Dracule1 - I have a pair of Bob's Cherry 180's. I elected to run my Sunfire Signature amp over the past year because the Cherries did not provide me the extra wattage/headroom I desired; I like to listen LOUD a lot of times. Over the past couple of days I cleaned up the Cherries, they just were collecting dust, literally, so after getting them all cleaned-up I reinserted them back into my system to see if I could live with the lower power output. I reinserted them because I was reading different threads on Audiogon about folks recently expressing their love for the Cherries, namely you sir.
After plugging them in...mmmmm, to hell with the extra head room for now, I think I may leave them in for a while. If I can get by the heat these beautiful tubes put off, but I don't remember them putting out as much heat as they are. When my money gets right, I plan on getting the two upgrades you spoke about 1) the GP attenuator 2) the V-cap .22 caps. I was thinking to do the copper instead of the tin caps. I'm not sure if the copper caps really sound better, but if anybody has any feedback one way or another I'd appreciate it.
Are there any other new upgrades for the Cherries? |
...oh, and did you get matched pairs/quads of the .22 V-caps? Lastly, what tolerance (5%, 1%, 0.5%) should I get? |
Heard somewhere that Emotiva and Bob have parted ways recently. I am not sure how true this info is, but just thought I would pass it on in the event you run into complications getting results with your inquiry.
Man! I need Bob's New 900watt Silver Seven. I run out of power (I think) with the Cherry 180's, when I "Live Concert" them lol. I guess I'm running out of power, the meter pegs violently, no real audible distortion though, but I assume hard pegging is an indication that you're almost at the end of the power available. Thinking of doing the Sunfire Signature again to get the 6 db of headroom back for my tendency to reproduce "Live" :-O |
The 12ax7 & 12at7 Psvane tubes I installed 3 years ago have been the best of the few tubes I tried when I was doing the tube rolling thing. That was my 1st time with tube equipment.
I tried and ranked them this way:
1st Psvane - Well balanced and sounded just right. Not too this or too that.
2nd Mullard CV4004 & CV4024 NOS - Best Mids by far, but got tired of the effect after a while. Too too much of a good thing can wear on you.
3rd Gold Lion reissued - Brightest sounding of the bunch. Not waaay too bright, but my speakers can be finicky in the highs area to begin with.
4th Tung Sol reissued - Not a bad tube at all for the price; I think $20 each. I even might rank them above the Gold Lions depending on my mood that day. FWIW this tube had the highest gain of the few tubes I've tried.
All in all, I think I'm biased (lol) for a tube that is currently in production i.e. can be bought without having to hunt a set down here and there at some extremely marked-up price.
...oh, and I'm running Tung Sol KT-120's for my power tubes, even though the amps are set-up for the KT-88's. Back when I purchased them from Mr. Carver, he said it was cool to do and the KT-120's wouldn't harm the amps one bit. Now I'm curious if the cherries can handle the new KT-150's :-O |
When I bought the amp, direct from Bob, he gave me the option to have him send me the KT-88's that he normally sends or the KT-120's; his new company didn't come online 'til a short time later. Anyhow, I ended up having him send me the standard tubes and I ordered 12 KT-120's from another source. Once getting the amps home, I plugged in the KT-120's and they have been in pretty much the whole time. However, I did once after several months, try the KT-88's. The sound was actually a little warmer, but the tubes seem to be working very hard. What I mean is, I like to play my music relatively loud at times and with the KT-88's it looked like a fire storm raging in the tubes as the music played. These amps was/are my only experience with tube equipment, so that was kinda scary to witness. Maybe thats how power tubes regularly behave under serious music listening, but with the KT-120's the peak "flaming" is much less and conversely less stressful to see when enjoying your tunes. The only drawback with the KT-120's, is that you can barley see that the tubes are lit, even at night...and as we all know that's part of the appeal of having tubes...seeing the glow lol. As far as the warmth goes, I added some Mullard tubes (4004 & 4024) to the equation and that warmed and smoothed out the sound again.
Thanks for the info on the KT-150's. I think I'll stay with the KT-120's for now. My next move would be the upgrades on the gain/attenuator & 2caps on each amp; which Dracula1 spoke about earlier in this thread. |
I have the Psvane tubes also and go back and forth between them & the Mullards. What are your impressions of the Psvanes? Did you change both of the smaller tubes or just the 12ax7?
