I emailed him. Let him know the Elrog smoked and was faulty but the amp works, sounds good and other recs work fine.
I asked if I should peak inside to check or if he thinks it’s ok I’ll leave it be.
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That makes sense.
Yeah I’m kinda the same way. My OCD makes me want to ensure it’s right.
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Easy fix, removed the old glue and residue. Hot glued a fresh gob, all was good again 
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So if we bring this back actual listening impressions, the HD650 is freaking amazing off this with the current tubes atm (stock input, Linlai 2A3s, and GEC U52 rec).
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Donald got back to me. He thinks the amp is fine.
He recommended the Tube Amp Doctor 5U4G. Never heard of it.
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Interesting, they’re a German brand, probably manufactured in China, but I don’t think they say.
Prices are cheap to try.
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A lot of folks on SBAF have been talking about it, it’s an affordable tube.
Word on the street is they are rebranded Psvane
Well yeah. Obviously it’s amazing 
, it’s a solid easy going headphone and 300 ohm dynamic driver. Have yet to hear one with those specs which didn’t, even the HD800 with SDR mod was nice (though not my preferred headphone sonic signature).
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It was really good with the V3 and V4 but I hadn’t tried it off this one yet.
Some don’t like the verite off this and it’s 300ohm.
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That was my first ZMF+DNA experience. I immediately ordered an amp, that headphone became old hat and lost its shiny new status about as quick as any of the newer released ZMF cans have lost their buzz. It happens when the buyers want new despite “old” not being that old sounds just as good.
When everyone jumped onto the next FOTM from ZMF and sold their Verite, I kept mine. It’s a moot point, just like FOTM amps such as the Bliss, Oor, etc, there will always be something shiny and new to lust after…
Also those that didn’t like it off the DNA, guaranteed the didn’t use the 120 ohm tap and used 8 ohm tap. Huge difference, and required a boost in volume to appreciate it as it sounded less energetic when all it was is the dampening factor.
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Hello,
does anyone know the current cost of the Stellaris and Strauss?
Would run it with Zmf headphones,Auter,Atrium later still Verite.
On the picture I see older Jupiter caps where he uses there.
About the 5u4g,Tad somehow buys them up or has them made to their requirements and branding.
Who actually makes them I suspect Shuang, as the 6SN7 is also from them and it is the cheapest version Shuang offers.
It’s a tube that sounds terrible.
Brimar also buys the tube and puts the Brimar branding on it.
Ultimately, the 5u4g doesn’t have to be bad or terrible.
Apparently there are also good Tad versions.
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It’s best to email Donald directly for pricing, djnorth@earthlink.net
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I was always curious about the pairing with Atrium. It was one of my favorite ZMFs and I’ve heard some great things about it with Stellaris. Donald was pretty curious about that pairing as well.
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With the Stratus V3 the VC sounded nice but I preferred other ZMFs. My favorite headphone pairing with the Stratus ended up being the ZMF Atticus followed by the Atrium and Utopia.
I have an extra Atticus that my friend is using but could arrange to send it over if you want to see how it does on that new Stellaris of yours.
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Yeah when I had the V4, I also had the VC still and it really didn’t blow me away. I felt the VC was just as good on something more affordable.
I didn’t try any other ZMFs off a DNA but that impression left me thinking maybe they’re not a great match. Maybe it was just the Verite.
I appreciate the offer! I’m ok right now. I’m a bit overwhelmed with what I have. Only one head and set of ears and not enough time to listen lol.
I may come back around and give a zmf another shot down the road but need to figure out what I want to definitely keep.
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I believe they take new production tubes they like, pick the choice ones out of the batch then put the TAD label on them. At least that is what they were doing when i was into guitar stuff.
I’ve been really enjoying the Stratus I bought from @MokhaMark earlier this year. He kindly sent a bunch of tubes with the amp and for the most part I’ve used the psvane acme 274b, psvane acme 2A3, and then for the input tube I tried a bunch of random ones including some with an adapter like the 7062 and 6158 that was included but settled on an RCA 6BQ7A for being a nice balance of sound and low noise. I have a RCA 5U4G back from when I demoed my friends Stratus last year and still need to try that more in this stratus but is currently used in the Apex Teton amp, another tube amp I picked up this year.
Recently I’ve been using it most with the ETA O2, Auribus Acoustics Sierra, Final D8KPLE, and Modhouse Tungsten. I had tried the tungsten before and was not a big fan of the pairing but that was with stock tubes apart from the rectifier. On this Stratus and with different tubes it’s a more enjoyable experience. I have been feeding the Stratus with the Schiit Kara in active mode as it seems to fill in the low end a bit more vs just going straight to my dac. I still need to try with serene but haven’t bothered with that yet. The main reason for using the Kara was that it has two single ended outputs so I can connect two single ended amps to my dac, usually Stratus and MZ3 or Stratus and Teton. It was a happy accident that it helped improve the low end with Tungsten and gave a bit more headroom too.
Just the other day I got in some Takatsuki 2A3 tubes to try with this since I’ve always been curious about them. Couldn’t get much of a discount from any dealers but was able to save a bit. I still haven’t tried any NOS 2A3s but I will get around to that at some point. The Takatsuki only have about 10 hours on them so still a lot of burn in to go. I’m curious to see how they’ll compare to the acme 2A3 and also the psvane WE275 that I had been using for a little while.
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I have just over 100 hours on the Tak 2A3s so just did a comparison between those and the Psvane ACME 2A3 globes I had been using before getting the Takatsuki tubes.
I took some notes listening to the Takatsukis first. Then left the Psvanes in for about a day and took some notes using those before swapping back to the Takatsuki tubes. Generally I find the Takatsukis to be a step up over the Psvanes but the Psvanes have a bit more impact to the start of the notes. There was also a couple tracks where it sounded like the Psvanes sounded a bit more dense or notes had more weight but the difference was subtle.
The Takatsukis really excel at low level detail, size of stage, separation, and smoothness. Whenever I swapped to these the size of the instruments and vocals felt much larger. They had more space around them and were clearer too. Going back to the Psvanes and the soundstage is smaller, separation is still fine but it’s not quite to the level of the Takatsukis. They sound a bit punchier but I really miss out on the clarity of the Takatsukis.
So I’ll be sticking with the Takatsukis for now and will probably try some more rectifiers next.
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