Have owned schiit modi for a few years. Works fine; no complaints
Schiit Fans ?
- Thread starter Frank Sol
- Start date
Gigantic
A big, big love
A pair of PSVane UK-6SN7 arrived today. I put them in the gain stage and shifted the GE Gray Plate 6SN7GTB to the buffer. A couple hours in, the soundstage is exquisite and very detailed. The highs seem slightly muted, so much so that I attenuated the mid and bass amps to emphasize the treble, but it still seems somewhat choked, although I’m splitting hairs here. I’m curious to hear how they open up as they break in over the next week or two. Socket savers are definitely the next acquisition.
My son and I played a little game of "Blind Testing" this morning... he changed tubes around keeping the Freya+ blocked from view with a box and the Loki Max EQ bypassed. I would listen to Dire Straights "Ride Across The River" on vinyl... I'd take notes, he'd switch tubes, play the song again, etc until we went through all the different tubes. Turns out it didn't make much difference which tubes were in the buffer side, and while none of these sounded "bad" (they were all pretty good) there was a preferred pecking order for the gain side (the Schiit LISST tube replacements are not counted as they were previously determined to sound like the non tube differential buffer mode) I ended up very surprised at the results... in order from Least preferred to Most preferred:
5. 1978'ish coin based 6SN7GTB -just kind of a bit flat ? (but they seemed to be the best ones to use in the buffer side)
4. 1963 Sylvania 6SN7GTB- nice mids & highs, not much bass
3. 1951 Sylvania 6SN7GT- sweet sound, a bit microphonic, mids a bit weak (the trumpet playing in the background was very very weak), good sound stage
2. 1955 Sylvania 6SN7WGT (231 military type) not microphonic, good bass, nice highs, mids better than the older GT's.
1. Surprise Winner: a quad of Nov and Dec 2022 production Tung-Sol 6SN7GTB- deep punchy bass, nice mids, airy highs and 3D sound stage- I hope they last a good long while!
I had guessed the winner would be the 6SN7WGTs and the Tong-Sol the worst- my guess was biased from reading too many opinions on the internet, likely from sellers of old NOS tubes...
5. 1978'ish coin based 6SN7GTB -just kind of a bit flat ? (but they seemed to be the best ones to use in the buffer side)
4. 1963 Sylvania 6SN7GTB- nice mids & highs, not much bass
3. 1951 Sylvania 6SN7GT- sweet sound, a bit microphonic, mids a bit weak (the trumpet playing in the background was very very weak), good sound stage
2. 1955 Sylvania 6SN7WGT (231 military type) not microphonic, good bass, nice highs, mids better than the older GT's.
1. Surprise Winner: a quad of Nov and Dec 2022 production Tung-Sol 6SN7GTB- deep punchy bass, nice mids, airy highs and 3D sound stage- I hope they last a good long while!
I had guessed the winner would be the 6SN7WGTs and the Tong-Sol the worst- my guess was biased from reading too many opinions on the internet, likely from sellers of old NOS tubes...
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Those PSVane UK-6SN7 sure are pretty - I've heard good things about them
Gigantic
A big, big love
So far they’re quite good. A few hours in and they’re opening up well. I understand that other tubes from Shugang are purportedly better yet, but these are a pretty good value.
So I finally found something that sounds BAD when using the tubes, and it was a big surprise: The SQ of my UHQR Steely Dan AJA album was plain awful-very high pitched and THIN, so I put the Freya+ into buffer mode and all was well again. This is very strange because all my vinyl has sounded better when using the tubes. It must have something to do with the way this album was recorded, but it definitely likes solid state playback.
Gigantic
A big, big love
That’s odd, I haven’t experienced that at all.
Yes, weird AF, since all my other vinyl sounds much better with the tubes on.
How are the PSVane UK-6SN7 working out for you ?
Gigantic
A big, big love
They’re quite nice.
Ah the "Horns of a Dilemma" are plaguing me... had some folks over for football on Sunday, the wife heard back that the women folk thought our living room looked like a "Man Cave" with all the stereo stuff in there (apparently the only thing they liked was the tubes sticking up out of the Freya+). So now my wife is not happy and wants the stereo compacted and put into a credenza we have that she can put the 65" TV on top of it. My big Parasound A21+ amps are 6" too long and 5/8 too wide to fit in this credenza (cabinet space is 17" deep x 17 1/2"wide, A21+ amp with speaker wire is over 22"long and 17 5/8 wide, and over 70 lbs).
