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Inspire by Dennis Had Enjoying Vacuum Tube Audio

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  #6041  
Old 10-24-2020, 02:24 PM
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straitwire straitwire is offline
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Default Red CJ5

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  #6042  
Old 10-24-2020, 09:44 PM
bearcity bearcity is offline
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Why I’ll bet that is a new CJ5 preamp.
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  #6043  
Old 10-25-2020, 04:37 PM
Bombadil Bombadil is offline
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Default 6sn7

Picked up some new gear, an Inspire PSE amp! With it came a Psvane CV181-TII tube, the highly regarded new 6SN7.

I had to compare it vs my old favorite, the Westinghouse 6SN7GTB tall, copper-rod, yellow label, made in the 1960s. The 6SN7 which won my 21-tube 6SN7 shootout.

I compared the two in both my Inspire HO and Inspire PSE.

Result? I still like the Westinghouse better in both amps. To my ears and in my system, it throws up a more open, more detailed, more natural sound. Not by much but by enough.

I could understand someone liking the Psvane better. It was smoother with a little less high frequency detail. A nice tube.

At some time I'll get around to comparing the Psvane to my Sylvanias, Ken Rads, RCAs, etc.
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  #6044  
Old 10-25-2020, 04:54 PM
bearcity bearcity is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bombadil View Post
Picked up some new gear, an Inspire PSE amp! With it came a Psvane CV181-TII tube, the highly regarded new 6SN7.



I had to compare it vs my old favorite, the Westinghouse 6SN7GTB tall, copper-rod, yellow label, made in the 1960s. The 6SN7 which won my 21-tube 6SN7 shootout.



I compared the two in both my Inspire HO and Inspire PSE.



Result? I still like the Westinghouse better in both amps. To my ears and in my system, it throws up a more open, more detailed, more natural sound. Not by much but by enough.



I could understand someone liking the Psvane better. It was smoother with a little less high frequency detail. A nice tube.



At some time I'll get around to comparing the Psvane to my Sylvanias, Ken Rads, RCAs, etc.


Tell us more about your PSE.
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  #6045  
Old 10-25-2020, 05:57 PM
Bombadil Bombadil is offline
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Originally Posted by bearcity View Post
Tell us more about your PSE.
Purchased it used from a guy who liked it, but decided to go with a Pass xa30.8. It was built in Oct, 2016 and painted in Harley Davidson Metallic Orange. As he was getting out of tubes, he included his collection with it. As I already had a good supply of assorted tubes, I now have even more.

I have quad sets of KT88, KT77, KT66, 6CA7, 6V6, EL84, 6P3S-e, and 6L6GC. Plus pairs of several others.

No passive volume control, so a pure power amp.

Have only used it for 3-4 hours so can't say much about it. Except that it sounds great and is dead silent. It has the infinite impedance voltage regulation.
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  #6046  
Old 10-25-2020, 06:46 PM
decooney decooney is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bombadil View Post
...I could understand someone liking the Psvane better. It was smoother with a little less high frequency detail. A nice tube.
Interesting. Yours is an accurate description of what I'm hearing right now after a few months burn-in, re; "smother with less high frequency" using different mono amps with smaller PSVANE input/driver tubes.

...

Last edited by decooney; 10-26-2020 at 12:49 AM.
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  #6047  
Old 10-26-2020, 05:30 PM
Bombadil Bombadil is offline
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Today brought an example of system synergy.

Testing more 6SN7s. Yesterday I was using KT88s in the PSE. Today I switched over to Gold Lion KT77.

Turns out that I like the Psvane CV181-TII better with the KT77s. That's not all that surprising given the final resultant sound is a summation of all of the parts. I've always found the KT77s to have more high frequency energy than most other output tube types, so that little bit of "smoothing effect" from the Psvane pairs well with them.

Also compared a very old Ken-Rad and also old Sylvania VT-231. Both are very nice. I now have about a dozen 6SN7 types which I would classify as "top tier." Too many to ever use. But that's a good problem to have.

Perhaps when I roll in 6V6, 6P3S-e, 6L6GC and 6CA7 I may find that different 6SN7 pair better with them too.

Tube rolling nightmare!
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  #6048  
Old 10-26-2020, 05:48 PM
Comzee Comzee is offline
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Ya, the good thing about CV181-TII, is there's readily available, and one of the best, if not thee best new production 6sn7 around.

My impressions are pretty much the same as your Bombadil, great NOS will beat the CV181-Tii, but sometimes NOS can be super expensive, and it's always a gamble for microphonics and longevity.

While I do own a gob of "holy grail" NOS 6sn7, I just like suggesting the CV181-Tii, because you can buy them with warranty, always get more if one fails.
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  #6049  
Old 10-26-2020, 06:12 PM
Bombadil Bombadil is offline
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Listening to Blue Rodeo's "Five Days in July" album. This has been one of my favorites for 25 years. It has sounded wonderful in my systems over the years. But the PSE takes it to a new level. It is almost eerily natural, vocals sound like the singers are in the room with me. Stunning.

It isn't a huge amount better than the HO model, only a bit. But a noticeable bit which has impact on the presentation and emotion of the music.

Wish I had my old living room back, which was much larger and gave my Von Schweikert tower speakers room to breathe, but then the 20 watts per channel might not be enough. Way back in the day I once clipped a 250 wpc amp in that room.

Now I'm going to start pulling out all of my old favorite albums to relisten to them.

Last edited by Bombadil; 10-26-2020 at 06:19 PM.
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  #6050  
Old 10-26-2020, 08:04 PM
bearcity bearcity is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bombadil View Post
Listening to Blue Rodeo's "Five Days in July" album. This has been one of my favorites for 25 years. It has sounded wonderful in my systems over the years. But the PSE takes it to a new level. It is almost eerily natural, vocals sound like the singers are in the room with me. Stunning.

It isn't a huge amount better than the HO model, only a bit. But a noticeable bit which has impact on the presentation and emotion of the music.

Wish I had my old living room back, which was much larger and gave my Von Schweikert tower speakers room to breathe, but then the 20 watts per channel might not be enough. Way back in the day I once clipped a 250 wpc amp in that room.

Now I'm going to start pulling out all of my old favorite albums to relisten to them.


I recently had Dennis update the front end on my 2016 PSE. A definite improvement you may consider.
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