Whoa, dude, congrats!
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Also got curious yesterday and and got Gustard to give me a good deal on the new R30 so I guess I’ll see how that goes. Yesterday got expensive quick.
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The mullard 6080 has the exact same plates and base than my mullard cv2984 but the parts on the top are different, and this one has 2 halo getters instead of 1 square one.
The 12au7 are 100% matsushita, just rca branded
Monoprice wouldnt ship to my PO Box so I got these Cardas Parsec sent the very same day for only $200 sweet deal IMO.
I hear a difference, subtle, I dont know how to put it yet, I need more time with them, one in the same outlet as my conditioner and the other on the speaker amp and dac bank of the conditioner.
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@MacDLaw I have NO complaints with any of my Cardas products. They can get a bit pricey but the quality of build and material are always top notch.
I have 8 of those ifi plug thingies all over the place on every system and outlet I could manage to get them on. At least 2 or maybe 3 years going and no issues. Can I hear anything? No not really but I think the product is viable and well made. Congratulations on the haul. 
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What they do is actually easier to hear when you remove them after having them in for a few weeks. It’s subtle but noticeable. After moving to the Shunyata conditioners that have component to component isolation (CCI) on their web site, they had no impact but on my Richard Gray they did.
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Due to the layout of my plugs I try and keep them on DAC’s or streamers. Like I mentioned, I like the product I’m just personally so past the point of figuring out what each thingy does, as long as I don’t hear anything negative i tend to leave many things alone nowadays.
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The cables are noticeably easily worth the $200 on construction alone, plus they are $600 new
I can hear the 2 ifi AC puris, its subtle but I can absolutely hear them, i have extremely good ear for cleanliness and noises, and its definitely a tad cleaner
Also the ifi AC are having some effect on the Sub SVS SB2000 even though theyre not directly connected, its somehow a bit cleaner as well but extremely subtle.
I dont consider this a haul, its all the leftover money I had and I did need cables, the rest I thought were sweet accesories since I didnt have enough for a dap or headphones.
I want to recover to get to work again but sadly itll take months, until then this was my last purchase although I could get a something like a cable here or there eventually if its not over $300
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Holy cow, this amp sounds insanely good on my Platimon system lol. It’s only been a day, but I think it’s sounds cleaner, more hi res sounding, than the ultra 2.0 which kinda blows my mind because it’s always really hard to imagine what the next level sounds like.
Idk if this count since it’s not purchase to post this. I got the Starkrimson 25 amp on loan on a tour in another forum website. I guess I am an Orchard Audio fan because every amp, either its headphone amp or speaker amp, just sounds really clean even compare to anything I have or tested. It’s a little frustrating I bought the ultra 2.0 last year and this amp came out the year after and is $500 cheaper and sounds cleaner and more detailed. I’m hoping the ultra 2.0 I have will get an upgrade path sometime in the future on whatever he did on the 25 mono amp to out into the ultra 2.0 chassis. I will probably do a A/B comparison to my ultra 2.0 on the weekend to make sure if it is better.
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Rebuilding my headphone system after selling it all to get into IEMs and then deciding that IEMs just don’t do it for me…
Thanks to @elementze, I gotten a good DAC that should pair well with the downstream components.
It’s irritating starting from scratch again with headphones but it has given me a chance to pick a headphone and then work backwards to build a chain around it. Previously, I was so unfocused in my approach. Scatter shot, buying multiple amps and DACs sometimes weekly! Part of that was that I didn’t know what I liked in terms of tonal balance as I was primarily focussing on staging and dynamics. My foray into IEMs [with that end of the hobby’s focus on graphs] at least helped me lock down my tuning preferences.
I’ve decided to get all my cables up to the same standard, or close to it, so I picked up a few decent used power cables on eBay this week, too. With a few digital and analogue cables to arrive soon.
I’ve got a few DDCs on the way because the AliX sale at the start of the week meant that buying and testing all three that I wanted was a no brainer.
The Ares II is just about warmed up now so it’s time for my first listen. Looking forward plateauing quickly so I get stop listening to gear and start listening to music.
