Strictly for fans of Audio Note UK (all things Audio Note UK)

Stew congrats on your new Dac! I hope it gets better and better as it burns in.

 

What RCA plugs are you going to use?

You may find it helpful to use a sharp awl to unravel and separate the tightly braided shield and cotton insulation.

 

thanks for tip ... noted.

i ordered with Duelund plugs simply because i’m cheap and they happened to be on sale.

i should be able to get to it in a day or two.

 

I know this may be somewhat off topic, but it may be of interest to AN devotees, since AN was founded on a mixture of producing classic tube design with modern innovation in materials and implementation and aesthetic considerations that some might consider to be "art". There is a scientific sound journal that I have been reading for some time called the Leonardo Music Journal. The journal publishes articles that tend to examine the interfacing of new technologies with music and sound and how new artforms are being created and influenced. Some of the articles are over the top and a bit obtuse and hard to understand for the non "sound scientist", but none the less, have been enjoying the reading the material. The journal is published by the MIT press. All the articles they have published since 1999 are available to read for free starting this year. They have now moved from print to entirely pdf, and in doing so have opened up the entire catalog for no cost reading. The fact that they choose to share this body of work at no cost is very refreshing. This will not be everyone's cup of tea. But for those who enjoy points of view that border on the abstract, they may very well enjoy this.

| Leonardo/ISAST

 

I auditioned the PS Audio Dectet in one of my systems (which is quite revealing). There was an immediate lowering of the noise floor. Enough so I bought a second one for my office system.

 

OK, so I have experienced my first tube to slowly wear out, to the point that I got suspicious bc of a slowly worsening deterioration of the sound. I have tubes die a sudden death on me but not slowly wearing out. For a couple of weeks, I had felt the sound was getting less and less full and meaty. My tube log showed that only the Telefunken 0B2 in my DAC was past 5,000 h but the Tungsol 5687 in the analog stage was close at 4,700 h, as well as the Sylvania 7N7 tube in my Kit One amp. I don't know why but my intuition was to start by replacing the Tungsol. And that was the right decision, apparently. The meaty AN sound is back Especially the highs are back to their former glory. Maybe I should check the other tubes that are close to 5,000 h of use ...

BTW, I can see that I started using the Tungsol in late December 2018, so about 2 years and 3 months use.

 

That’s heavy usage. Do you leave your gear turned on all day?

 

No, I just listen a lot

 

You still listen less than me I'm like 8-10 hours a day!

 

Actually, come to think of it, the 2 years and 3 months include a total of 18 weeks of vacation away from home plus 7 weeks in a borrowed summerhouse in connection with the lockdown and working remotely. That adds to about 5,5 months with the system turned off, so I think I am actually approaching your 8-10 hours on most days. Which is also what a quick glance through my tube log indicates.

 

Thanks for the heads up. It looks right up my street!

 

My review of the Audionote Cobra is up at : Audionote Cobra

It is true to say I rather liked it. (British understatement).

 

Nice write-up on the Cobra. Thanks for posting the link.

 

Very admirable that you keep a detailed tube usage log. That is awesome! Just want to mention that I changed out my OB2's in my preamp with NOS a few months ago. The tubes I sourced from Belgrade. They are the RFT STR108/30 which is an OB2. They are date coded from 1962. I bought 4 tubes. RFT tubes were pretty highly regarded in the day and were often relabeled by Brimar, Siemens and even yes....Telefunken. So I thought I would give these a try. They lasted about 1 hour. Then the dreaded "thump...thump....thump...thump" started. So I isolated the bad OB2 and replaced it with one of the other tubes I had bought. This time they lasted for a day. Then the thumping started again. I guess my preamp hates these tubes. I replaced with JAN Sylvania date coded 1964 and they have been bomb proof since. Before the RFT tubes I had stock OB2's that came with the preamp in there from 10 years ago. They were working fine, just decided to change them based purely on age. This is where a tube log would have helped immensely! Beware of the RFT STR108/30 in M3/M5/M6/M8 preamps!

This is where I bought them. They were inexpensive.