With the KT-120's plugged in, the min. you can bias the amp is 90 and the max is way passed the meter scale. I set mine sometimes at 90, sometimes at 150, but right now I have it set at 110. It depends on what mood I'm in and what music I may be listening to at the time.
I have had a total of two KT-120's tubes go south on me. The first one took out a resistor and I had to get a technician to help repair that. I contacted Bob and he and my technician, at the time, chatted about it and got the issue resolved. The second time one of the tubes went out, it was a tube in the other cherry amp, but it did not take out any resistor(s). It bears noting that the group of KT-120 tubes were not from Bob, they were from an online site. I subsequently got in contact with a local tube dealer (Upscale Audio) and bought & installed a whole new batch of 12 KT-120 tubes, just to put myself at ease. I haven't had any failures or problems since. The owner of Upscale Audio is a little high strung at times, but again, I've never had any problems with the KT-120's or the Mullard 4004's & 4024's or any other tubes a bought from him. The initial batch was purchased by a very well known online site. I'm not saying that site sales bad or bunk tubes in general, but it just so happened that I got a few tubes from them that took a Dive after only several months of service. I haven't used that site since though. |
Not assure what you mean when you say, "...carver didn't match the mono blocks when the were shipped." I have totally different tubes in, than the tubes that came with the amps. My Cherries appear to be matched when I have all the new tubes in and bias each amp with one another. Again, I'm not sure if this is the "matched" you are speaking about. Please elaborate.
When the tech spoke of biasing in the 140+ range, I think that was pertaining to the KT-88's being used in the Cherry 180's and not the KT-120's. I believe the KT-120's can be driven fairly hard and not be worn so easily, but I could be wrong.
Not sure why your bookshelf speakers would cause the meters to "peg" more than your floor-standing speakers other than the bookshelf speakers being far less in their efficiency rating. My speakers aren't too efficient and are power hungry, so I think that's why mine "peg" hard at high volumes.
Not sure what city-state you are in to recommend a tech. there, but I'm in Compton, CA. Yes, THE Compton lol Anyhow, I have had my tech in Westminster, CA, (a really nice part of town) rebuild my x-over network in my Infinity IRS Beta mids/highs towers; fix a troublesome woofer in my Thiel CS5i speaker; along with several other amp and transport/DAC work. I'm sure he could handle the attenuator and/or the V-cap upgrade. I am not sure if you can do PM's on this forum, but here is my email address dblf@pacbell.net
Hit me and I'll shoot you his info. and you can talk with him directly and get a feel for him. He was recommended to me by a Volleyball dad on my daughter's volleyball team about a year or so ago. |
Whew! I'm kinda glad I ended up getting mine straight from Bob himself if that's the case.
Curious if you used any of the Sunfire amps and what were your impressions, good or bad, of them? If so, with what pre-amp & speakers? |
Pittsburgh is a bit closer than shipping it to the west coast. If Pitt doesn't workout for you, I'm sure there are some other tech's/shops out your way that could assist you. Actually I would reeeally look for a shop within a two to three hours drive from where you are, before having to pack up and send these beautiful amps via a carrier to be worked on out of state. One thing about living in a large city like Los Angeles, you can find pretty much anything you need, but the problem of finding a good & fair shop/tech is still a challenge. I'm greatful I was refered to the tech I have now.
Good Luck my friend. I'm anxious to know what your thoughts are on the upgrades once they are done. |
I have a Sunfire tube preamp w/phono (even though I have no LP collection) & remote, but I decided I would go with the McIntosh C50 instead for my bedroom set-up. The Sunfire is now boxed-up and in the garage. I'd only part with it for a premium price because of its rarity and I feel like I may want to revisit its sound one day. It's the only brand of tube preamp I've ever owned to-boot.
If you have the greenbacks to foot that $2,000 upgrade and are a power hog like myself it might be worth it. Personally right now, I wouldn't have done that upgrade, but that's primarily based on me not having them greenbacks lol.
I do wonder how the 305 (I guess that is what it is still being called) with the KT-150 tubes sounds? |
