It's Here! and it is Beastly

[Natural Sound]

I've used Mundorf caps in the past. In my experience they definitely benefit from an extended run time. But in the end it's worth a it.

 

[drewh1]

Thanks for the encouragement. I almost pulled them out yesterday  these are the older 1200 volt  I read they take even longer.  I let them run all day yesterday and today. Listening to pendercky violin concerto. Starting to sound like music again. Mids are smoothing out, bass is returning and the soundstage is deepening.  I didnt notice this much change with the vcaps but they were only .1 so maybe not so much to break in.  Or maybe I have more joy to look forward too.

What a great hobby!

 

[drewh1]

The problem with building your own amp is it is like painting your own house. I look for and find every small issue I can find and can't just sit back and enjoy it. I have been obsessing about every detail, spent the other night evaluating 6 different variations on speaker cables, actually made a spread sheet and evaluated a variety of qualities.

All of this is very interesting, but I think I just want to get over it and enjoy the music. Gonna try to do that tonight, wish me luck!

drew.

 

[ebag4]

Good Luck! ;D

Best,
Ed

 

[drewh1]

Fwiw, I am finally done. After weeks of moving things, swapping Cables, measuring, breaking in caps, swearing and self doubt, I have a sound that I am ecstatic about. Finally have bass, midrange, and crystal clear treble, imaging, depth, pinpoint instrument placement and musicality. I can't drag myself away and keep going through my music collection hearing details and experiencing things I have not before.

I congratulate Paul on his design but also did major modifications from the start. What I have learned is that every little detail makes a difference. But you will have to figure that out for yourself.  If you do build a kaiju and want suggestions let me know.

I do highly recommend the Eml's tubes without reservation.  They seem to keep delivering more and more as I make other small improvements.  Great amp, fun project, this is it for awhile really . . .

 

[ebag4]

Congratulations Drew, I'm not quite where you are in the process.  It may take trying the EMLs to get there.  The Sophia RPs are good and still only have about 15 hrs in my amp, since they were used previously I don't know what to expect regarding break in. 


Best,
Ed

 

[drewh1]

Give them some time - I used to be such a skeptic about stuff breaking in. I think as my system has gotten better, I hear more differences.

Be cool if we lived closed enough to swap tubes, I am in San Francisco Bay area.  would love to hear the differences.

Oh, I also installed some NOS (60's) 5670's. Not expensive and maybe a bit smoother than the JAN's that BH provided. If I remember, you already swapped out your driver tubes.

  BTW, you got me interested in open baffle speaker designs, maybe my next project, along with converting my Stereoumour to 45's.

 

[ebag4]

Give them some time - I used to be such a skeptic about stuff breaking in. I think as my system has gotten better, I hear more differences.

Be cool if we lived closed enough to swap tubes, I am in San Francisco Bay area.  would love to hear the differences.

Oh, I also installed some NOS (60's) 5670's. Not expensive and maybe a bit smoother than the JAN's that BH provided. If I remember, you already swapped out your driver tubes.

  BTW, you got me interested in open baffle speaker designs, maybe my next project, along with converting my Stereoumour to 45's.

I'll give them more time, I believe in break in, I just didn't know what to expect since they were used previously.

I'm just outside of Louisville KY.  In another life I was in the San Francisco area fairly often, the company I worked for had a branch in Hayward. 

You are correct, I did pick up some NOS GE 5 star 5670s, they sound nice but I still find myself listening for something my Stereomour does, a certain presence on a couple of tracks.  I am beginning to suspect a difference in caps, but I dont recall hearing it until I put the JJs and the psvane in the Stereomour, maybe not until the JJ had broken in.  I may try the Mundorf silver oils in the coupling cap position like my Stereomour has, unfortunately I won't be able to get Ampohms in 10uF, even if I could they wouldn't fit!  Don't get me wrong, the Kaiju does some things that the Stereomour doesn't, and it does so without strain, I am really enjoying the sound, however, if I can get the sound tweaked just a tad more I will be completely happy.  Of course I need to be more patient, the Stereomour didn't sound the way it does overnight.

Regarding open baffle speakers, for me they were addicting.  I have been listening to OBs since the early 2000s.  The set I am running currently are the best I have had, they use the same bass section as my previous pair which used a coaxial driver from 200Hz up, the current set are more refined.  The only roadblock for OBs is you have to pull them out from the front wall a minimum of 36", more is better.

Best,
Ed

 

[ebag4]

Sorry to spam your thread Drew, but since I mentioned it in my post above, I thought I would post what I have found to be the issue.  I noted above that I was looking for a "presence" on a couple of tracks that I enjoyed with my Stereomour that seemed to be lacking in the Kaiju.  Well Im happy to say that presence is back!  It seems my Auralic Aries auto updated the same day I received my Sophia RP tubes.  I did not realize it had updated, nor did I realize that my DSD tracks were playing as PCM.  The two tracks I was specifically having an issue with happened to be DSD files, once I found that the update had defaulted to the DOP setting off, I turned it on and Viola! There was the presence I was missing.

Sorry for the rambling.

Best,
Ed

 

[drewh1]

No worries Ed,  I am glad to know someone else is obsessing as much as I am.    Quick story for you:  at one point I seemed to lose all of my soundstage and everything sounded flat and 2d. I swapped Cables and moved things around.  After a week of frustration, I discovered I had at some point plugged the amp into the digital component side of my my power conditioner. I moved it to the high current side and everything sounded great again.

Glad you enjoying the sophias. Try sitting back with a beverage and listening for a while. It's fun!