OK, here is the 100+ hour report. The tubes seem pretty stable now. They kind of went through a bit of a rolled off treble phase that only lasted 5 or 10 hours. Now they are back and don't seem to change much at all. They are superb, and as I said before, they pull off the trick of being very highly detailed without sounding at all bright. The 3D imaging and micro detail is as good as I have ever heard from a 6SN7 tube. They are as warm as I would expect a really good 6SN7 to be. You can listen to them for hours with no fatigue and the bass is very tight and goes all the way down to the limits of the rest of the stereo. So my final verdict remains the same as the original one. In a preamp running these tubes at rational operating point, they are probably the best 6SN7 I have heard to date. Are they worth the money? I would say that depends on your budget, and also very importantly your system. If your system has the resolution of the Raven preamp all the way through the chain, then you will hear what these tubes can do. If your have a lesser system, then I cannot say how much of the improvement you will hear.
Just for clarity, my system is fully balanced and has no solid state devices in the signal path after the DAC chip. The only coupling cap is the custom copper output cap in the Lampizator DAC. They are proprietary to Lampizator and quite possibly made by Miflex, but I cannot be sure.
The system:
Lampizator Pacific sent in for the Pacific 2 upgrade. I have adapters for a 4V rectifier, C3G "Postal tubes" as the drivers, and the output tubes are 4P1L DHTs. The fellow in Europe who makes the socket adapters has heard a LOT of DACs and he owns a Lampi Horizon. In his words, the Pacific 2 with this sort of tube set is better than the stock Horizon. He considers the Horizon with a custom tube set to be the best source on the planet. His words, not mine. Anyway, the DAC driving the stereo is amazing.
This drives the Raven preamp and Blackbird amps. The Ray tubes are in the Raven preamp.
Speakers are custom designed open baffle with compression driver and integrated horn from 1.2 KHz up. They easily compete with the Spatial Q3 and which you would prefer depends on the room and your taste and whether you prefer a horn to what is among the best tweeters in the world (in the Q3).
Cables are from Paul Spelz at anticables....
My point is that this system rivals anything I have heard at any audio show for sheer musicality no matter the price. If I change a single tube, then I hear its character immediately.
Seasons greetings to everyone.
cheers,
Don
