Musical Paradise MP-301 MK3 Opinions

I'm thrilled to hear your guys opinions on this "little" amp. Mine will hopefully be here next week. Currently has EH KT88's in it. This will be pushing a pair of ESM-2S's. CANNOT wait for my first tube experience :banana:
 
I'm thrilled to hear your guys opinions on this "little" amp. Mine will hopefully be here next week. Currently has EH KT88's in it. This will be pushing a pair of ESM-2S's. CANNOT wait for my first tube experience :banana:

Looking forward to your thoughts. you know what driver/preamp tubes you'll use?
 
It currently has the EH KT-88’s along with a pair of RCA 6SJ7’s. Going to start with that setup and go from there. Any thoughts on other possible combo’s? Mostly listen to Jazz, Blues and occasionally some southern rock in the rotation. Currently use a pair of ESM-2S speakers. My concern right now is if they can be driven well enough to keep the sound from them that I love. They’re around 86db sensitivity. I also
Plan on trying it with my 1060 using the Marantz in Preamp mode feeding the 301. I am also building a pair of Tri-Trix MTM TL’s. Hopefully they will be finished soon. Works been crazy as of late.
 
That's a good combo to start with for sure. There are so many tube combinations on this guy it's overwhelming, but fun. I'd like to try some KT88's at some point. I have the Sylvania 5693 "reds" which are very similar to the RCA 6SJ7 (i also have a pair of those, but haven't had time to compare). I'm using the Tung-Sol 7581A's with 5693's right now, very nice neutral presentation with tight bass. i'll be getting some SED Winged C EL34's soon along with the obscure Tung Sol 717a "doorknob" driver tubes. I'll report back all my findings.
 
It currently has the EH KT-88’s along with a pair of RCA 6SJ7’s. Going to start with that setup and go from there. Any thoughts on other possible combo’s? Mostly listen to Jazz, Blues and occasionally some southern rock in the rotation. Currently use a pair of ESM-2S speakers. My concern right now is if they can be driven well enough to keep the sound from them that I love. They’re around 86db sensitivity. I also
Plan on trying it with my 1060 using the Marantz in Preamp mode feeding the 301. I am also building a pair of Tri-Trix MTM TL’s. Hopefully they will be finished soon. Works been crazy as of late.
Just a question with the MP301 and the Marantz 1060 as a preamp how will this work as the mp301 is a integrated tube amp and has no connections to do what your saying?
 
Just a question with the MP301 and the Marantz 1060 as a preamp how will this work as the mp301 is a integrated tube amp and has no connections to do what your saying?
The 1060 has the option to use it as a preamp. It has a set of outputs for that purpose. I’m hoping by doing this it allows me to have some form of tone control as the MP has none. This should also allow me to use my TT with the 301 without having to use a dedicated Phono preamp.
And it’s quite possible I may not like the combo. The 1060 is the nicest sounding amps I’ve ever owned and the MP has its work cutout trying to swing my opinion. But the reviews made it hard to not give it a try. I’ve been dying to enter the world of tube amps and this amp, by all standards it seems is a VERY nice way to get started.
 
I have owned the marantz 1060 and understand you can use it as a preamp by removing the jumpers in the back but to hook it up to a MP301 is what I'm asking how and why ???? as there is no way to hook up the MP301 as you are talking about. This doesn't make any sense to me ????
 
I was under the
Impression that it could be hooked up to the 301 just like any other source if I use the Preamp section of the 1060. As I said above The main reason for doing this would be to have tone controls available unless that’s not possible. The other thought was using the phono section of the 1060 in place of buying an additional phono preamp.
If I’m missing something filling me in would be appreciated.
 
I was under the
Impression that it could be hooked up to the 301 just like any other source if I use the Preamp section of the 1060. As I said above The main reason for doing this would be to have tone controls available unless that’s not possible. The other thought was using the phono section of the 1060 in place of buying an additional phono preamp.
If I’m missing something filling me in would be appreciated.

