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Post by PinkFloyd on Sept 15, 2012 20:26:45 GMT
These are, literally, built from the ground up Ian and the precision fit of the enclosure is such that it's a pig to seperate the parts.... it's also VERY tricky realigning the pins on the amp board after dismantling. The good news is you don't have to open the unit as the parts are of extremely good quality, just look at the photos, I just don't know how they do it for the price. This is no "indeed" or "Bravo" mickey mouse type build, the T1 is built like a battleship with the finest of components. I'm sorry to hear about your knob though Ian, they are very small screws that hold them on (grub screw) and sounds like your knob was not seated correctly..... the correct screwdriver is a MUST for these as you can easily damage the head of the grub screw if you go at it with the wrong bit. I've started on a Little Pinkie for the T1 and will give it a whirl as soon as I get my hands back on a T1. The stock transformer, supplied with the T1, is a very capable unit and I would be in no hurry to replace it, it is MORE than up for the job but I'll see if a toroidal makes any difference to the overall SQ.... if it does I'd imagine it would be subtle but you never know, let's see how it goes  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2012 21:18:05 GMT
Are you going to keep one for yourself, Mike?
The knob wasn't a biggie. ;D It wasn't seated right for sure but the head had been tightened right down and it wouldn't budge!!
I would have changed it anyway because I had a spare gold one sitting around and I wanted a little bit more height on the volume knob. It's been playing all day today. Even good with the K601. Drives it like a portable headphone.
Not one bit of noise from it either. I expected some buzzing or hissing with the tube out - not a thing. Also, it doesn't get hot which is nice.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Sept 15, 2012 22:39:06 GMT
I'm gonna keep ten of them  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2012 22:46:09 GMT
You could have two volume knobs either side for stereo balance and call them a nice pair. AHA - Photobucket have it sorted:   Hi Ian Very classy indeed ! Regards Alex |
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Post by absorb on Sept 15, 2012 23:14:40 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2012 11:08:06 GMT
I think they probably will be but you will get a far better tube from Pink Floyd himself. He checks them himself before posting and he has some real gems.
The 6922 eb is a really nice sounding tube that works well with this amp and you are absolutely assured of the quality of them as well with PF.
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mrarroyo
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Post by mrarroyo on Sept 16, 2012 11:23:28 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2012 13:18:30 GMT
Oooh 'eck have I boo boo'ed?
The title says 'NOS RUSSIAN VALVES ECC88 / 6922' but the pictures say something different I think .......
Are you having a go with the T1 Miguel?
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joethearachnid
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Post by joethearachnid on Sept 16, 2012 20:39:39 GMT
I could've hear one of these yesterday but frustratingly the PSU also had one of those flat-prong US type plugs and we didn't have an adapter for it...  I also managed to win a new decent amp/DAC for nowt yesterday, so I suppose the T1 is now of less use to me anyway - though it might be nice to have a few bits of valve gear around. -JoetheArachnid |
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layums
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Thank you for the untips
Just started electrical fixing, to go with my other fixing bad habits :)
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Post by layums on Sept 17, 2012 7:56:30 GMT
Things will get interesting when you all start modding this one.everyones on the wantone wagon now.
Think it's got great potential.
