Audio Note UK Ongaku Kensei 211 valve Single Ended Triode balanced amplifier now up & running!

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Steve Hoffman, Jul 22, 2017.

  1. finn

    finn Forum Resident

    No problem having it sit there. Having other amps running and finding simpler systems to play is easier. The more expensive a system is the more it demands in time and setup and everything has to be perfect otherwise it can be very frustrating. A simpler system makes less demands, just flick a switch and life can continue. The Kensei has the ability to interrupt proceedings. I'm not renting it out either so just have to find more hours in the day.
     
  2. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    "After the Audio Note demo. the rest was noise."- Wes Philips

    That's about the size of it...
     
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  3. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    TUBE (valve) UPDATE:

    Just FYI, now that the Ongaku has fully bedded/broken in, I've gone back to the 211 tubes that were furnished with the unit, WWII era General Electric VT-4-C's, silkscreened with the Audio Note UK logo. They now sound wonderful, correct and quite 3D. They look neat as well. Love them old toobz.
     
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  4. finn

    finn Forum Resident

    Peter will be much happier now.....
     
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  5. Richard Austen

    Richard Austen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hong Kong
    To quote you

    Pictures!? :)
     
  6. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    I'll try this week..
     
  7. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    My big Copper Mama ONGAKU and her little baby JINRO. In the background, the mighty two-box AN UK M9 phono preamplifier, the AN DAC 4.1X Balanced and my vintage Shakti Stone over the power conditioner, as usual (with special gold leafing done especially for me by Mrs. Shakti herself).

    an one.jpg an 2.jpg
     
  8. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    It's now 2/19/18 and I just wanted to report that the Audio Note UK Ongaku is sounding sweeter than ever. Still using the tubes it came with, GE VT4C transmitting tubes from WWII. The lifelike sounds coming from this amplifier are truly a wonder to behold. Just a treat to listen to any music.

    This amplifier seems to find the good in every terrible recording and showcase that. And on wonderful recordings, well, you can imagine the glowing 3D performance. Everything old sounds new again. The music I play has a majesty and grace no matter if it is punk rock from 1977, big band from 1937, the Beatles from 1967 or some new rap group from Japan that I'm working on, the amp finds the good, finds the emotion, finds the soul of the music so anything and everything sounds fresh and exciting.

    A treat to work with, a treat to listen to for pleasure. Thanks again, Peter and Audio Note UK.

    symposium one.jpg
     
  9. Larry I

    Larry I Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
    Wow! That is a nice setup. I am a fan of Audio Note amplifiers. I own a Kageki and I've heard the Ongaku, Gaku-On and a Sogon amplifier; they all sound terrific. As Steve mentioned, these amps sound good with all recordings, even those that are poorly recorded sound good. I know there are purist that would insist that that means that the amplifiers are not "accurate," but, to me, accuracy means faithfulness to pleasure one derives from hearing music--some amps, deliver in that regard--and no objective measurements have been put forward to account for this.

    I have not heard the M9 phonostage. I have heard the M8, which sounded really good with the top of the line SUT and I've heard the M10 (not only crazy expensive, but also wildly impractical because of the number of big boxes). I had, at one time, considered the purchase of the M8 linestage, but, the lack of remote control was a big factor in not going that route. I am also envious of the wire in Steve's system. I have a 4-meter pair of Sogon interconnects running to my amps and 2-meter pair of Sogon speaker wire. I have only heard Sotto in a .5-meter run between a DAC and the linestage, but, an improvement over Sogon can be discerned. I am also a fan of the DAC4.1. I participated in a blind shootout between a DAC3, DAC4 and DAC5. There was a fairly significant improvement between the DAC3 and 4. The difference between the 4 and 5 was quite subtle, to me anyway, while the price jump was really large. I think that makes the DAC4 the sweet spot.

    About three weeks ago, I heard the CDT6 transport. Sort of bad news on that front. It sounded so amazingly smooth, coherent and lifelike. The bad news is that it is crazy expensive.
     
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  10. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    I agree about the DAC4, it's just right...
     
  11. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Yes, he is..
     
  12. Rob Hume

    Rob Hume Forum Resident

    Location:
    England.
    I have the same GE 211's and RCA 6V6's in my Tomei. The RCA's are just lovely and a lot better than the stock 6V6's that came with the amp!

    I also agree regarding the 4.1 Balanced. Tube rolling has reaped big rewards for me in DAC and Pre amp. For example a high quality ECC82 Mullard works really well in the DAC but I prefer an ECC82 Telefunken in the M6. I have a nice 1940's Ken Rad 6X5 in the DAC which prohibits the lid being fitted but again well worth it.

    My only disappointment is that Black Gate production ceased. I love the Black Gate sound! More vivid, open and better bass than Kassei's IMO. If they were available to me and if it didn't effect the voicing which has no doubt been synced to Kassei's I'd fit them just about everywhere!
     
