Has anyone tried to mod their r800i with better parts ?
So I bought the Willsenton R-800i
After I bought the Klipsch Cornwall IVs recently it became apparent quite quickly that to make it really shine it needs a tube amp to drive it. (For me at least.) After doing some (=endless) research, considering the options (budget, shops nearby carrying models I´m interested in, etc.) and also asking around on this very forum I decided to go for the Willsenton R-800i. None of my friends here shares my excitement for audio stuff or even has a comparable system, so what´s now in my living room is the one tube amp I know. And I´m delighted. Together with the speakers it gives the music the presence and glow that I so desired.
Of course I can tell that there´s more potential in this amp and I already exchanged some of the stock tubes. There are more on the way and I can´t wait to test them. For now my financial means are a bit limited so I´m not ordering Western Electric and Takatsuki 300Bs just for the sake of comparing them. In fact I´m waiting with those a bit and go for the others first.
Searching online I find a lot of information on English language forums. Somehow tube rolling is not discussed as much on the German forums I checked though – and out of curiosity (and because they were pretty cheap) I went for both West- and East-German ECC83s and a fairly random mix of other tubes from the US and the Soviet Union. I´m waiting for them to arrive and not being able to read about some of them it raises my curiosity how they will sound. Maybe crappy, maybe not so bad, maybe even very good. I´ll see. Tube rolling will take some time and I don´t mind. The amp is there to stay for quite a while.
There´s an exhaustive thread on the Willsenton amps and fitting tubes here but since I found people´s comments on this forum so helpful I´m looking forward to hear from you. I´m open for tube recommendations and would like to hear anyone´s experience with the Willsenton R-800i. Or maybe someone has questions?
As for the tubes:
805 – stock replaced for Cossor
300B – stock
6SN7 – stock replaced for Sylvania GTBs, waiting for Fonon NOS (Soviet, 1979, a bargain for 10€)
12AX7 – stock replaced with current Mullard model, waiting for West German ones from AEG and Telefunken, East German ones from RSD and Funkwerk Erfurt (both used) and also Sylvania JAN 5751 NOS (a military model)
5U4G – stock, waiting for RCA NOS black plate and Svetlana NOS „Coke Bottle“
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There´s youtuber skunkie who did mods on another Willsenton amp. Some parts she improved, some issues needed to be fixed to make the whole thing more secure. Right now someone´s in talks with her to do the same with have a look at the R800i. Let´s see if she´ll accept. The instruction says that 120 is the best bias point but I´ve heard of people going down to as low as 100. To be honest I forgot the background why they did it, if it was to drive the tubes less or if t (also) gave a sonic advantage. |
120mA is not the ideal bias point. It is the max bias. I contacted the company to confirm this. The manual is ambiguous in this regard. I find 80-110 mA to be good. One of my bias pots failed me. The company mailed me two new ones. The surgery to the one side is simple, yet the surgery to the other is a pain. Overall, the amp is well built labor wise. Parts quality is questionable. Electrolytic caps are Chinese. I've communicated with Skunkie about going through the unit. She's open to it but she's not jazzed about the 1000v on the plates. And, shipping my unit from Chicagoland to Atlanta would be a fortune.
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My previous post about my "unbiasable" R800i: https://forum.audiogon.com/posts/2493681 So, in searching for someone who can update my Audio Research LS-5 mkiii, I have also found someone who can take a look at my r800i...Scott Frankland...who came highly recommended by a member here who has an LS-5 and said Scott worked some magic on his unit: https://scottfrankland.com/ |
- 127 posts total