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wiggan1989 OP t1_j2dmxvk wrote

Posted a week back about this tube amp. I was quite impressed with it since it only cost me £50. After doing research however, the general consensus is that this will be an improvement when fully balanced, therefore I bought a XlR to 4.4mm adapters for my headphone cable and and a dual XLR to 4.4mm male lead to connect to my IFi Zen DAC signature.

I agree that it does sound better. I noticed quite a difference at the low end, the bass seems punchier and the and the highs don't sound as piercing. The timbre has changed too, just sounds different.

I am using Jan 5670 tubes that came with it (The stock tubes are boxed away. All in all the total cost was around £80. Not bad indeed. Apparently the tubes need to burn in? Or is that a myth?

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PutPineappleOnPizza t1_j2dvhdy wrote

>Apparently the tubes need to burn in? Or is that a myth?

In my experience this is only the case if your tubes are humming. Sometimes new tubes hum out of the box and after 24-48 hours of simply leaving your amp on (in my case without the power tube) the hum can disappear. On some tubes I was able to get rid of the humming completely, but with some others it didn't work.

Some manufacturers say that their tubes sound best after 100-200 hours of use, but honestly, just enjoy, lean back and if there's change then see it as a nice bonus. I wouldn't leave the amp running because tubes don't work forever and can become microphonic and whatnot. My Tung-Sol 6SN7GTB I bought used started whistling like a tea kettle after a while, as an example.

Btw in my experience I haven't noticed a tube changing in sound yet and I've tried a few.

Edit: getting rid of stock tubes is almost always a good plan though.

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No_Analysis6187 t1_j2e2a4n wrote

Usually burn in already happens when manufacturer do their qc test, but they do need to warm up first before being used. I usually leave the tubes warming up for 10 minutes before using them.

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wiggan1989 OP t1_j2e2ncn wrote

Ah I see. I start playing the music straight away. I'll do that for next time, thanks.

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PH-GH95610 t1_j2ef65g wrote

In my experience, it depends on tube. Some of them play perfect after 15-20 hours burn in but some tubes need much more. And during the listening session after they are burn in, I use to heat them for 15-20 minutes without signal and then another 10-15 minutes with signal and after this time they reach their best sound. I use Voskhod tubes - amazing sound sonically and really big sound stage.

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