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mrarroyo
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Post by mrarroyo on Sept 17, 2012 9:44:52 GMT
Oooh 'eck have I boo boo'ed? The title says 'NOS RUSSIAN VALVES ECC88 / 6922' but the pictures say something different I think ....... Are you having a go with the T1 Miguel? No for now, I need to sell a bunch of stuff which sadly are not selling. |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Sept 17, 2012 10:21:24 GMT
No, they are not compatible, that advert is not correct, the 6N2P is NOT the same as an E88CC / 6922. |
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Crispy
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Post by Crispy on Sept 17, 2012 15:02:00 GMT
Ian. Just to let you know the T1 arrived at 9.00am this morning, I only just caught the postman before I went out because I was not expecting it so early. It is very well packaged and everything seems OK, no dents or scratches. Good job you mentioned the manual as I nearly missed it among the wrapping.  I Haven't had time to have a listen yet - been busy tiling the kitchen I can't wait to hear it now and I may get a chance later on tonight - if not sometime tomorrow. My first impression is that the build quality is superb and the power supply seems very meaty, but I was also surprised how small it was -130mm x 100mm - it looks so much bigger in the photo's. Thanks Ian |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2012 15:25:32 GMT
Great. Looking forward to see what you think of it, Chris.  |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Sept 17, 2012 22:17:41 GMT
I've been having a look at my "special reserve" vintage stock of 6N23P valves and have some real beauties from the 1960's which I am willing to sell..... They were "rainy day" valves and that rainy day has come.... it's a bit daft me keeping them in a cupboard when they could / should be making sweet music. These are the old school "UBER" rare 6N23P with twin getter supports, the construction is just amazing, never seen the light of day for over 40 years and ready to rock! These 1960's built 6N23P are so rare because they are so good... much the same as a vintage wine or a piece of mature cheese.... these puppies deliver where it counts..... your ears! They don't come cheap at £30 but that £30 is guaranteed to buy you a taste of the finest Russian (think Rasputin at his peak).... I've got twenty of these and when they're gone they are gone..... Just like Rasputin, from the scriptures of Boney M..... " There was a cat that really was gone" And so it came to pass....... "they shot him till he was dead" Ahhh...... those Russians Full lyrics here: www.lyricsdepot.com/boney-m/rasputin.html |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Sept 17, 2012 22:22:13 GMT
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Post by absorb on Sept 18, 2012 8:12:00 GMT
Thanks for that info PinkFloyd, I will set up my system properly and look into it after. I have an uncle that may have a shed full of valve gear unless he's biffed it that I will go see before I do anything. He's been designing circuits since before transistors were invented so I will pick his brains  I also bought a small linux box which works well with the T1 so the T1 must have a good universal usb driver as many dac's won't work with it. www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=510777124I can control it from my mobile phone but there is a lot of work configuring it since linux is foreign to me. That's where my brother comes in |
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mrarroyo
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Post by mrarroyo on Sept 18, 2012 9:51:31 GMT
Mike, any chance you can post some pics of these Russian valves.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Sept 18, 2012 10:53:58 GMT
Mike, any chance you can post some pics of these Russian valves. Sure Miguel. |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Sept 18, 2012 13:56:30 GMT
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Crispy
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Post by Crispy on Sept 18, 2012 15:13:24 GMT
I know you guys are all waiting to hear what I think of the T1, well it may take me a while as I soon realised that I probably have a bit to say about it and will have to feed you bits at a time. I did not have a lot of time last night to have a good listen but I could not wait and it was about 9.30pm before I switched on my computer. All I can say is that after a bit of bother getting it to play (I will explain later on) I only listened to two tracks and was very impressed even though I was tired. INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:The packaging is excellent I doubt very much the T1 would be damaged in transit? Once the Valve warms up it glows a really nice bluey/white colour with two orangey/red pins glowing at the top like terminator eyes (Saying you'll be back).   I turned the volume up fully with nothing playing / inky black silence. - Always a good sign in my eyes. It switches off instantly. The user manual is self explanatory but even then I started reading it Chinese version first, it was only when I got half way through and it changed to English upside down I realised my mistake.  My only criticism with the manual is that I think it should have a fault finding section for numpties like me who come across any problems. BUILD QUALITY:Built like Arnold Swarzenegger, it is superb build quality with nice round curves to the box - it just shouts quality at you. I really like the anodised brushed aluminium finish. The only downside I can see is the valve guard - acrylic does not do it for me and would like to see stainless steel or something similar, having said that the guard protects the valve very well and is more than adequate for the job. The Russian Electro Harmonix 6922EH valve also shouts quality as does the ceramic gold plated pinned valve base. The power supply is very meaty and very quiet; you can only hear a slight buzz if you put your ear to it, which nobody is going to do that - except me? The supplied USB cable looks very well made and is a decent length. The only downside to me is plug and play should be exactly that and ideally the T1 should take its power from the computer USB. I personally think this would be a downgrade and would love to see the supplied PSU / or little Pinky in a matching case so that you can proudly put it on display next to the DAC. EASE OF USE:Windows detected it straight away and said the device was ready to use. As I mentioned earlier this is where I had a little trouble. Plug and play was not quite so simple. I initially installed it via my little robot USB extension - nothing at all. I then plugged it into my front USB on the computer / nothing at all. I then thought I must be doing something wrong? I then plugged it into the rear USB port and again nothing. After about half an hour double checking every cable etc I decided to look at windows and went into control Panel / sounds / playback. Bingo, after setting the Aune T1 as the default playback device I was cooking on gas. Now that I had sounds I listened on 0db gain and found that I was turning the volume up to nearly full to get a reasonable listening sound. Two flicks of the gain switches and I had 10db of gain and volume was normal. I later saw that the volume bar on Foobar was set very low so I adjusted that and set the gain back to zero. Again normal listening volume so I will probably leave it like that. It is very handy to know that if you have some difficult to drive headphones then the T1 has more muscle than Arnie to drive them with ease. Portability is the key strength of the T1 as it can easily be transferred from one computer to another or laptop, unlike an internal computer soundcard. If you have for example an Asus Zonar pci soundcard which in my eyes is in direct competition, it cannot easily be transferred and definitely cannot be used in a laptop? Easy access to the Tube means tube rolling and easy, but because I do not have any spare tubes I will not be doing that (Shame). This will have to do you for now and it will probably be Thursday before I can really give the T1 some welly. I have just had another quick listen to The Doors - Riders on the Storm while putting the final touches to this mini report. WOW the hairs on my arms were bolt upright, so if that is the sample I can't wait for Thursday, but I know deep down I will sneak in another quick listen before then. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2012 15:31:25 GMT
I got something similar with it, Chris. It just conveys the music so well and on some pieces, when you go to some other amps, you realise just how well it was doing.