OB2 RFT NOS NIB 0B2 stablilisator tube STV108/30 STR108/30 Made in Germany | eBay

 

Well done, that was a nice read and I appreciate that you used two different systems. I'm wondering what the stock EL34's are in the Cobra and if Gold Lion KT77's can be subbed in? I use a, non AN, EL34 amp and find the KT77 head and shoulders above any current production EL34's.

 

The 0B2 has a not insignificant effect on the sound from my DAC. I also have the JAN Sylvania, and I would say that the Telefunken is a quite a bit better. In fact, I think that the original Cifte was better than the Sylvania, although I could imagine the Sylvania could work if one is trying to tame the highs. I think the Telefunkens can still be had for little money.

I have also tried Mullard 0B2, which sound-wise I would rank 2nd after Tfk, but they are also known to fail early. Mine lasted 840 h. Meanwhile, the Telefunken has clocked 5,340 h and seems to be still going strong.

The tube log has become a habit. For some reason, I quite enjoy seeing the hours add up

 

Recorded by Academy Award-winning Damien Quintard Using an All Audio Note system





Getting closer to completing the entire audio chain - AN recorded all the way to speaker voice coil.

 

To any IQ3 cart users...

How close to the record is your cart body when playing? I had my cart setup by an AN dealer on my arm2 v2 on an older TT2 and just in recent days I was thinking the cart body is really close to the record, maybe 1mm... you barely see any space between. Perhaps it’s always been like this... I honestly don’t know. It still sounds great so I’m not that concerned (arm is also level with record to the naked eye). Has anyone had suspension go in their IQ3?

 

yep real close, 1-1.5mm look about right

 

I remember it being close as well. I had one with a TT2 and original Arm 1. If there is ever any doubt, check the tracking force. 1.75g if I remember correctly.

 

I did check when I first got it back from dealer and also some time later and tracking more or less dead on 2.0. I think they state anything between 1.75 and 2.5 if I remember correctly.

It plays really great but if I had to put money on it I would say the cart body is closer to vinyl surface than it was a few months ago. Just keep an eye on it I guess!

 

Yes been there and I think I posted here about this - it is VERY close where I can barely see any light between the cartridge and the LP. LOL. The reason I asked because with some new Lps I was hearing a "scraping sound" and thought it was the cartridge rubbing on the vinyl - but no it's just whatever gunk is on new vinyl. Peter does not recommend cleaning LP's in any kind of washer and that a good cartridge will play through it all. And since last May he's not wrong. The IQ3 seems to cut through and play anything. The scraping sound is heard between tracks.

I am somewhat interested to try the Kirmuss system because Warren Jarrett used it and liked it. It's not outrageously priced like some of these systems. I don't mind paying a bit more if it is actually good. The VPI 16.5 I have is one of my few audio regrets. Makes the discs look shiny - but not much else.

 

Thanks for the reply, makes me feel better about the situation. It’s funny what you perceive or see from day to day. But that’s the tricky bit of being human and listening to a music playback system everyday!

Regarding cleaning... I consider my 16.5 one of the best investments I ever did. Turned so many “decent looking but very crackly” bargain bin deals into sublime players. I did spend a year or so at first having mixed results and the tried l’art d son cleaning solution and that’s been superb ever since.

 

Hello Salectric,

Thanks to your advice, I am currently testing a Connex "The Natural One" between the Dac2.1x Sig and the OTO SE Sig. for ~ 40 hours.

You're talking about up to 400 hours of break-in for the Connex, is that correct?

For now, the Connex is far behind my Lexus, ISIS and AN-V.
That's why I'm asking if it takes a long time for the Connex to compare to the AN Interconnects?

Thank you.

 

Hello all,

Looking for advice. Recently acquired nice pair of Spe (17 strand, 3 meters long) speaker cables. They've changed my old pair of Spa (12 strand, 2 meters long). Question is would it be any benefit to use these in bi wiring mode like Spa for HF and Spe for LF? Or should I stick to Spe with Spx jumpers and wait for another pair of Spe to go bi-wiring mode? Cannot try the difference by myself because Spa connectors need to be changed from bananas to spades. Thank you.