I demo’d the Sonoma and disliked pretty much everything about it. This is their second outing. Without a demo for a few days, I would be very hesitant to purchasing it blind.
Regarding the Sonoma what did you dislike? Too analytical would be my guess.
They didn’t have an ounce of warmth. At the time I thought a pair of earbuds that come with a phone sounded better. At first I thought there was something wrong with them. The build was nice, but not as nice as Dan Clark, Meze, or ZMF.
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After bad mouthing the Crystal Clear Magnum Opus II PC yesterday, I decided to give it another try. It had another 20 plus hours of high-power break-in (thanks to the warmer temperatures lately).
It sounds significantly better than yesterday. The interesting thing is that this 6N silver-conductor cord sounded fuller and warmer than a typical silver-conductor cable. It is very analog-like sounding. I was delighted to hear the deep bass and silky-smooth treble that was nowhere presented yesterday, and the frequency extensions and details are matching that of Dragon and Stealth. What a difference a day made! However, it still does not sound as quiet as I would like. This is not unusual during a break-in, and I am sure in time it will resolve this issue.
I really like to use it with Dragon48 I2S for PST. The combination of the two produces great SQ balance from PST that I have never heard of before.
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We will be slowly upgrading to Albedo Silver Cables. They are made with mono-crystal silver. These at are awesome cables. In the U.S. there are a few dealers….
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The Bravura is not the Sonoma. Trickle down technology from their Apperio. I listened to both at Axpona.
Fink “Move on Me” playing through the VTL 6.5 is awesome. It’s really starting to break-in now. The next few hundred hours is going to be interesting. The bass is really coming in. I dig it.
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What tubes are in it? Sorry if I missed it!
Best,
-JP
A pair of 12AU7 tubes.
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Yes, understood. I a, asking which 12AU7
Thanks!
Sovtek ECC82 are the stock tubes.
I have several different tubes to swap in, but I won’t be doing that for the first three to four months or so.
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I bought some JJ ECC82s for my amp, dirt cheap and I was amazed how good they are considering the cost. I have them as backups but generally use NOS Mullards
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Best valves I used were always Mullard 
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I love Mullards, they really are special 
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In my stash for the VTL TL 6.5 there’s matched pairs of:
- Mullard ECC82 medical grade red tip long plates
- Telefunken ECC82 medical grade yellow tips
- Siemens Germany ECC82 nickel plates
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When my stash of Mullards got low, I used Brimar (EL34s - something like £7.50 a pair from the local electronics shop) which weren’t bad at all, circa 1985.
Amps I had could also use 6V6Gs, (triode mode, I think, the EL34s were run as pentodes in ultra-linear config) which was handy, I had a few of those from the 1940s.
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@vkennedy61 as well, where do you guys source your NOS tubes?
Our options in the UK aren’t great, it’s really eBay or the highway. I’d much rather import them if it meant I got some really good quality.
Oh I got out of the valve lark many years ago, it became economically unviable, both in space (at that time) and in cost to run and feed them.
I was gifted all my valves, back in the late 70s and 80s folks were literally giving that stuff away then 
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VTL 6.5 has been on since 8 AM. Ten more hours and it’s really good.
Foals Life is Yours sounds fantastic.
It’s loud in here 
.
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