to eliminate. So using chokes can help even when active regulation is used after, like it would be in a DAC.

Chokes are commonly used in tube equipment, particularly for the high voltage (B+) rail, since a choke filtered supply can often provide enough ripple reduction without resorting to active circuits.

[corndog71]

The other downside of chokes is their size (and weight). But a choke feeding a capacitor is a second order filter while a resistor feeding a cap is only first order, so a power supply filter incorporating chokes can provide a lot more filtering. If the supply is designed as a choke input supply (meaning no capacitor between the rectifier and first choke), the amount of switching noise generated is significantly reduced, but it also means the choke has to handle significantly larger peak currents and voltages. 

Chokes generally do a better job filtering high frequency garbage that is difficult for active regulators to eliminate. So using chokes can help even when active regulation is used after, like it would be in a DAC.

Chokes are commonly used in tube equipment, particularly for the high voltage (B+) rail, since a choke filtered supply can often provide enough ripple reduction without resorting to active circuits.

This is why I jumped on a pair of Schiit Tyrs. 

[BrandonB]

The other downside of chokes is their size (and weight). But a choke feeding a capacitor is a second order filter while a resistor feeding a cap is only first order, so a power supply filter incorporating chokes can provide a lot more filtering. If the supply is designed as a choke input supply (meaning no capacitor between the rectifier and first choke), the amount of switching noise generated is significantly reduced, but it also means the choke has to handle significantly larger peak currents and voltages.

Chokes generally do a better job filtering high frequency garbage that is difficult for active regulators to eliminate. So using chokes can help even when active regulation is used after, like it would be in a DAC.

Chokes are commonly used in tube equipment, particularly for the high voltage (B+) rail, since a choke filtered supply can often provide enough ripple reduction without resorting to active circuits.

Do chokes help with transients.  When the amplifier DAC etc uses a large amount of power quickly.  Do they in some way help keep power stored in the caps.  This is how I imagine they can  help with timbre.

[Jaytor]

Do chokes help with transients.  When the amplifier DAC etc uses a large amount of power quickly.  Do they in some way help keep power stored in the caps.  This is how I imagine they can  help with timbre.

It could potentially help a bit in the bass, particularly if a choke-input supply - keep in mind the the choke is operating at 120hz (twice mains frequency) assuming a full-wave or bridge rectifier, so it can't help to keep the caps topped off at higher frequencies than this. But a good reasonably high capacitance, low ESR capacitor bank should easily be able to handle the transient current needs. A typical DAC circuit draws relatively little current.

I think the more likely benefit is cleaning up the high frequency noise which can cause intermodulation distortion that affects the audio band. But there are other ways to tackle this problem besides using chokes.

[Early B.]

This is why I jumped on a pair of Schiit Tyrs. 

That's funny. Chokes are the main reason I grabbed a Schiit Mjolnir 3 last week.