There’s a very simple mod you can make to the MP301 to bypass the volume control and turn it into a dedicated amp. Easy DIY, just unscrews some screws and unplug a connector and deploy it into a different spot.

https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=45210&start=330
 
It removes the pot from the signal completely. Technically you could turn the volume up when feeding by a pre but I don’t believe turning the MP301 volume wide open is ideal.
 
I've rolled lots of tubes through mine which is a MK3 Deluxe.
I prefer the Tung Sol EL34B.
I tried Tung-Sol 6L6SC, Tung-Sol 7581A and some KT88 which were tube store select models at the time.
All of the above were very good in bass and treble response but really killed the mids. My wife spent a weekend with me doing tube swaps and in the end we both preferred the Tung-Sol EL34B. Honestly, I felt like I had wasted my money on the other ones. I just did not care for them at all. All the rest sounded veiled and just flat out lacking.

For preamp tubes I use the RCA Special Red 5693 or the 6SJ7 as I have several sets of each. I have not noticed a huge difference between them, but prefer the 5693 overall.

Very interesting info on the mods. I had not seen that page before, but had read some discussions there about modding the MP-D1 DAC, which I may get around to doing eventually.
 
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I've rolled lots of tubes through mine which is a MK3 Deluxe.
I prefer the Tung Sol EL34B.
I tried Tung-Sol 6L6SC, Tung-Sol 7581A and some KT88 which were tube store select models at the time.
All of the above were very good in bass and treble response but really killed the mids. My wife spent a weekend with me doing tube swaps and in the end we both preferred the Tung-Sol EL34B. Honestly, I felt like I had wasted my money on the other ones. I just did not care for them at all. All the rest sounded veiled and just flat out lacking.

For preamp tubes I use the RCA Special Red 5692 or the 6SJ7 as I have several sets of each. I have not noticed a huge difference between them, but prefer the 5692 overall.

Very interesting info on the mods. I had not seen that page before, but had read some discussions there about modding the MP-D1 DAC, which I may get around to doing eventually.
I've gone back to the EL34 too. The longer I listened to the 7581A the less I liked them.
 
So far my favorites are Winged C EL34 & Gold Lion KT77, both with WE 717A's in driver/preamp

Was reading the KT-77 was a great medium between EL34 and KT88.. i.e. you keep some of the mid magic, and gain more punch and extension than EL34.

But since my MP301 is fully modded, YMMV.
 
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I've gone back to the EL34 too. The longer I listened to the 7581A the less I liked them.

The Tung-Sol EL34B is somewhat of a hybrid in sound. It has the bass extension and sparkle of the 6L6 and and the mids EL34 are known for. For this amp, I found it to be the perfect tube. The stock EL34 it shipped with were horrible.
I kind of liked the 7581A at first,until I noticed how much musical information was being totally sucked out by them. If I recall, I was comparing those and the EL34B with a copy of Purple Rain. There was a lot missing using those tubes. I also used Human League and OMD records. The 7581A really eliminated lots of synth parts on all of them. I was really amazed at how horrible it was, actually!
 
So far my favorites are Winged C EL34 & Gold Lion KT77, both with WE 717A's in driver/preamp

Was reading the KT-77 was a great medium between EL34 and KT88.. i.e. you keep some of the mid magic, and gain more punch and extension that EL34.

But since my MP301 is fully modded, YMMV.
What is "fully" in terms of modded?
 
What is "fully" in terms of modded?

1. Removed C6 and C6A
2. Replaced top two Filter Capacitors with Rubycon 470uF @ 450V
3. Replaced C8 and C8A with Panasonic 250v 150uf High ripple current caps.
4. Replaced coupling capacitors with .22 Mundorf supreme's
 
1. Removed C6 and C6A
2. Replaced top two Filter Capacitors with Rubycon 470uF @ 450V
3. Replaced C8 and C8A with Panasonic 250v 150uf High ripple current caps.
4. Replaced coupling capacitors with .22 Mundorf supreme's
Did you also disconnect your volume and selector?
Nice mods. I have been reading up on that since earlier today.
Thank you for the modding links and info you shared!
 
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