General Source Gear Help/Discussion Thread

[M.J]

Hmm a friend got an Aic10, and wants to order Pacific 5 (its 5 if you guys missed that upgrade).

The plan is to use 300B tubes and 274B rectifier because he likes those, and lampizator is mandatory because he loves rolling tubes to change the sound.

This will be exclusively for speakers not headphones.

Sonic goal is rich lush midrange and treble that is smooth extended refined but can sparkle (not bright not dark not harsh but must sparkle). And ofcourse good bass but that is covered with Aic and lampi in general.

Are these the right tubes for his sonic goals? Also pacific not poseidon because we assume pacific is more rich etc.

What worries me is @Polygonhell post about the impedance thing. It will be used balanced though.

@Polygonhell

It’s on the low side but not obnoxious, as I said it could be 242’s in my pacific.
Lampizator quoted me minimum input impedance of 20K Ohms with PX25’s they have like a 3rd of the plate resistance of the 242’s, so it’s quite possible 242’s are requiring higher.

I was also using SE on the pacific, which probably makes it worse, since you have in effect 2 tubes in parallel in balanced, and that basically 1/2’s the output impedance.

Yes I read something about part of the Horizon/Poseidon design is about better output impedance.

It’s more interesting that anything, as I said I’ve never heard such a dramatic mismatch. I’m glad I moved it to test on the TotalDAC now.

So need your help before I make him spend, because the order page is open lol.