Hi all   After pulling my hair out with my current amp (Sony TA-FA3ES) and coming to the conclusion that is is need for repair, I've decided to get myself a replacement. I live in regional SA so demoing with my speaker setup is not possible. I'm going to go down the pre-owned path and I have found a few amps that are in my budget and one that pushes it. My speakers are the Sonus Faber Concerto's. The amps that I am considering are:   Primare A30.1 integrated Rotel Michi RHB05 integrated Yamaha A-S2000 integrated Rotel RB-1552 MkII power (using my Eversolo A6 as preamp/source)   ..read more

Disclaimer, I don't work for Psvane nor do I have anything to do with the sales of their products: As a YouTuber, I was included in the pre-release review of this new line of tubes by Psvane and I'm super impressed with my initial testing of the EL34-AT tubes I was sent. Punchy, detailed and has a sound that reminds me of a KT120. They also sent me some KT88, 300B and 12AX7 tubes to review, which I haven't gotten to yet. This is the tentative price list, I suspect some of these prices might be for single tubes like the 6550? --------------- The models in the Horizon series and their pric ..read more

Hello,   I do not know if this is the appropriate section for this topic. (@admin, please move if not).   I have an incoming an Aragon  4004 Mk2 110vac.    I wonder if anyone here has a schematic or illustration on how to convert it to 220vac, if at all.   Thank you in advance ..read more

Hi all,   I am trying to convert my Accuphase P-4500 to 240VAC (its a Japanese Import being used on a TortTech 1000w Isolated Stepdown right now)...   ... if any of you good people have a Accuphase P-4500 you could do me a massive favour and just take the bottom cover off and take a quick pic of the wiring terminations for me PLEASE?   Example attached, cheers, Lee ..read more

The KT170s have been out for a while as the successor to the venerable KT150s, but early reports of poor reliability and spectacular failures had me wondering if and when the high end manufacturers would start adopting them. Audio Research have now confirmed in their Ref250SE successor, the Ref330M they will be using KT170s on social media.   ..read more

Hi guys, I have The Truth Preamp by Horn Shoppe. My main system (actually most of my stuff) is very tube heavy and the Truth preamp brings great clarity and detail without impacting the tubey presentation. I introduced it back into my main system recently after having tube preamps for some time and I loved it. Then after around a fortnight, it started making terrible sounds like a massive ground hum and other unpleasant sounds. I thought it was buggered-I tried earthing it (it has an earth terminal) and it didn't help. I reinstated a tube preamp into the system and no problem. I did some ..read more

Looking for some advice on what amp would best suit my new speakers. Serhan Swift mu2 special edition?  I also own a pair of Wilson Benesch square one v2 stand mounts.  I am currently using a Roksan Blak with a Holo spring dac and they sound pretty good ( both speakers) just not sure how much I would be better served in upgrading my amp?   From a budget perspective I could go up to $10k.  My initial thinking was a Hegel H390 but I don’t want to waste my money replacing the Roksan for very minimal gain… Appreciate any advice anyone may have especially owners of mu2 speakers ..read more

Hi there, after digging a bit into the dedicated R8 thread I thought it´s worth starting one about the R-800i. People have a lot of fun with the R8 and talk about mods, improvements, tube rolling and other things and since I do have a lot of fun with the R-800i I´d be happy to start a similar exchange.   I bought the R-800i about half a year ago, it´s my first tube amp and I´m very happy with it. My setup is quite straightforward, I´m listening to CDs almost exclusively (an old Rotel), other input comes from a cheap Bluetooth receiver and from our projector (no TV here. It´s a tangent rea ..read more

Would love to hear people’s experience and thoughts on Conrad Johnson gear. I have recently purchased a premier 17ls line stage preamp. Haven’t received it yet but I’m hoping it works well with my setup ..read more

I recently bought a Perreaux SA3 preamp to use with a lovely sounding pair of old Trimax EL34 power amps in a second system. I have heard modified SM2 and SM3 preamps sounding excellent so took a punt on the SA 3. Does anybody know what the differences are between these preamps?   The Perreaux preamps seem to have a very good reputation for their phono stages.The MM stage does seem to sound very good but I can't seem to get the MC input to work.I just get some humming/distortion. It sounds pretty good on other inputs too.Not in my Supratek league but still very competent and listenable an ..read more