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My wife and I listen to music a lot together. Over the years, I’ve realized that she has a really good ear, and can usually articulate changes in equipment very well, often without being told changes have been made. She’s often my unwitting “blind” test for snake oil vs actual improvements.
Accordingly, she was unaware that I swapped the NOS Mullard tubes in a few days ago, and last night was our first chance to really sit down and listen to music together.
After about an hour, she turned to me out of the blue and said “I think your tubes may be finally... how do I describe it, warmed up!? It sounds like everything is just warm and ready to play music. Did you turn them on longer than normal? There’s more fullness and everything is blended together perfectly, even when there’s chaos in the mix.”
I told her about the new tubes, and we listened for a couple more hours, each taking turns pointing out how some part of some song sounded somehow new, and realizing that there’s a lot more detail and music and drive that’s just been unlocked. Nice to see that she has once again confirmed not only her ability to listen intently, but also the validity of the changes I was hearing as well.
I probably have 40-ish hours on the new tubes, so they may continue to settle in this week. Can’t say it enough, if you have this DAC, these are the tubes you want.
For roughly $1000 total (I got a deal on the Black Ice), I have a DAC that I would feel confident putting head to head with anything else out there. Absolutely fantastic!
My wife and I listen to music a lot together. Over the years, I’ve realized that she has a really good ear, and can usually articulate changes in equipment very well, often without being told changes have been made. She’s often my unwitting “blind” test for snake oil vs actual improvements.
Accordingly, she was unaware that I swapped the NOS Mullard tubes in a few days ago, and last night was our first chance to really sit down and listen to music together.
After about an hour, she turned to me out of the blue and said “I think your tubes may be finally... how do I describe it, warmed up!? It sounds like everything is just warm and ready to play music. Did you turn them on longer than normal? There’s more fullness and everything is blended together perfectly, even when there’s chaos in the mix.”
I told her about the new tubes, and we listened for a couple more hours, each taking turns pointing out how some part of some song sounded somehow new, and realizing that there’s a lot more detail and music and drive that’s just been unlocked. Nice to see that she has once again confirmed not only her ability to listen intently, but also the validity of the changes I was hearing as well.
I probably have 40-ish hours on the new tubes, so they may continue to settle in this week. Can’t say it enough, if you have this DAC, these are the tubes you want.
For roughly $1000 total (I got a deal on the Black Ice), I have a DAC that I would feel confident putting head to head with anything else out there. Absolutely fantastic!