MHDT Orchid or Lampizator Amber 3?

That tube also pulls more current than the other tubes.


The cv181 has a heater current of .95 amps and the 6sn7 is .6 amps. Quite a few transformers were being destroyed when that tube was being sold as a 6sn7 alternate.

Good evening everyone, first post on Audiogon. 

After following this thread with great interest, I finally picked up an Orchid and have done several of the upgrades mentioned by Grannyring (and others). I am enjoying the whole process of upgrading and hearing the changes and improvement so much so that I finally decided to post on this forum to say a big "THANK YOU" to all who have contributed. 

The Orchid is a great DAC and it is easy(ish) to work on.
 
Changes done so far: 
R38, R52, R36, R54 Vishay Z foils  0,60W 100 Ohm
R34, R58 -- Caddock MK232 0.75W 390K
R37, R53 - Audio Note Tantalum 1W 4.7 K
Jantzan Superior Z - 2.2uf 
Duelund CAST-PIO-Sn/Cu   0.01uF 630Vdc
Various tubes - current favourite - Philips Miniwatt E188CC (7308) SQ with adapter.

Upcoming changes:
Ordered the V-Caps (arrived today) looking forward to hearing the diffierence
R3, R4 - Ordered a set of Caddock MK23 and Amtrans AMRG Carbon Film 0.75W to try out. 
Possibly upgrade fuse to???

Really enjoying the sound now. I would be happy to live with the Orchid the way is now but I like to tinker and ask "what if I ..."

Great stuff. Great fun 

Any other upgrade/change sugguestions are welcomed.

@paulski How did the upgrades work out for you?

The fuse does matter for sure.  The Vcap Odams with a. .01uf Vcap Cutf gives the best sound as I learned in my years of upgrading these units. I have also found a mix of the Vishay nude ZFoils and Audio Note non-magnetic tantalum resistors to be wonderful. 

Grannyring 

Thank you for your continued sharing of Knowledge on this forum! It is really valuable and highly appreciated.

Regarding the ShuGuang Treasure vacuum tubes CV181-Z, are rated at 0.6 amps. Do you now think they might do damage to the dac? (In addition to not sounding right?)