They do have som 60" but very little in the way of quality. At least sticking to 55" there’s quite the cost savings. It’s just that after measuring, after seeing where I sit in comparison to stepping up the additional 10" where we sit, shy of 7 feet from the screen it’s just too big.
The reason I’m even considering it is because 55" is not at grand especially when movie watching. 58" to 60" would be my sweet spot but it’s practically barren in that segment.
Tbh, I read M0N’s evaluation of the W2 and went for it. I had given up on listening to music on my phone and thought why not. I dont really have a notable pair of IEMs. Is it worth checking out?
I dont believe that you can have too big a tv in a given space. Rant just begining. 65" maxes out my stand, but i just as soon gone into the 70s. Your eyes always adjust.
I definitely am going to check out the tube mini later this year, interested in a second Utopia setup downstairs when I’m not next to my desk. Haven’t heard it yet.
My Panasonic plasma tv was 60"… those were the days. Now I’ve had a 55" OLED bought in 2017 or 2018 but my next one will absolutely be 77".
Hans is awesome, hard to listen to sometimes, he is a bit dry. His experiences are worthwhile to consider 
My dealer and Hans were ahead of their time in encouraging front end upgrades before they became popular.
I love watching Hans. He reminds me of my graduate advisor…
Hans “dry toast” Beekhuyzen has been all in on digital for a long while, he’s pretty much been the foundation for all my digital absorbed knowledge. Sometimes his phrasing is not the best but he does point to papers and sources on all of the lecture type videos he does now and then.
His health has really deteriorated over the years, hope he stays in good shape to enjoy and be able to continue to do and enjoy what he does.
Hey hazi
So now actually going for the tubes the g.e.c ran out of stock on the recommended page
Theres g.e.c 6080 on ebay for around 150usd to 250usd, the users have 99.7% reputation almost perfect. How trustworthy would it be for example this one is the cheapest for me but there are others
Then I found the mullard ecc82 also on ebay seems legit tube shop with 100% score
Also a raytheon 5814A is being sold for 60usd + ship on headfi, maybe could work to
Do you think these are legit tubes?
If I cant get those then maybe I can buy from these pages you listed, they both seem to have cheap alternatives to the combo suggested by hazi
Hazi in case you read this I like the classic BHC sound which is colored, warm and big. Having real good quality treble would be an excelent plus.
Budget is $300 for both tubes and shipping.
This is my first tube rolling and I feel very lost honestly as the prices on these vary a lot and some are becoming rare, dont know how much to spend nor where (website)
What country are you based in? Those eBay links are for UK sellers so I wanted to make sure you live in the UK. If you’re in the US, I can send you some eBay sellers that I’ve had good experience with.
I thought I read a post if yours saying that you didn’t mind lots of treble. If that’s true, I don’t think that Mullard will suit you. It will have wonderful mids and bass but you may find the treble rolled off. A Brimar (depending on year) is more likely to give a similar sound to a Mullard but with more extended treble. A Mazda will give you even more treble.
Im in mexico, I dont know why it defaulted to UK but im ok importing from there or anywhere really.
Thanks for the brimar and mazda recommendation, ill take them into account I do like my treble full and shiny
@MacDLaw I’ll send you some eBay sellers later but before I do that, I will say that with your budget, and with the rising prices of tubes, I would recommend that you buy a few cheap tubes from different manufacturers to see which flavor you like the best. Each manufacturer will sound different, so when someone recommends their favorite, it may be the best for them, but not necessarily the best for you. Once you’ve settled on a tube you like, then you can look for an upgraded version.
For instance, you might like a 1970s version of a particular tube. Then you can spend some money on a 1960s or 1950s version for a more refined sound. Otherwise you’re going to blow your budget on a couple of expensive tubes and may not like what you’ve bought.
This is excellent advice, Ive gone through a fair number of tubes in the past few years and expensive ones sit on the shelf just as commonly as the cheapest ones I have. My current tube complement is not my most expensive complement. Tubes are just as prone to hype as anything else, especially within the vintage/NOS supply.
I haven’t done as extensive tube rolling in the BHC as Hazi so I’d take his advice over mine as my experience is more limited. Also that was my first tube rolling experience so I was really a noob there (not that I’m much better now lol)
In terms of prices and places to get, they do vary quite a bit as you’re seeing and unless you’re chasing a specific date vintage, it might be good to get a cheaper variant to get a feel for the sound and then get a better version once you know what you like. I think that seems to be the general advice here.
I prefer to stick to Brent and Andy and avoid eBay unless I absolutely want something I can’t get from them just because I trust their testing and have bought from them several times. I’m sure there are good sellers on eBay as well who do testing, it’s just I’m not very familiar with that marketplace.
I may have to send this in installments because I’m going out in a few minutes.
As others have said, a safe option for buying tubes is Brent Jessee. He isn’t always the cheapest but you can rely on him, and he will also give you advice on which tubes to try.
I don’t think Vintage Tube Services, another company many of us use and love, is practical for you, because you have to phone him on a Friday, he doesn’t respond to email, and his website is shit. 
A good website to do some research is tubemaze. They also have an eBay store. They’re not always the cheapest, but you’re paying for dependability. They will also offer advice.
