Got a rack, had a lot of… fun reorganizing my desk again lol.
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Many people seem to like the SW51 over the BHC+S (situationally of course)
What about you?
Can’t give a fair comparison yet as I’ve only just received my lampi and need some time to go back and forth. But I think the SW51+ pairs better with the amber 3 than the BHC+S does. As detailed, bassy, and wide as the BHC+amber 3 combo is, it’s just a little too warm for my liking off the amber. Now, this could be my choice of tubes, and could probably be altered with a tube swap. But I think the out-of-the-box cleanliness of the SW51+'s pairs better with the amber 3. But if we’re talking about being driven from the Bifrost 2, I actually prefer the BHC in that scenario. One of the big reasons for that is how lacking the lower frequencies are with the SW51+Bifrost 2 combo. It’s definitely there, but it’s only just there, not really impactful. Which really makes the SW51+ a weird product imo. Because it sounds great on a $4.5K DAC, and just pretty good on a “more in its price range” $700 DAC. However, if you don’t mind giving up some bass depth and weight/impact in favor of cleanliness/detail I feel like the SW51+ is an amazing starting point for a tube amp.
Oh and just putting this out there, all my listening for this comparison is with the ZMF Auteur Wenge.
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Thank you very much
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lol, I bought the GE tubes too, but I haven’t tried them. I’ll be interested to hear impressions of any and all tubes you end up listening to!
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Have you done any tube-rolling in your SW51+? That might alleviate some of the issues you’re having with the amp when paired with your Bifrost 2. I have the same setup as you minus the Amber. I have the BF2>SW51+>Auteur (Blackwood and Ash) and find the bass perfectly adequate using RFT EF184 tubes. I liked the stock tubes as well, but these RFT’s skew a little warmer.
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Where’d you buy yours out of curiosity? Bought mine on tube world express.
That’s pretty much it for 6em7 tubes anyway. lol
Top main brands are rca, sylvania, and ge (from what I’ve found).
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I bought my GE tubes off eBay, they were cheap enough that I just kinda grabbed them as an impulse buy. I’m pretty sure I paid like $20 for the pair and shipping combined.
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Haven’t tried tube swapping the SW51+ yet, but definitely would be interested in giving that a try to see how it affects the Bifrost pairing.
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Mullard EF184’s make it a bit richer in the mid range, you lose a little top end, gain some bass. The Soviet tubes it ships with are very dry. My preference was with the Mullards.
It’s never going to be like the Crack though, they are very different amps. The crack is nice on occasion, but I couldn’t live with it as my only amp, the SW51 is a much more well rounded sound to me.
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Beautiful table! Seems nice and wide to be able to hold many things too
And you can cut up a steak on it!
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Beautiful. I wish I had a space where finer woodwork actualy fit the aesthetic (or footprint avilible, lol)
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Yah, I agree. Its a beautiful piece. From what I’ve seen in the background our friend Mr. Hell has a beautifully appointed home.
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These finally showed up
dropped them into a high profile CTRL, with some Ducky PBT keycaps I had lying around.
Interesting switch very tactile and the bump is at the very top of travel, I’m not sure I like the combination, but I’ll try it for a week or two, to see how it goes.
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The lighting in my room is sooo terrible in the afternoon it’s impossible to get a decent picture to capture the beautiful piano gloss wood of these new-to-me Philharmonic BMR monitors.
@dB_Cooper we need to see each other more often, i so enjoy our colorful conversations!
Thank you for driving down and splitting the drive w/me,
I really wanted to experience the RAAL tweeters in my own room, these are awesome. Throw that money I gave you at Ωmega and have Louis start building you some custom speakers pronto, don’t hold back!
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You really needed more speakers?
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No love for the driver type it’s named after and centered around lol?
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Speakers are like ice cream, my house is Baskin Robins…32 flavors baby! 
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