Totally Tubular: The Tube Thread

EVO 300 was available at the U.K. distributor so it’s been ordered and I’ve paid for it, the Hana SL and an XLR cable. Just a wait of a week or so for it to make it over to the fella in the north so I can collect/he can have it delivered!

Exciting!!!!!
 
HiFi Guy said:
Congrats! Why do you need the XLR cable?
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The PS Audio preamp has a balanced out and the evo 300 power has a balanced in. I fancied giving it a go. Sweetening the deal with the cable and the cartridge pushed it over the line too, apparently the U.K. PL distributor isn’t the best so the margins for the stores is waiver thin. The extra sales helped make the trade in worthwhile for him.
 
Joe Mac said:
The PS Audio preamp has a balanced out and the evo 300 power has a balanced in. I fancied giving it a go. Sweetening the deal with the cable and the cartridge pushed it over the line too, apparently the U.K. PL distributor isn’t the best so the margins for the stores is waiver thin. The extra sales helped make the trade in worthwhile for him.
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I get it now. For some reason I thought you got the EVO 300 integrated.
 
displayname said:
That's a pretty great return on a trade in. You'd be lucky to get that on the used market I'd imagine.
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Yeah! It’s roughly what I was thinking of putting it on eBay for myself so was really happy to take it on trade in. It’s 50% of the RRP but I had bought an open box so it’s 60% of what I paid.

So happy to be on the PL train, it’s kinda where I always wanted to be. Also really happy now to have an amp that’s tube but also easy to use and look after as such lol.
 
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The only slight random annoyance is that apparently silver face plates are unicorns and they could only get the black! It’s a different colour to the rest of my gear but I suppose the quads were too. The steamer upgrade I’m looking for when I’m not skint (it’s thankfully around €300 so not quite so steep!) is black too so maybe the contrast will pop nicely?
 
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Joe Mac said:
The only slight random annoyance is that apparently silver face plates are unicorns and they could only get the black! It’s a different colour to the rest of my gear but I suppose the quads were too. The steamer upgrade I’m looking for when I’m not skint (it’s thankfully around €300 so not quite so steep!) again at is black too so maybe the contrast will pop nicely?
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I wouldn’t worry. Primaluna’s look rather smart in black or silver. Could be a Yamaha, and they just look—wrong—in black. In my opinion, at least.
 
ZiggsMBK said:
I wouldn’t worry. Primaluna’s look rather smart in black or silver. Could be a Yamaha, and they just look—wrong—in black. In my opinion, at least.
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Ah yeah it does look smart just messes with my “all things must match” mania a little. Plus I have general aversion to black gear, silver is much smarter to my eye.

Thats only minor though! The main thing is that I’m getting a PL into the system at long last!
 
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Joe Mac said:
Ah yeah it does look smart just messes with my “all things must match” mania a little. Plus I have general aversion to black gear, silver is much smarter to my eye.

Thats only minor though? The main thing is that I’m getting a PL into the system at long last!
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I can completely understand that mania. The Node 2’s purple-blueness irritated me no end for a bit when we first got it. In the end, though, I think it prepared me for the blazing copper faceplate on the Icon Audio phono stage. Didn’t bother me nearly so much. As you say, you probably won’t care much at all once you hear the PL in its full glory.
 
The joys of tubes sometimes turns to the sorrows of tubes...

I spent the past couple days rearranging the music room. Installed some additional shelves in the closet to host CDs, and moved nearly 800 records from the side wall to the back wall. This also includes rearranging all the art in the room, filling holes and painting over spackle, moving the system and speaker placement, etc.

So I finish all that today, and I had the house to myself for a few hours this evening so I'm excited to let it rip and test out the new arrangement. The amp was heating up, and once I had the house to myself I took a seat ready to hopefully hear a locked dead center vocal performance. Instead, I only hear the left channel. At first I was worried about a cable coming loose or something, but then I realized only 3 of my 4 power tubes were glowing. Rats! Of all the nights for a tube to die, it had to fall on this evening of high anticipation. Oh well, it'll all be worth it in the end. Just little lost time I guess.

Lesson learned: Keep a spare set of tubes in the house.

Any TV suggestions while I wait? :LOL:
 
Joe Mac said:
My PL is waiting for me at the dealers…

Can’t get up there till Thursday or Friday but would love to just sack of work and go tomorrow lol
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I feel that's an appropriate use of a personal day if you have the PTO.

New gear, new cars, spouse is off work mid week with no plans. Those are things I have no reservations taking a personal day for unless I'm low on PTO.
 
displayname said:
I feel that's an appropriate use of a personal day if you have the PTO.

New gear, new cars, spouse is off work mid week with no plans. Those are things I have no reservations taking a personal day for unless I'm low on PTO.
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Hahaha! I was off last week and have to go into the office today, stacked full of meetings tomorrow! Otherwise…

😂😂😂
 
AnthonyI said:
Understatement of the century, lol.

Gratz my friend it looks right at home :)
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Thanks! It’s an impressively built and handsome piece of kit!

I thought I was going to give myself a hernia carrying it across the car park! Thank god I have the lift, I might only live on the first floor but the thoughts of carrying that up even one flight of stairs is a thing of nightmares 😂
 
Hi all! Got my first two tube integrated amps during lockdown times. First I got a non-working Dynaco sac-35 for quite cheap as sort of a test to see if I enjoyed messing around with the insides as well as the sound. Got it working and really was having fun rolling tubes so I invested in a Fisher x-101c that also needed some love. The Dynaco is fun and sounds quite nice, but the Fisher is really something. I love this amp. Been listening for hours every day on it and really neglecting my solid state amps now haha.

I am sure this has been covered in this 33 page thread but are there any other tube rollers here? What 12ax7s have you tried and loved? El84s? 7591s?
 
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