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Easier the second time around with the experience gained and knowing exactly what you’re shooting for.
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Curious about your opinions on the Cayin HA-3A vs. the V590 and DSHA-3FN! I almost bought the Cayin HA-2A instead of the V550.
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Still much too soon to say, amp and tubes need time to burn in. Also, stock tubes are JJ both for the 12AU7 and 6V6GT power tubes, so kind of meh? Not sure how JJ compares to other new production basic tubes.
It definitely sounded pretty rough and ragged at first, starting to smooth out with about 8 hours on it, sounds a lot better already than first few hours.
Technicalities not at level of either solid state amp, but it’s for sure pretty good and may become better with more time. And definitely with better tubes I should think. It’s plenty powerful, haven’t tried Tungsten on it but I don’t expect it to be adequate to really drive that.
Having fun with it so far, should be a cool starting point. 
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JJ is basic neutral-ish balanced-ish unnofensive sound with great low noise capabilities
You can easily get much higher (not that you need to, most would say to enjoy stock at least for a while)
12au7 I would look for matsushita which andy from vintage tubes service has in stock for about 60 a pop, which are by far the best 60 dollar 12au7 youre gonna find imo, surpassing the classic RCA 1950 clear tops with grace
Then for the power tubes 6v6 ive never used, but I guess it depends on which signature youre looking for, some of the classic brands like tung sol (which is more on the technical analytical side) have 6v6, this rabbit hole goes very deep and can be very expensive so due dilligence and have fun 
Congrats on trying tubes
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The Kinki THR-1 I obtained in a part exchange arrived promptly. Funny thing, it’s my old one! I clocked some of the original labels when the box arrived and recognised the original owner’s name. I pulled it out and check the serial number against my old Head-Fi listing and confirmed that this used to be mine!
I think I actually sold this to the gentleman I got it off but this was a few years ago and so we must’ve both forgotten 
Gonna give it at least an hour to warm up.
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Holy hell, I think I may be done.
That amp is incredible. I remember it being good but I originally bought it near the start of my journey. I hadn’t heard that much gear, I didn’t know what I was after and I used to smoke frequently and thus thought I shouldn’t trust my judgement.
I’ve just gone from the P2 to the THR-1 and there is no contest. The Kinki is airier, more spacious, and is weightier without noticeable warmth collapsing the stage depth. Sonic images are bigger/life size. Dynamics are vastly improved. Drums sound so much more natural/real.
I must state that I was very much enjoying the P2, aside from a few tracks where the weaknesses in its treble reproduction were evident. But damn, the THR-1 is a step ahead in every regard as far as I can tell. They’re very different amplifiers, but their prices are close. High voltage, fully discrete Class A verses GANFET Op Amp overkill. The P2 is decent but damn.
I think I’ll stay here for a while. I was so ready for Mentors to start being built again, but this is what I wanted. Mentors are less coloured but… I think I’m happy for now.
I think my head might explode when my SU-6 arrives…
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Bought a TI version Altor USB Isolator to give it a shot after @Yamato and @Pokrog brought it to attention, hoping it can be a cheap way to give my Prism Lyra 2 a boost, time to wait and see lol.
Will likely just use it with a random LPS and USB cables I have laying around unless there’s specific ones people suggest with it. This new place has shitty power, and it’s starting to get to me, so might start exploring some power isolation stuff again in the future
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I’ve been having really good success with the ifi power X series. Can be bought cheap enough and sometimes you can get lucky with an Amazon return and get a substantial discount.
High tide raises all ships as they say, good power is high tide. lol
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I’ve got an ipowerx laying around so I’ll start off with that lol
Realistically I should be looking at a pair of d8kpdc or a new dac instead, but I’m getting seriously pissed by the noise floor issues and day to day performance variability I’m getting with what feels like everything
Trying to be careful and slow with getting back into things, but if anyone wants to trade a pro dc or triunity or something like that for similar value in keyboards let me know I guess lol
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Did you hear the pro DC?
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