Let's see your tubes!

FullRangeMan · « **Reply #160 on:** 1 Jun 2012, 06:56 am »

Putz, plastic knob near hot tubes.

My Carver amp also looks cheap.

JakeJ · « **Reply #161 on:** 1 Jun 2012, 11:53 am »

Easy does it, gents.

Really? You guys are going to get all worked up about a knob? All this time I thought sound was more important than aesthetics.

weitrhino · « **Reply #162 on:** 1 Jun 2012, 01:42 pm »

All of you with your panties in a bunch over the knob on the Carvers......it is machined aluminum, not plastic. But perhaps you all know better than me.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #163 on:** 1 Jun 2012, 09:06 pm »

Wow. you guys are bashing this pour guy over his knob.
Hell, if I had a spare, I'd send you one dude.

weitrhino · « **Reply #164 on:** 1 Jun 2012, 09:55 pm »

Quote from: Bob in St. Louis on 1 Jun 2012, 09:06 pm

Wow. you guys are bashing this pour guy over his knob.
Hell, if I had a spare, I'd send you one dude.

No worries, Bob. A couple guys piped up without really knowing what they were talking about.

On to the next tube porn, please.

SteveFord · « **Reply #165 on:** 2 Jun 2012, 12:11 am »

Thank heavens we've got to the bottom of the Great Carver Knob Controversy!
I'd take them even if the knob was made out of a varnished packing peanut.

JakeJ · « **Reply #166 on:** 2 Jun 2012, 12:24 am »

Quote from: SteveFord on 2 Jun 2012, 12:11 am

Thank heavens we've got to the bottom of the Great Carver Knob Controversy!
I'd take them even if the knob was made out of a varnished packing peanut.

Now that's funny! No matter who you are.

BTW, the varnish is required for stiffness. A knob without stiffness is no fun, just ask your wife, girlfriend, S.O., or even....yourself.

PS - Personally I hate chicken head knobs.

FullRangeMan · « **Reply #167 on:** 2 Jun 2012, 08:07 am »

GMI-11 decatron from Sukhoi SU-17 and MIG-29 radars, life expectancy 25 years, great success amount ham radio fans for $64dollars.

kevin360 · « **Reply #168 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 03:20 am »

Here's a shot I just took of my VAC Phi 300.1 with its new front end - NOS Ken Rad VT-231s from the 40s. I tried a few long exposures in the dark while 'painting' the face with a flashlight. I'm going to work on this technique some more and I'll hopefully add a better picture.

medium jim · « **Reply #169 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 03:31 am »

Kevin:

I'm sure a detailed report of the Ken-Rad's will follow

The beauty of NOS tubes are that they will get better over the next few hundred hours and there will be times that you will get in your listening chair and your system will sound very much different than it did the last time you had a session with it. This will be mostly in the soundstage's size and depth.

Jim

kevin360 · « **Reply #170 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 04:28 am »

Jim,

I assume you are aware of the unwritten law of photo threads (at least every other post must contain a photo). This means that if you don't post a photo along with your question, you are obliging me to post one with my reply. So, before I answer your question, let me dispatch my obligation. The same headlight I used in the first photo was used in its red mode for this one. Okay, I should shoot more than a half dozen if I hope to get a good one, but you get the idea. The problem is that I'm not sitting in my listening seat when I tried to take these pictures - so, I was in a hurry to sit back down.

The third disk I listened to last night exploded from the confines of my room - Omnia's 'Pagan Folk'. I have no words. Buckethead's 'Electric Tears' is mesmerizing me right now. It gets better? BTW, they definitely pass the thump test - good old tubes designed for equipment on the go. The first turn on was a little noisy - a light hum for a couple of seconds faded into a brief snap, crackle, pop and then settled into increasing silence until I started the music. They were singing sweetly within a half hour - during Stevie's 'Innervisions'. Three subsequent power ups have been nice and smooth. I'm definitely going to buy another set of 231s (but I'm not married to the Ken Rad incarnation) - they sound lovely (well, that's how I perceive it anyway

). It seems prudent to stock up on these tubes for future use.

medium jim · « **Reply #171 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 04:35 am »

Kevin:

I will post a pic of some of my glowing tubes tomorrow and post....

Jim

ltr317 · « **Reply #172 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 03:28 pm »

Quote from: kevin360 on 3 Jun 2012, 03:20 am

Here's a shot I just took of my VAC Phi 300.1 with its new front end - NOS Ken Rad VT-231s from the 40s. I tried a few long exposures in the dark while 'painting' the face with a flashlight. I'm going to work on this technique some more and I'll hopefully add a better picture.

Beautiful amp. Kevin Hayes does nice work. I tried to get a review loaner at the NY Waldorf show from Kevin, but he said he's been selling everything he makes the past few years. It's rare that a high end manufacturer doesn't need reviews to sell its products.

kevin360 · « **Reply #173 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 04:54 pm »

I find a lot to love about VAC's products – they are truly elegant. This amp looks beautiful, but it's a form following function design. If one is biamping with a pair of these and he needs leveling adjustments, he need only flip a switch on the back and the knobs become functional. The same for balanced or single ended use and for illumination of the plexiglass face – which looks pretty stunning with the etched logo. Simply lift off its ledge if you'd rather do without – how thoughtful! The meter looks nice, but it serves a purpose, obviously. Placing the bias pots on the front panel makes adjustment quick and easy, and I don't think it hurts the appearance at all. The casework is exemplary, but its beauty is more than skin deep. It's very nicely built – quality parts and quality construction. The switches, for instance, feel like they'd be at home in a fighter jet. Nowhere does it reveal a cut corner or evidence of 'hurry'. Things like that give me a weirdly satisfying feeling.

It had to be a nice looking amp. It replaced a Pass X350. I know it's heresy to discuss solid state in this circle, but I think that X350 is a superb amplifier. It's nothing short of gorgeous, either. Its build quality also gives me that weirdly satisfying feeling. I can save face a little, though, by asserting that I think the VAC sounds better with my Maggies (3.7s). I've swapped back and forth a few times now and the difference gets clearer each time. I'm a convert, but I wasn't a sinner before becoming a tube-o-phile.

I replaced the stock 6SN7GTs (quite microphonic, with noisy start up) with some NOS Ken Rad VT-231s from the 40s (purchased from Brent Jessee). I need to order another set or two for future use. Consider me a convert in that department as well, but only for the front end. The stock KT88s seem fine to me.

JakeJ · « **Reply #174 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 05:14 pm »

Quote from: kevin360 on 3 Jun 2012, 04:54 pm

<snip>
I know it's heresy to discuss solid state in this circle.
<snip>

Nothing is heretical in this circle except bickering.

TrungT · « **Reply #175 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 05:44 pm »

MORE PICTURE .... LESS WORDS

SteveFord · « **Reply #176 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 06:06 pm »

More pictures, you say?
Here's how they do it up in Canadia Land.
Sonic Frontiers SFL-2 from the upstairs system.
Bugle Boys in the rear four sockets give it that tube magic, Russian Rocket Ship logos in the front four give it a very clean underpinning if that makes any kind of sense.

HAL · « **Reply #177 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 06:23 pm »

Quote from: TrungT on 3 Jun 2012, 05:44 pm

MORE PICTURE .... LESS WORDS

Some words would be helpful to know what they are.

JakeJ · « **Reply #178 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 07:48 pm »

It's the new Guess-A-System gameshow. Guess correctly and you win the system!

TrungT · « **Reply #179 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 07:54 pm »

^^^^^^