Thought I’d drop in and give a quick tube recommendation. I have some pricey glass in my Quicksilver at this point, but I believe it’s worth it. I’m still using my favorite Amperex long plate 12AX7s. The new addition is Tungsram welded plate foil O getter EL84s. What a pairing! Vocals are absolutely magical with this combo. Bass is punchy and textured. Highs are clear and refined. Soundstage is wide with excellent depth, and placement of voices and instruments in the mix are easily distinguishable.
My previous favorite EL84s, 1955 Mullard disc getters, were no slouch by any means. They share that magic in the mids with the Tungsrams, but overall the Tungsrams bring everything up to another level. Sorry to gush, but I am already looking to buy a backup pair of these Tungsrams so I won’t ever be without them.
I have found something special in my current setup. Here’s what it consists of at the moment:
Tidal > iFi Zen Stream > Audio Sensibility Statement Silver USB > Schiit Bifrost 2 (OG) > Audio Sensibility Statement SE Copper RCA > Quicksilver Headphone Amp (w/ Amperex long plate 12AX7s and Tungsram welded plate foil O getter EL84s) > ZMF 2K Copper headphone cable > Meze Elite
On the Headfi ZMF Pendant tube rolling thread, Wes, who seemed to try different tubes ever few days, also said that the Tungsram EL84 Welded Plates Foil O Getter was the best he’d ever heard on that amp.
He recently sold his Pendant, so there’s a chance that he might have a stash of them if you reach out to him. You might get a better price than ebay.
I bought one pair, but I think he had two pair he was selling. I wish I had bought both pairs from him, now that I’ve had a chance to hear them. Once he got his G73R driver tubes, he came to prefer the Funkwert over the Tungsram in his Pendent. In the end, I discovered we have different preferences in sound. He’s not a fan of the Amperex house sound, and my favorite 12AX7s by far are my long-plate Amperex.
I’ve also benefited from buying his cast-offs in the past. Like you, I’m a fan of the Amperex house sound, whereas he appears to aim for something more neutral.
So, i have installed an used and cheap Panamax MAX4300 as my power conditioner to try and take care of that hum, but no luck
Do you guys think it is because the Panamax is not good enough? Or a device such as this one should take care of the noise as long as it is coming from the power outlet?
do you have the ability to test a different location on a different circuit? I’m had hum issues with my powered monitors giving me a ground feedback loop. I took one monitor and plugged into into a different wall outlet on a separate circuit all together and it got rid of it. A similar thing happened with one of my speaker amps and my dac and was also resolved.
I’m no expert though so hopefully someone else can chime it.
I had to send my Quicksilver back to Mike last week for some repairs. One of the the welded plate Tungsram EL84s I recently got died unexpectedly and managed to take out the left channel of the amp in its final death throws.
I was totally bummed out by this because I had just bought these tubes, and they had quickly become my favorites in the Quicksilver. On top of losing a relatively expensive tube prematurely, I also had to mail a heavy tube amp across the country to be repaired. I wasn’t sure if it would be covered under warranty because it was the tube’s fault, and it wasn’t one the stock tubes supplied with the amp.
Long story short, Mike fixed the amp within two days of receiving it and mailed it back to me at no charge. I was only out the shipping cost of getting the amp to him. This was a big relief and major props to Mike for going above and beyond.
The amp got back to me today, and I’m already enjoying it again. I decided to roll in my GE gray oval plate 6BQ5s alongside my favorite 12AX7s, 1954 Amperex long plates. It’s a very impressive combo to say the least! My Meze Elite sounds amazing with this setup, so much so that I think I will be able to happily ignore ZMF November for the first time in a few years!
@ckhirnigs sorry about the bad luck with the tubes but great news on the amp repair and quick turnaround . That is excellent service!
I have a pair of the same Tungsgram tubes sitting around not being used if you want/desire spares. I was hoping to find 4 total but never managed so they sit unused.
Hey guys, sadly my Quicksilver is not doing great, it started distorting a lot, specially in the low end. This started after i spent about 1 week not using it, sounded like that when i turned it on and even after a few minutes.
Then i left it on for 1 hour and the problem was gone.
The other day i noticed the issue again and tried switching all tubes, no luck. Then i left it on for a couple of hours and also no luck.
Do you guys have any ideas about what can cause this? My OOR is connected to the same dac and it sounds fine, even using the SE interconnects.
I appreciare any tips so i can diagnose what is going on
No idea what might be causing that issue, but I would recommend emailing Mike at Quicksilver about it. I’m sure he would have an idea about what it could be. If you’re the original owner, any issue like that should be covered under warranty. I hope you don’t have to mail your amp in for repairs like I did, but worst case scenario you’d be without your amp for a week or so.
WTH! I found out what the issue is, its the Gungnir!!!
Please someone explain this behaviour to me. The Gungnir has 1 XLR and 2 SE outputs, i was using the XLR on the OOR and 1 SE on the Quicksilver then i recently added an integrated speaker amp in the second SE output out of the Gungnir and this happens.
I can, in real time, connect and disconnect those RCA cables from the second SE output and the problem comes and goes, it is like the Gungnir malfunction when using all of its outputs!
Is this something common or is my Gungnir defective?
It’s not uncommon, all the outputs are wired in parallel, some amps present difficult loads to the dac (and it can depend on whether the amp is on or off), if you have an amp that presents a difficult load it can cause issues on the other outputs, because they don’t have separate drivers.
Glad you got to the bottom of it! Three active outputs might just be too much for the Gungnir. You might want to only have one amp powered on at a time to see if that solves the issue.
That was already the case, only one amp on at the time but the issue was still there.
Apparently the problem is that the Gungnir has 2 SE outputs wired in series so one affects the other in weird ways. Having the OOR on XLR and the Quicksilver in SE is fine though.
An audio buddy of mine has his Gumby hooked up to a Folkvangr and Lyr+ at the same time, no problem. I have my Yggy connected to Valhalla 2 and Jot 2 from its SE outputs, and Burson Soloist GT XLR all at the same time, also no issues.
That’s a drag @luizgarcia, it really must be amp dependent…
. That is excellent service!