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  13. finn

    finn Forum Resident

    One of the benefits of being in this game a long time Rob, I used to by direct from Takeda Machinery Company and I still have lots of Blackgates, non polars ,WKZ's, FK's, Standards and even the speaker caps. I now limit the use to my own equipment and still get a smile when ever they go into circuit. When Peter finally gets the graphite paper versions running through the machines at Rubycon, we are in for an interesting time.
     
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  14. Salectric

    Salectric Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    I agree wholeheartedly with Rob Hume and Finn about Blackgates. Towards the end of Blackgate manufacture, I stocked up on several extra WKZ caps and a number of FK and VK caps just for future project needs. During the years since then, I have used many of my stock but still have a good number left. I also have tried a number of caps that supposedly sound as good as or better than BG, but so far nothing comes close IMO. That includes AN Kaisei caps. To my ears they were a major disappointment. But like Finn I am hopeful that when Peter finally releases his ultimate cap it will be even better than BG.

    Peter really delivered with the AN Silver Tantalum resistors. They are truly superior sounding resistors and I have gradually switched over to them exclusively in all the critical spots of my electronics. I haven’t been pleased with any of the other AN non-magnetic resistors (I prefer the old 2-watt magnetic tantalum), but the silvers are terrific.
     
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  15. Sugar Man

    Sugar Man Forum Resident

    A bit of a rookie question, but why did Black Gates go out of production, when they seem universally acclaimed as the best sounding?
     
  16. Rob Hume

    Rob Hume Forum Resident

    Location:
    England.
    Saletric and Neil (Finn) well done getting stocked up. I have replaced a couple of Kassei's with BG's in my Tomei and it's night and day!. As Neil wrote roll on the Rubycon graphite paper versions!
     
  17. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    You don't like the United Electron 6V6GTY that came with the Ongaku? I thought they sounded much better than the pair of RCA clear tops that I stuck in there to check..

    Hard to find a matched pair of 60 year old tubes no matter how you look at it...

    A little info:


    The United Electronics Tube company was headquartered in Newark NJ, founded in 1934, and was one of the first six or seven original producers of transmitting power tubes. They became part of Ling Electronics in 1958, and may have 'farmed out' much of its tube production (and expanded the types made available) to many different manufacturers at that point.

    Their tubes are generally marked 'UNITED ELECTRON Made In U.S.A.

    It was most likely RCA who made this tube. It looks exactly like a gray-plate RCA.
     
  18. finn

    finn Forum Resident

    Takeda was a small company who commissioned Rubycon to manufacture Blackgates and due to the manufacturing process required, Rubycon were constantly applying pressure on Takeda to increase quantity in orders in order to increase efficiency and with the death of the owners wife and the fact that he was elderly himself, the decision to cease production was straightforward. Even though there were considerable offers to license the manufacture of the Blackgate products, Takeda choose to not take up that option. There was considerable notice given in order to buy up stock and given the current prices being asked on Ebay, those that did probably feel uncomfortable for either selling them quickly or really uncomfortable in still having them now and with what they have become valued at and what to do with them.
     
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  19. Rob Hume

    Rob Hume Forum Resident

    Location:
    England.
    I own a Tomei and the 6V6's that came with it are the Russian Sovetek's. The RCA smoked tops that I picked up sound much better.
     
  20. Larry I

    Larry I Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
    Yes, it is unfortunate that Blackgates went out of production. I liked them, but, they were not for everyone. For one thing, they took a longer time to come on song after the component was turned on than just about every other cap. I know a couple of people who thought that was a big enough issue to not use them in some of their builds. Also, like anything else, cap selection is a matter of tuning the sound so that a much cheaper and "inferior" cap might happen to sound better for a particular design. I heard an amp that had been "upgraded" by a commercial outfit that does such things by replacing parts with superior ones; this particular upgrade involved Blackgate caps and it sounded pretty bad.

    It is getting pretty crazy trying to acquire vintage caps. I am looking for crossover caps, but, the bidding on ebay for what I want keeps going way up. I need to bite the bullet and just pay the going rate.
     
  21. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Ah, sorry, I assumed they shipped always with the same brands of tubes. Guess not...
     
  22. Salectric

    Salectric Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    LarryI,

    At the risk of getting this thread off track, I can sympathize with the challenges of acquiring good vintage caps of the right value, but as you know the rewards are worth the effort. Just yesterday I rebuilt the crossovers in my backup speakers using the same type of vintage paper-in-oil caps that Vu used in my open baffle YL Acoustic speakers. The sound is much improved and should get even better as the old caps wake up.
     
  23. finn

    finn Forum Resident

    Got no idea who Neil is.
    Maybe you just have a crowded house?
     
  24. Rob Hume

    Rob Hume Forum Resident

    Location:
    England.
    Sorry Bryan!
     
  25. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Ongaku update. Still heaven on earth.
     
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