The other website I use is Tubemonger. They seem to specialize in Eastern European tubes. If you’re interested in trying a Telefunken but don’t want to spend Telefunken prices, then I’d recommend the Tesla ECC802S, which used the same tooling. Will it give you 100% of the magic of a Telefunken? No, but it’s a fraction of the price and still a damn good tube. Bear in mind that a lot of the Tubemonger tubes have never been used, and therefore need break in before they start sounding good. This was certainly the case with the Tesla, which I hated at first, as it had a very soft treble, but it really blossomed after several hours of break in.
I won’t have time to list all the eBay sellers that I’ve used (many of which were recommended to me by famous/notorious head-fi tube roller, Wes) so I’ll do that later, or tomorrow.
But here is one that I think is really good if you want to dabble in cheap but good quality US tubes: Spin4Cards. I think that many years ago, this guy got access to batches of hundreds/thousands of vintage tubes and he’s carefully matched them into pairs. And he hasn’t raised his prices over the years, so they’re dirt cheap. Look for anything marked as Platinum Plus and Platinum, which he has tightly matched.
I’ve liked the following 12au7 tubes that I’ve bought from him: RCA Clear Top (this is a classic tube that you can try at a low cost to see if you like it), Westinghouse black plate and Raytheon black plate.
Wow that was a ton of help
Really thanks to everyone, and Ill get the classics then to see which fits my taste, some tubes that were common not long ago are now expo…
Thanks, saved me a lot of trouble
Im amazed at tube vendors that refuse to offer advice or answer basic questions. They will make statements about attributes in the accompanying blurb about whatever tube they are selling but when you ask for clarification or something similar, that arises from their own published statements, they wont comment.
This is probably a loaded question that will be hard to answer, especially since it (maybe) largely ignores most of the common synergistic pairings people will usually buy, but I can’t really think of a better way to ask this. I’m considering finally escaping midfi hell and switching over to a single system, but I’m not 100% sure what to go for right now. I’ve made a list of headphones, amps, and DACs that I’m eyeing right now, though I do admit that not a lot of thought was put towards synergy yet as I sadly haven’t had the time to do that yet.
Headphones:
Amps:
DACs:
★ = more interested in (but I’m obviously interested in all of these, hence why some headphones aren’t here like the Meze Elite)
This is kind of just a mismatch of audio items I’m looking at as a potential purchase, so I guess the best question would be: what works here? Obviously there are some pairings like the SR-007a with the KGSSHV that necessitate getting both and some stuff I didn’t list that would only apply to specific headphones like the LCD-R (I wouldn’t use the Jotunheim A for it since I’ve already heard that it’s not up to par). So I’m operating under the assumption that, if I were to go with one of those, I’d ignore the other amps on the list outright.
Advice…
Forget synnergy as a starter, focus ALL and I do mean ALL of your to do list on writing a wish list of what you’d like this system to do, soup to nuts. What you prioritize sound wise, what you’re willing to stretch your budget to… and be willing to stretch because your outcome will be best if you stretch. Even if you have to purchase in stages and wait six months or so until the chain is complete.
Once you’ve got that sonic descriptor list, start to collect a list of components (Including cables) that will get your towards those characteristics you prioritized.
This is a fun endeavor and if you do it right, you’ll get to apply everything you’ve learned thus far on your journey and you’ll wind up with the best system you’ve ever heard and that system will belong to you. It’s a nice feeling, made nicer still when done right.
You’re not going to get it 100% right but you’ll be able to fine tune until you’re at a point where you’re entirely satisfied and be thankful for both the journey and the experience.
I think in your case, your best bet would be to start at the headphones. Try and see if you can narrow down further, basically decide what headphones you’re going to live with, and then figure out the chain behind them. You could go with a chain first approach if you ended up getting a good deal on something, and then let that decide what headphones you go with, but I think it’s better to start with whatever you feel most comfortable/confident in (as in do you feel like you have a better grasp and more experience with the headphones you are looking into vs source gear or vice versa)
Once you narrow things down (which I think you really already have headphone wise more than source wise imo) and start with one piece, you can build a chain around that with more info and more focus. You can decide how much you want to focus for wide range of compatibility/flexibility or more hone in on single/few headphone performance, and decide what aspects of the sound you really want to prioritize and what isn’t. Then it becomes a game of budget and what’s out there used (or new, but I’d suggest going used in most cases for better value). I do think at some point as mentioned you will need to really just jump in on something and see how it goes, although I’d make sure it’s an educated jump in and not a random one lol.
I would agree that setting some sort of budget is helpful, keeps you from going well overboard what you might actually want. I wouldn’t suggest going right for the very top of stuff (and that’s going to be a very very very expensive endeavor anyways lol), but I’d also suggest to try and make sure what you’re going with won’t seem like a marginal upgrade (although that’s hard to really know without seeing others experience, assuming you don’t have your own lol)
Yeah would agree. You likely don’t know 100% what you want, what to expect, and what’s even capable, so I wouldn’t worry about getting an absolutely perfect system right off the bat. You want a really good one, but doesn’t have to be perfect (not like something can really be technically perfect anyways lol, stop at pretty close enough). If you end up with a setup that doesn’t really seem to be giving you what you want, stop and reassess what you’re after, and try and further hone in on what you want based of the experience of that current less than ideal setup.