I have decided to put one of the A21+'s in the office to power my Infinity RS4b speakers, the other one I will have to sell, along with the Parasound 2250V2 that is currently running the Infinity's... guess I'm going to also sell off the Parasound 2125 amp and 2100 pre amp that are just sitting in boxes, and maybe some of the old silver face tuners that are taking up closet space.
The spouse has approved purchase of two Schiit Tyr mono block amps as they will fit inside the credenza with room to spare so they won't overheat- I'm going to remove a 15"wide by 3.5" tall section the back side of the cabinet behind them and open the doors when they are playing (the Tyr is 16" wide and 13" deep).
I have read very good things about the Tyr and they'll have plenty of power to run my Monitor Audio Silver 500s, so I ordered two Tyr amps in silver, Schiit web site says 5-7 days to ship, so now the wait begins.
I have decided to put one of the A21+'s in the office to power my Infinity RS4b speakers, the other one I will have to sell, along with the Parasound 2250V2 that is currently running the Infinity's... guess I'm going to also sell off the Parasound 2125 amp and 2100 pre amp that are just sitting in boxes, and maybe some of the old silver face tuners that are taking up closet space.
The spouse has approved purchase of two Schiit Tyr mono block amps as they will fit inside the credenza with room to spare so they won't overheat- I'm going to remove a 15"wide by 3.5" tall section the back side of the cabinet behind them and open the doors when they are playing (the Tyr is 16" wide and 13" deep).
I have read very good things about the Tyr and they'll have plenty of power to run my Monitor Audio Silver 500s, so I ordered two Tyr amps in silver, Schiit web site says 5-7 days to ship, so now the wait begins.
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Those Tyr’s are some big boys @ 55 lb each. I bet they’ll sound great. Nice, very nice!
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Warp speed shipping: I ordered the Tyr amps Monday evening (before the wife could change her mind - again)... this morning at 11AM the door bell rang and the FedEx guy was there with two big heavy boxes I had to sign for... sure as Schiit it was the Tyr amps. Usually you get an email with tracking info etc, but I din't get any and so didn't know they were coming, especially so fast. Maybe they thought it would be a nice surprise ???
Anyway, the amps are sitting in the office awaiting new XLR cables and taller rubber feet (3/4", the stock 1/4" ones are going the way of the Dodo Bird), as well as getting the wife to clean out the credenza so I can move everything around.
Anyway, the amps are sitting in the office awaiting new XLR cables and taller rubber feet (3/4", the stock 1/4" ones are going the way of the Dodo Bird), as well as getting the wife to clean out the credenza so I can move everything around.
Just replaced mine after a few yrs. To many drops. Kind of nice they are only $18, that's consumable pricing!
The ridiculously tiny feet on the Tyr amps are only .250" tall, so short that I could not get my fingers under the very sharp heat sinks to lift the buggers. I replaced them with some .800" tall ones and now I can get a grip on the amps without cutting up my fingers (as I said, the heat sinks are very sharp).
I could not resist opening them up so see the goodies and found that the big screws on the tops of the transformer and choke are not tight... they have lock washers but they are loose, none were snugged down (on both amps). The bottom screws that hold the transformer/choke to the base of the cabinet were all tight as hell. I watched a video of the Tyrs being assembled and the screws in the ones in the video were also loose, so I guess they leave them that way to allow for expansion when hot... just seems weird to me...
I could not resist opening them up so see the goodies and found that the big screws on the tops of the transformer and choke are not tight... they have lock washers but they are loose, none were snugged down (on both amps). The bottom screws that hold the transformer/choke to the base of the cabinet were all tight as hell. I watched a video of the Tyrs being assembled and the screws in the ones in the video were also loose, so I guess they leave them that way to allow for expansion when hot... just seems weird to me...
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No, I set an email to Schiit asking them if this was intentional (as both of mine and the one in the video all had loose screws) or an oversight. I would think you would want the laminations held tightly together to prevent hum... we'll see what they say.
The response from Schiit is:
We don't tighten down the bolts all the way because in between the transformer and the transformer bracket we have sorbothane strips to absorb vibration. If we tighten the bolts all the way down it will crush the sorbo strips and it will not absorb vibration. So the bolts don't get tighten down all the way.
So all is good !
We don't tighten down the bolts all the way because in between the transformer and the transformer bracket we have sorbothane strips to absorb vibration. If we tighten the bolts all the way down it will crush the sorbo strips and it will not absorb vibration. So the bolts don't get tighten down all the way.
So all is good !