Well my Aesthetix Romulus uses 12ax7 tubes and sounds glorious! Used in gain stage and 6922 as output. Best digital I have owned. |
AudioL
5751 RCA black plates and Kevin Deal hand selected cryo treated Gold Loin, gold pin tubes. Both sound very good. Little less gain with the 5751, but that is a good thing for me. |
|
Folks look at my feedback so when I share my next point you may believe me. I have had no problem selling any off my modified gear at the same price and more compared to the same unmodified unit. Not a problem for me in the past. I read about this modification fear all the time and my reality does not fall in line.
If and when I sell my Romulus I will do as well or better than unmodified units. Why? Because I do good work and the mods are smart and add value for the right buyer. Seems to always be the right buyer. My mods were all the very same ones done for the Signature except I used Jupiter
foil caps instead of lower quality caps in one area. Smart choice and the right buyer will know it. You only need one informed buyer! |
Thanks Metbguy1. Perhaps I have been lucky over the years. I do know many folks will not buy modified gear and that certainly reduces the audience for modded gear. I and others like me actually like to buy modified gear that was done right from techs etc... |
I just installed Path Audio resistors in my crossover and so far I am very pleased. I think they make resistors for speakers only. High wattage rating, 10 watt, resistors in lower speaker values only. I am not 100% sure however.
I have not heard or used Khozmo attenuators, but love Shallco stepped attenuators here in the US. They use silver contacts and are very high quality. Many suggest they are a step over the Khozmo. The Vishay Z Foils would be very good indeed. They are very resolving and clean. It all depends what you are after. I would most likely use Shinkoh resistors as they are more musical to my ears. They are richer, warmer and still deliver plenty of resolution. If absolute transparency is what you are after, then the Z Foil TX 2575 is the champ. |
Forgot to mention Glasshouse stepped attenuators as they are also better and can get very expensive. Hifi Collective sells them. Both of these are better than the K based on my research over the past year.
I can tell you these top flight stepped attenuators make a big difference in preamps. If the current Attenuator is an Alps or some other pot, then this upgrade will be a revelation.
I would also build it as a shunt type of stepped Attenuator. |
I have not tried the Jensen ribbon inductors. I purchased some expensive North Creek 10 gauge. Thanks for the tip as I will look at them. |
Jwm, the varying input impedance of the stunt stepped Shallco is a real non issue based on my experience. The sound quality improvement of only one resistor and one switch in the signal path etc....is much more important. One can also place a larger input to output value resistor if concerned about source matching.
I converted my stepped Attenuator to a shunt step and love the sound quality improvement. I use digital front ends only and find this is an non-issue. You would need to determine your phono front end output Impedance to determine if it is a potential issue with your phono stage.
I don't use phono stages so I really don't know. |
I am also of the opinion that the few manufacturer posters are welcome. No problem at all. They can share opinions, insights, and comedy if they like. In the end, we all learn more and will still make our own purchasing decisions based on our preferences. |
|
I got one also and will be selling my system soon. |
|
Correction - New Duelund CAST silver .01uf caps. They are $89 and bypass with the CAST copper to see what you get. I have not tried these and have no idea what they sound like with a CAST copper cap? |
Steve, not on a 1uf or smaller output cap...... |
You go Charles! Mandate the cars we must drive? Come on, perhaps we better get back to audio folks. The wheels have come of the track here.
I let my car warm up here in Minnesota when it is below zero so I don't drive shivering and become a dangerous driver. Ok if I burn a little fuel.
I am proud to be an American and love my neighbors! |
Or you can buy the new .001uf Duelund silver bypass caps from Parts Connextion for under $100 and...
Steve, let the Jupiter caps break in as they have never sounded the way you describe. They actually have a more airy top end compared to the CAST caps after proper break-in. This has been my experience in tube gear and speakers. Never tried them in a dac however. |
I found the second smaller room with the Lampi 7, Ginkgo speakers and Dana cables to be excellent sounding. In some ways better sounding than the Vapor room. The Vapor room was hot sounding to my ears on the first and second day. The third day was much better so I assume the speakers needed burn in time. I also noticed the Raal tweeter pads were placed on the driver and that helped. I have the same tweeters and they can be hot and problematic to deal with.
The room that most impressed me was the Triode of Japan and Accoustic Zen Cresendo room. That room placed beautiful music. All with a $3200 Triode of Japan CD player. That certainly garnered my attention. |
Matt, I agree 100% with Cerrot. Most impressive and well thought out. Well done. |
Thank you for the update Matt. I have been following quietly and enjoy the thread and well written humor.
Having owned the Romulus and finding the $2200 Yamamoto dac to be better, I think your session will not last very long. |
Another way to say it is the Yamamoto dac with several mods is indeed a contender. No DSD however. No USB so an Offramp is needed with it. |
I like dealing with small, one man companies. Almost all of my gear comes from such a business. I find a big correlation between these types of creative and talented folks and great sound quality. I also learn a ton more about the piece as they more often share much more over the phone and by email.
I like the relationship I can have with the owner/creator. My experiences have been wonderful with " one man" companies, but like everything in life, others may have had a different experience.
I don't think this is the place to gripe on an experience however. That should be done by the two parties off-line .... Period. |
Oh my this whole single volume control pot, attenuator, LDR etc... vs active preamp thing. What Charles and Matt say times 1000. I have heard so many integrated units that claim to dispence with a preamp that I may not be able to count anymore. The gap in sound quality from those compared to my active tube preamp is so wide that an active is an absolute must.
As Matt and Charles say, this is true for us and our ears...for us. If you like the preampless sound, then great and it is wonderful to save all that money. I wish I could.
I have a Romulus and love it with my tube preamp. I have tried LDR's and transformer based attenuators that are touted to be the best and they take a far back seat in sound quality compared to my active ... to my ears.
No 3 inch attenuator board, LDR, or any other type of volume pot alone can compare to a full out active tube preamp in my experience.
The sound of an integrated volume is clean, fast, detailed, vibrant etc.... Every one I have heard shares these same great qualities for sure. Fact is they all sound like they were cut from the same cloth when compared to my active. All in the same "family" of sound if you will. Straight wire with gain and all that stuff. I can see why folks like them. Like all things audio it comes down to preferences in the way we like to experience our music. That's all. For folks like Charles and I and many others, a full blown active is prefered and no matter that form of tiny, stand alone attenuator is thrown at us.
I suppose Aesthetix even knows this as they and many of their customers certainly like the sound of their new, active tube preamp better than the 3 inch board in the Romulus. $1000 vs over $10,000, but many choose the more expensive Aesthetix option for "sound" reasons. |
Nice Marc! Agree with you as it is always about the whole system. We listen to systems....complete systems. |
Yes I have the Music Vault with lifetime Roon from Neal over at Sound Science. First rate sound and service. Before you buy you must call Neal as he is an expert. |
Guys please also consider the Music Vault Ultra as well as other models from Neal at Sound Science. Plug and play with remote service and help if needed etc... Lifetime Roon all for $4000 and up.
Neal is expert in these matters and his product is outstanding. I am a very happy customer and one who dislikes working with computers. I thought I would never give up spinning CDs, but Neal made it so simple and the sound quality is actually better!
Another great option to consider. |
DSP in Roon is quite wonderful. Just an FYI. |
I find Roon very enjoyable and use the DSP feature to good effect with no noticeable degradation in sound quality that I could detect. I use the EQ tool as well as volume leveling and up sampling at times. Wonderful!
I did not like engaging the headroom feature that some reviewers seem to love. Just robbed the music of a little life IMHO. |
What’s not civil on this thread? All good here and hopefully in the US. |
