I’m still rather new to tube amps and tube rolling in general, anybody have some advice on burning in new tubes? best practices, how long to burn in? stuff like that. thanks in advance.
While I don’t think this is super necessary, if you want to burn then in for the first time, turn them on and just let them sit for around 24 hours. Then after that, just use them normally, but let them warm up for around 20-30 minutes before use, and do this for the first 20ish listening sessions. After that just use as normal, and allow them to warm up for around 20 seconds before use.
The tubes sound will naturally go up in performance throughout it’s life, hit a peak, and then go back down until they start to sound bad. So make sure to turn them off if you aren’t using them to preserve the life of the tube after that initial new tube burn in
4 Likes
I really enjoy my Darkvoice amp, i had severe humming with my stock tube (the small one) and my upgraded RCA, and Tungsol. I needed to let all three burn in for close to a week each. That worked for me, absolutely no hum at all now using any of my current tubes. I also use it as a pre-amp for my speaker amplifiers. There is still a little bit of hum but it not noticeable once the volume kicks in. It annoys me that i know it’s there and i’m working on finding a solution but overall i am very pleased with it and it works well with most of my gear. I don’t have a critical ear and most of my music is of the hip-hop, rap, classical rock and jazz genre so i no longer sweat allot of the audiofile comments pertaining to very subtle variations in sound. I know what i enjoy and have learned to spend more time with the music rather than the gear. The Darkvoice is a relatively painless expenditure for a bit of variety in your sound. Feel free to spend allot more on gear if your musical requirements are such, i think for an average person you can’t go wrong. At some point you will need to invest in cans that are 300ohms or more to get a bit more volume out of the amp. YMMV…
3 Likes
What are some headphones that work well with the darkvoice that aren’t sennheiser 6xx line? Would like to expand my usable cans for this thing.
Also Is it worth picking up a pair of HD 600 if I already have HD 6XX? Specifically for use with this tube amp.
Regarding the 600 question, it’s probably not worth it if you already have the 650/6xx. They’re just too close
I’ve had my DarkVoice for a little while now and my current set of tubes are a Telefunken 6080 and a NOS Tung-Sol 6SN7.
Was gonna just chill and enjoy my DV with my TS 7236 & 6SN7GTB but then this happened…
“but you said that you weren’t gonna lose your head?” yeah right. LOL
Raytheon JAN 6080
GE 6080
Tung Sol 7236
GE 6AS7G
RCA 6SN7 (x2)
KenRad JAN-CHR-6SN7GT
TungSol JAN-CTL-6SN7GTA
Sylvania 6SN7WGTA
Hytron JAN-CHY-6SN7GT
RCA 6SN7 (smoked/grey glass)
Got a good deal on this lot, now I have a ton of shit to play around with.
9 Likes
your favorites? Im currently trying to roll some tubes!
I’m still sticking with my tungsol 7236 as my power tube (just a great tube with lots of warmth and tight bass). But I’ve been loving the hytron jan-chy-6sn7gt I picked up in that bundle paired with the 7236 . I also still roll my tungsol 6sn7gtb as well since it is comparable to the hytron but with more air.
RCA 6080 power tube, and just about any Tungsol pre tube.
1 Like
I like the combination of the Telefunken 6080 and NOS Tung-Sol 6SN7 or Ken-Rad VT231.
Where did you get the 7236? I just received winged C and it’s humming pretty bad…
Disregard, I found one on eBay. Worth it? I have the Tung-Sol 6SN7GTB. The winged C had good reviews from the tube store but mine had a bad buzz. With the volume all the way down it was bad. Both left and right.
The Darkvoice, in general has issues with hum by design. You have some options. 1 is to spend money on a ton of tubes until you find one that doesn’t buzz. 2 is if you are handy with a soldering iron, perform the fitz mod. 3. If you are really technically sound, replacing the transformer entirely. I ended up doing the Fitz Mod on mine and it worked. If you google fitz mod darkvoice, you should come up with some head-fi threads.
1 Like
Ok thanks! The stock tubes had zero issues but when I switched the power tube it buzzed. I’m going to let the tube burn in a little and see what happens. And I’ll switch to another power tube and go from there. Thank you!
NP…burn in on tubes can fix the matter, just be careful.
1 Like
Yeah, I think eventually I’ll build or get a better tube amp. We’ll see how this goes for now.
I understand. I Fitz modded mine. It took some courage as I have only used a soldering iron a few times. I was surprised at how easy it was. Eliminated all hum and buzz. The only hum/buzz that I hear now is if there is something wrong with the tubes. 
2 Likes
I do like to tinker with shit haha. May give me a weekend project. 
1 Like
Ooo Darkvoice Hum, I have mine here and I gotta say, best solution for me was ripping the transformer out and slapping a new one in. Hardest Part of the Ordeal was melting the Silicon they use to keep the DV box-case thing covering the Transformer. After that the Transformer has the Company’s Website on it, just contact them and get a new transformer from them. Oh that and soldering the transformer back onto the board, if the 135V leads are too long the damn board won’t fit right cuz the wires push the board up and bend it, and too short and it becomes a nightmare to solder those wires. Besides if you try too many times the actual metal contacts on the board come lose and you can pull them off accidentally, thankfully the holes have contacts on both sides so you can pull one accidentally and still have a second shot. Also the Heater Wires Too, those being Thicker due to having Higher Current tend to also push the board up as well, although those don’t need to go on the board, you can just solder those directly to the 6AS7 Tube socket and go from there, it just looks a bit nicer coming from the Board.
Overall it was a super duper annoying ordeal and sucked dong, but it was worth it. Heater voltages are now ~6.3V (When under load) and the amp is quiet with any driver, even my Kenrad VT231 and that thing is microphonic on most other amps, and Doubly so on an Un-Modded Darkvoice.
Hum-Fitz (Cathode Bypass Cap) is another solution, that or Dropping Resistors, either one works well too with relative drawbacks. The Caps don’t actually fix the Heater Issue and introduce possibly unwanted Gain, and the Resistors have to be calculated to drop the right amount of voltage, so essentially just disconnect the heaters from the tubes, and check the voltage with a Multi-meter when you turn it on (The Heater Voltage here isn’t deadly but the amp will still have High Voltage where the plates go, which can be deadly), then just do the correct math for the resistance required to drop that Voltage + Heat Dissipation Necessary as well as the space you need for said resistors.
Also no matter which solution you choose, I recommend twisting the Heater Supply so that it can reject some noise somewhat or at least even it out. Besides It Looks Neater That Way, Less stuff.
And If you REALLY want to reduce noise more maybe after making twisted heaters, add a third bare wire that coils all the way around the Heaters as tight as possible (Without messing with the Heater Wire’s Insulation tho), and plug at least one end to ground to act as shielding. Also do that to the Signal Wires too If you want although I think it already does this if by chance you never replaced the Potentiometer.
If you do go the Hum-Fitz Route, maybe replace the Cathode Resistors in the Driver with LEDs like in the Bottlehead Crack (Your choice tho). Also The Noise mostly comes from the Driver not the Power Tube, so concentrate your efforts on the 6SN7 if you’re just in it to remove the hum.
4 Likes
For the Fitz mod, you install 2 Nichicon VX Axial Series Electrolytic Capacitors - 16volts 220uF. Works like a charm. It will hold me over until I build my bottlehead crack.
2 Likes