Absolutely. I would suggest leaving all the stock tubes in until they fully burn in. It shouldn't be difficult, since they sound so good as they are. If I were doing it over, I would have tried to be more patient before starting the rolling. I love the way it sounds now, and I don't want to go back, but it would be useful for me to fully understand how it sounds stock, completely burned in. That said, it is important to know just how personally tailored you can make the sound by rolling the tubes and trying different options.
I highly recommend the Psvane WE845. This was not a subtle change. It took my 518 to another level. My line Magnetic needed about 200 hours to burn in and another 100 hours or so once I installed the WE845. Boy did it go through some nasty sounding phases until it was broken in (still improving daily).I was almost discouraged and doubted my purchase but my dealer told me to stick it out and let it burn in. My patience was rewarded. This amplifier is truly magical. I am hoping to order a set of O/93s in the next few months. I hope you guys are enjoying this amplifier as much as I am. I would only ever sell to go Shindo or LM219. And yes, I too am guilty of tube rolling all of the tubes aside from the 845s out of the box. Currently running telefunken and Mullards.
Thanks for the report! Is there any consensus on 12ax7's? Nothing super NOS-y expensive? How are the Gold Lions?
The Gold Lions are pretty nice. I've also been somewhat surprised with how good the new production Mullards and Tung-Sols sound in it as well. I have the Tung-Sols in my demo unit now (and they are CHEAP!!!).
B/t those 3 options, I would likely go with the Gold Lions. But if you want a cheap, fun experiment, try both the Mullards and the Tungs.
I figured I'd give my 518 atleast 300 hours before I started with critical listening judgements. Out of the box, the sound is impressive but a bit forward. I imagine the next 300 hours will offer some sonic bliss and sonic ear bleed, maybe all in the same listening session. Burning in my old ARC Ref 5SE taught me to be patient with the process.
I agree with you regarding how much everything improves the more hours you put on them. My previous tube amps have been vintage (McIntosh MC240 and Fisher 500B) so I have never experienced this before. It's pretty great.
This amp definitely has a long warm up period even after its broken in. After an hour or so, it really blooms
I think it sounds pretty good after about 20 minutes. It is far better in this regard than my MC240 was. That amp did take about an hour of warm-up before it bloomed.
Hi Ian, I have had the LM518ia and LM 502ca for a while now. I am currently running the WE845's (huge improvement) with Gold Lion reissue KT66 (Good but may change them), Mullard square getter long plate 12ax7 (good tone) and the Pasvane 274B 1:! Replica for rectifier duties (very good tone but 100 hours of burn in! was using a Mullard metal base GZ34 5AR4 - also very good) in the 518ia. I have changed the power supply choke to a Parmeko neptune, replaced the .33 coupling caps to some Mundorf silver gold oils and replaced the input resistors on the line in to shinko's (all a really good improvement). In the dac I have put another Parmeko neptune Choke in place of the small one, Im using an old GEC rectifier and some NOS mallards in the output and changes the output caps to Mundork silver gold oils. All vast changes to stock. Cheers Greg
Oh one last thing, the opamps in the LM DAC are always in the signal path irrespective of choosing valve out or not so therefore I have replaced all three with Burson discreet modules which improved things again.
While your amp is undoubtely great, I wonder why people get LM DAC's. Anyone compared LM dac with schiit, Chord, IFI, Yulong, Emotiva, ect
Maybe off-topic but what tube phono preamp's do you like to pair with the line magnetic integrated amps?
I've had great results with both the Manley Chinook and the Rogue Ares. I'm adding Leben to my lineup and REALLY looking forward to trying out the RS30EQ once my first demo units arrive.
cool, thanks. would be really great if they offered a Gold series phono pre. not a big deal, but 3 matching boxes would be great. other biggest downside with that right now is no way to run a headphone amp. My Schiit Vali and HD600's have been gathering dust for the last few months.
Yeah, all those multiple features are something I gave up when I went from the McIntosh integrated to the Line Magnetic. But in reality, I used an external phono preamp anyway (I need MC) and the headphone amp, while probably fine for the small amount of headphone listening I do (also with HD600's), was nothing special sonically either. What the Line Magnetic DOES do, which is drive line level signals to my loudspeakers, it does much better than the McIntosh integrated did. I do sense that my phono preamp (actually my whole analog front end) is now the weak link in my system. It will be a while, but I will probably start addressing that by looking for a tube phono preamp. I have had my eye on the EAR for a long time. The Manley Chinook looks interesting as well.
My RS30EQ is heaven paired with my LM211ia. If a person raised an eyebrow at me for owning a phono stage that cost more then my amp, I'd just shrug and tell them its not my fault Line Magnetic doesn't charge enough.
My only real DAC reference is the Rega. As far as why people choose the Line Magnetic DAC, I assume it is for the same reason they choose any DAC: Sound, features and price/value. The Line Magnetic DAC seems to be one of very few current choices for people who are looking for the sound of tubes in their digital playback. I can say, for me, it has been a revelation for listening to digital. Especially with NOS Mullards in there. The digital glare that is sometimes a small and sometimes a large factor with digital files is either gone, or diminished to such a degree that even the worst offenders become listenable. The other thing this DAC is doing is letting me hear a wonderful, full bass foundation on every album and that goes a long way towards balancing out bright CD masterings. I am enjoying my large CD library of both mediocre and audiophile masterings more now than I ever have. I'm sure there are other DACs that can do that too, but I'm guessing they are not made by Emotive or IFI, who I guess I consider to be entry-level manufacturers (Never heard of Yulong). I've obviously read great things about Chord and multibit Schiit DACs, but I doubt the sound of these is similar to the Line Magnetic DAC, which matches well with my preferences.
The Line Magentic is a DAC for people who prefer turntables to DACs. This has been said of many DACs before, but I think this is really the only time its applied.
I'm in the same boat. I'll be interested to hear where you end up. I'm leaning towards the Leben that @GoldprintAudio and @Rolltide mentioned, but it's going to be awhile for me too (first child on the way in a couple of months). Probably the Leben and Auditorium 23 Denon SUT.
Congratulations!! I'm also interested in that Auditorium 23 Denon SUT. I like the idea of moving to a more affordable cartridge, I'm not gonna lie! Cartridges just wear out too quickly for me to put serious money into them. Plus, I have heard the Denon 103 on my table before, with a SUT, and I thought it sounded wonderful.
