As a BHC+SB owner I will say it has satisfying bass quantity for me, but the bass (and really the amp in genral) is more bloomy than hard, square, and clean punching.
I will say some tube swaps can be fun and tighten things up but I dont think the amp will ever be super tight. I have really liked the Telefunken ECC82/12AU7 & Tungsol 6AS7G pairing as it leans into a full sounding tube feel. I actually really like the Telefunken with most power tube pairings, but I found Tungsol JTL-6189 to be a bit more Solid state/straight/clean & tight. I would think that matched with a * Tungsol 6080 may get a cleaner tighter feel. TBH I have not heard the Tungsol 6080, but my BHC came with a strong JAN (maybe philips, idk as the ink came off) tube and that and the jtl-6189 WAS cleaner. I know mullards are sought after, but I havent heard much about their bass, but i want it for an HD6xx pairing to explode my ears with mids.
I dont know if your BHC has upgrades (caps etc.) but that can be more of a nudge, but very slight most likely. I have jensens but i have not compared to stock or any other caps.
But I do think once you roll hard or put in upgrades it is worth considering that money value vs upgrading to something such as the Quicksilver.
There is also that amp ZMF and Decware are collaborating on, but I do not know the price range and expect that to be $2k+
I got my first tube amps after having used my VC on a budget solid state amp for a while, the JDS Labs EL Amp II. I acquired an SW51+ and Quicksilver within a couple of weeks of each other. I immediately preferred both tubes amps to the JDS with the VC.
After quite a bit of tube-rolling on both amps, I consistently found the Quicksilver to outclass the SW51+ with the VC. That being said, both are a great pairing. I just found more overall resolution and authority with the Quicksilver.
After getting an Auteur, I found I also preferred the Quicksilver over the SW51+ with that headphone. I think if you can make it work for your budget, the Quicksilver is a great option. Iâve never used a higher-priced tube amp, but I have not felt the urge to upgrade since getting the Quicksilver.
Iâll be very curious to see how the ZMF/Decware OTL amp collaboration turns out. That might be the only amp that tempts me to spend more money any time soon.
I never had the bottlehead crack. It was the Tuba that I thought was too soft, lack of impact was noticeable at times, and more so when compared to the pendant which doesnât have that problem at all.
Ok ok, you guys won! LOL, I have just pulled the trigger on a second hand Quicksilver with 50 hours of use for $920 US. Apparently a brand new would take several weeks.
I really appreciate all the help, thank you very much! I didnt even knew the Quicksilver existed before you guys mentioned it!
My recommendation is to spend some time with the stock tubes for a while before starting to roll tubes. That way you will have a good baseline to start from and compare against as you eventually try different tube combos. The stock setup sounds really great, so I say stick with it as you get used to the amp.
I actually believe with the proper tubes, the softness of the BHC can be rectified. The problem is, you will be spending a lot of money on the right tubes to do so (Bendix 6080WB and Matsushita 12AU7 is a good example).
The Bendix are astronomical in price but the Matsushita can be had for not cray money and I can vouch for that one. Iâm using it in conjunction with an RCA JAN 6AS7G.
Im actually listening to my HD650 on my BHC right now with my Bendix 6080WB and Tung Sol JTL-6189/12AU7WA. I was lucky that I only paid $150 for my Bendix.
For anyone that cares, I asked Steve Deckert the owner of Decware, on the Decware forums about the collaboration w/ ZMF. He was not going to say anything but since the rumors are out and i think Zach of ZMF may have mentioned it, i am attaching Mr. Deckerts personal response.
â-> âI have designed a full out assault CSP3 style headphone amp / line stage for ZMF. We begin production of it this summer. I have hired a contractor to build this so that ZMF sales have no effect on Decware productivity. Nothing has been said because itâs not my place to speak about it, but if word is out than I guess itâs no problem.
I decided to do this reference piece for Zach rather than Decware because his clientele are much more focused on a high dollar headphone experience and I think we would sell a lot more that way. A CSP3 with full anniversary mods comes close but this is noticeably better and it should be, the whole thing is super tedious to build and is using way over the top parts. Parts so different the chassis had to be designed from scratch to accommodate them. If you live in your headphones and want a reference OTL headphone amplifier / line stage I seriously doubt youâll find anything that sounds even close for the money.
Thatâs all Iâm going to say about it. Youâll have to wait until it is released from ZMF to learn more.
Zach did let the cat out of the bag on Headfi in the Pendant thread, when someone asked why he wasnât selling the Pendant any more. Sounds like he didnât let Steve know.
Iâve never heard an OTL before. Is this strictly for high impedance headphones, and not for my Focal Stellia or RAD-0?
Also, I hope the new amp only had one volume knob.
@PaisleyUnderground , The OTL style amplifiers tend to work best on dynamic driver HPâs in my experience. The difference in HP sensitivity and impedance can affect the sound floor depending on tubes used and gain levels. That has been my experience directly with an older model CSP2 amplifier i owned. In order to minimize the sound floor of the amp i would be selective in my tube swaps and ride the gain adjustment rather than the amplifier volume to get all amplifier noise/hiss/hum etc that may have been present, out or minimized.
I donât use my HPâs much and cannot honestly remember what my favorite combinations were, sorry.
Well, Iâm curious to see whether the Decware will keep up with the Euforia.
Sounds interesting in any case.
I hope that there wonât be any problems with the sound floor like there were with the Pentant.
I imagine that would be quite annoying.
There are now quite good tube amplifiers that donât have any problems working properly with the Zmf headphones.
I hope that Decware has put value on a decent tube design where tubes are concerned.
That would be important to me in any case that this is fulfilled.
Because otherwise I can personally stay with the Euforia, which would amount to the same thing.
