I'm close to Hi-Fi Bliss

A

alanl

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Hi Guy's

My System is almost there only the front end left to sort out. I've just taken delivery of my new single ended Valve amp's locally made here in Australia by CYMER. Full 40 watts per mono block of single ended 300B sound.

System is now a little out of balance but geting there slowly with

CD PLAYER: Toshiba SD-900
PRE: Linn Wakonda
Power Single ended 300B 40 Watts mono blocks
Speakers: Quad ESL-63 (made in 1998)

Here are a few photos of the system......

system.jpg


valveclose.jpg


valve.jpg


Ps: I'm just so happy that I had to post something somewhere............Full review soon as its only been 5 hour with the amps so far.

Alan
 
Originally posted by alanl
Hi Guy's

Ps: I'm just so happy that I had to post something somewhere............Full review soon as its only been 5 hour with the amps so far.

Alan
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Hi Alan

Glad you are happy with your new system. Why not post up a link to the Cymer website if there is one? Lots of people here are interested in valve amps.

NB
Just out of curiousity, if you only have one source, have you thought of feeding the power amps directly with a CDP with an integral volume control?

Cheers
Chris
 
I have no idea why they are good, I think its the lack of feedback.
I had some where you could have zero or 6db of feedback switchable, and without fb, its a total revelation, the sound livens, comes forward, much better imaging, less grainy, feedback really ruins amps. I am a total convert to zero fb.
some valves like px25s, 300bs, 211s, basically old triodes are inherently linear, and can be run without feedback.
Though the distortion will be higher, as this is what fb does, lowers dist, output impedance, its 2nd harmonic, so not noticable, all it does is makes the sound richer.
I have sold the old 300bs and am about to build new ones, and am really missing them, I can't begin to tell how much a revelation it is.
Its the single biggest difference you can ever get, much more than a £2k cd player.
I was pretty much thinking hifi had something missing, I now know what it is. If you get a good one, you will never listen to transistors in the same way again. They are seriously low-fi.

hint, try ditching the wankonda for a passive pre. Even more transparency.

they aren't too pricy, you can pick up a kit for £700-£1000 that will blow away any transistor amp in the world for sound.

ahhh red wine, quads and triodes, someone after my own heart...
 
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Originally posted by penance
Sorry for my flippant post Alan, i find it hard hideing my extreme envy when i see lovely valve systems.

Looks great:)
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Penance,

Don't worry, I said the same thing when I got the bill for cymer. The project ended way over budget.

Qriginally posted by bottleneck
Why not post up a link to the Cymer website if there is one? Lots of people here are interested in valve amps.
No website for CYMER. Elson is a one man show and has been custom making stunning custom valve amp's here in Australia 30 years.

Qriginally posted by Lt Cdr Data
hint, try ditching the wankonda for a passive pre. Even more transparency.
Good call, I have a very good passive pre in storage that I shall get today. The amp's arrived yesterday with little notice so just used the wakonda to get some volume control.

Qriginally posted by Robbo
What is it that makes them so special?
Tech Data, 40 watts single ended 300B x 4 triodes , hand made transformers, zero feedback.

Sound, So I've only had them for a few hours, first impressions of the amp's are with the Quad's that they fill every
flat earth dream one could ever want. The cool is the round things WOW...... fast, clean, smooth, open, depth of
soundstage etc. is just stunning!!! without that slow soft warm glow that many valve amp's suffer from.

So more red wine and some audio freak friends tonight full report to follow.

Ps. Sorry I don't seem to reply to your posts fast, I'm sleeping while most of you UK audio folk are drinking at the
pub. the pits of living in Australia.

cheers

Alan
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