I did some direct a/b ing and it stands up really well against other amps. The lack of noise was also a pleasant surprise. There's also no noise on switch on/off. The relay is really smooth and you can leave your headphones in without a nasty pop.
The volume thing is kind of similar to what I did. I had a 'hidden' volume setting too low so it does pay to go through all the computer sound settings. Mine was within the 'control panel' sound section.
If it was powered just via usb, there would be no guts available. It uses a healthy amount of voltage which no usb could provide. (only 5v available)
I really like it as a straight amp and find myself using it all of the time.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2012 16:37:25 GMT
Hmmmm, can't wait to hear this one, you guys are making me very curious. Has anyone, thus far, done direct comparisons in a blow for blow stylee with other USB DAC/Amps or even separate two box combos? Especially with something like the X-can 1/2/3 etc involved, being a well known standard for a hybrid design. Good value is one thing but it does actually outshine products of say double the cost? What say yee |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2012 17:50:34 GMT
Hmmmm, can't wait to hear this one, you guys are making me very curious. Has anyone, thus far, done direct comparisons in a blow for blow stylee with other USB DAC/Amps or even separate two box combos? Especially with something like the X-can 1/2/3 etc involved, being a well known standard for a hybrid design. Good value is one thing but it does actually outshine products of say double the cost? What say yee I did Chris, and it's a little embarrassing!! It holds its own against them all. I feel that it sounds better than some more expensive amps in some ways. Noise levels are way down. Central focus is very sharp - if you get the volume set at a good 'focusing' level, it is actually extremely good. Bass slam is excellent. It also has a warmish sound without being dull so it's kind of 'vibrant' as well. I'd be happy if it had been more expensive. I didn't compare with the V8 since the cost difference is quite wide, but it's all very close to me. It is also a cool runner for something with a tube. I really like that. Too often, tube amps run too hot for long term reliability. The casing just gets a bit warm but no real heat. I've been using it exclusively since I got the review one from Dave and I feel perfectly happy with its sound. On some recordings, it just suddenly hits you how stunning it sounds. It was the slam and central focus that caught my attention from the start and before I knew it, I'd ordered one for myself and now it takes pride of place with gold knobs on!!  However, I do find it difficult to 'judge' your hearing in comparison to mine, Chris. Especially now after seeing the 'audiology' graph, so you may hear it quite differently to me!! That's why it's nice that you'll get your hands on it to hear yourself. If you have any tubes, for me, the 6922eb is really beneficial, although Mike has found another one in his collection that also looks rather nice!!! Maybe Mike could do some proper 'rolling' when he gets his ten because this is the first I've seen that accepts digital input with the bonus of being able to slightly 'shape' the sound just by changing the tube. It seems to have quite a strong effect (for me) on the T1. |
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Post by PinkFloyd on Sept 18, 2012 18:35:17 GMT
Ian, I've got nigh on 1,000 6N23P-EB (in factory sealed boxes / individual cartons), about 250 JAN / Philips 6922, 200 x 6N23P, 100 X Chinese 6N11J, LOADS of assorted brand E88CC / ECC88 etc. so WILL do a bit of a valve roll when the ten units arrive ;-) The Chinese ones may be interesting, they're Chinese military 6922 variants and I bought a carton of 100 a few years ago..... tried a couple in the V2 and they were very good...... anyhoooooo, loads to try.
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I also managed to win a new decent amp/DAC for nowt yesterday, so I suppose the T1 is now of less use to me anyway - though it might be nice to have a few bits of valve gear around.
My only criticism with the manual is that I think it should have a fault finding section for numpties like me who come across any problems.