Pls pardon my mess–I have too many poweramps and am fotografing and selling some.
The '1200 still have too much gain for my system–I can’t turn the bass amps up quite enough to match the excessive gain–30-1/2dB? Really Paul???–in the poweramps and too-sensitive (96dB) speakers, but I have new lower-sensitivity speakers coming that will solve both of those ‘problems’.
Initial thoughts are again VERY positive–the '1200s are highly musical and gorgeous to listen thru… Late last nite I replaced the Psvanes with British-Mullard 12AU7s and they’re now burning in.
They are evolutions of the Walsh drivers with dozens of improvements, and as such they’re polyradial(1) not very directional, and they fill the room with gorgeous, COHERENT(2) music… They sounded super-excellent even in the owner’s too-small living room.
(1) They are NOT ‘omnidirectional’ since they do not radiate upwards and downwards.
(2) The drivers in the TLS-1s and TLS-2s are FULL-range with no crossovers, and as we know, there’s no capacitor that sounds as good as no capacitor… There’s nothing between the voicecoil and amplifier but speakercable.
I’m sure you’ll find the amps just keep improving as the hours accrue. I don’t think I’ve ever owned an audio component that took so long to settle into its final sweet spot as the M1200s did.
Hopefully when everything settles down in your system, you’ll appreciate the M1200’s effortless, dynamic presentation. As you’ve already embraced, fine tuning with alternative tubes is a wonderful feature.
Frankly I’d keep the original tubes in for the first 300-500 hours of use. Once everything is fully broken in, then roll in your Mullard tubes. I assume they’re not inexpensive…
I have had a pair of TLS-1s for a couple of years. They are the glossy cherry ones on the website. I have a suspended floor and found that AV Roomservice EVP thingies worked quite well. I also use M1200s to power mine. Getting them into the house was a lot of work. I hope that you have some helpers. I recently sold my subwoofers because I didn’t fell the need for them. If I really wanted to blow the roof off the house I would have kept them but I don’t need that much boom. A bit of locktite on the threads that hold the driver to the base can help; the nuts can come loose otherwise. I really enjoy mine, congratulations on getting the big ones.
