I wanted to know everyone’s thoughts if I modify my DV by making it a blacker background removing some of that humm will that make each tube stand out more?
If the tubes are humming burn them in. It’s probably the front tube. Remove the rear, leave only the front in and run the unit for a few days. Some of my tubes took 4-5 days of doing this to quiet down , but so far each of them stopped making noise. This method worked. It also takes about 20 minutes for the amp to warm up before you stop hearing pops and hisses in the tubes.
If you are interested in modding, the fitz mod solves the hum problem. It is relatively simple if you are handy with a soldering iron.
You will need 2pcs Nichicon VX Axial Capacitors - 16v 220uF 8x16 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0745JK2NN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_OUYpEbR3VV8ZC
You are connecting the 4 and 8 o’clock pins from the 6SN7 driver socket to the central rail. That’s it!
Those pictures aren’t mine, but they are what I referenced from the head-fi fitz mod thread.
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Looking to get new tubes for my Darkvoice,right now im using the stock tubes and my headphones are K712’s…I REALLY enjoy music with tight bass, vocals and wide soundstage. Any recommendations on tubes for that?
Tung Sol 6sn7gt mouse ears, Sylvania 6sn7wgta, RCA VT-231 grey glass.
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Well it doesn’t have to be that specific capacitance, depends if you want more gain I guess, you can use 100uF to the same effect but get a bit less gain. Depends on what you want. Oh also If you want a higher quality capacitor there, I recommend an ELNA Silmic II capacitor:
100uF @ 16V:
220uF @ 16V:
Just noticed it said 7d ago . . . oof.
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A couple of head-fi’ers said minimum 80, so 100 would work. But I just was sharing my own experience as it is the only thing that I can confirm 100%. Sold my darkvoice for a decent profit recently thanks to the fitz mod. Now I just need to figure out what I want to upgrade to.
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One of the tube amps on my list… I happen to enjoy mult-function pieces though. Plenty out there and at every price point, mmm damned tubes🤪
https://www.decware.com/newsite/TABOO.htm
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I mean, if you’re looking for an upgrade, the Crack is technically a possible upgrade, it’s an easy DIY Project, has a ton of space for upgrades, and can also use the 6SN7 with an adapter (and is WAY less noisy than the DV, especially since the transformer has the correct U.S. values on the Primary). That or maybe a Hybrid? Depends on what you want from a tube I guess.
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It seems like a pretty neat amp, love the fact that it has Left/Right volume pots.
Only thing I can’t get is that they offer a Balanced Upgrade, using XLR as the inputs, but the configuration it’s in won’t allow you to take advantage of the extra volume normally, so either the upgrade is like, super extensive where the shove in Balanced to Unbalanced Transformers at the input, or they use some Solid State shenanigans (unlikely since it’s marketed as a good ole tube amp), but I mean, the amp is so small, so idk how they’d fit that, honestly, where is the OT since I didn’t see it being an OTL since it can run Planars and has LO/HI impedance settings, Circlitron maybe?
Idk, seems like an interesting amp, if you ever get one, send nudes of it (internals) cuz I mean, it boggles me how they fit so much inside it due to it’s height (Output Transformers are usually tallish). Also it seems to have the power supply in the same chassis so I mean, idk, seems really compact, also the finish on the wood and the black panel make me wish I had that much style for my own amp.
I mean if you buy it, you could buy it for how good it looks and people probably won’t question it much.
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I’m looking for more of a versatile tube amp that can do low impedance headphones and planars, so more of a hybrid. I have some time before I upgrade as I just upgraded my DAC to a Schiit Bifrost 2, so have to save up some money.
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how much would your budget be though? $500? +$1000?
One BILLION Dollars???
I am thinking between $500 and $800 bucks max.
Well here are some possible candidates:
Woo WA-6 2nd Gen (~$700)
Alex Cavalli Liquid Platinum (~$700):
Project Ember II (~$350 - ~$400):
http://garage1217.com/garage1217_diy_tube_headphone_amplifiers_006.htm
Schiit Mjolnir (~$850):
https://www.schiit.com/products/mjolnir-1
La Figaro 339 (High Transconductance) (~$600 - ~$700):
Cayin HA-1A Mk II (~$600 - ~$700):
Feliks Audio Espressivo Mk II (High TC) (~$900):
http://feliksaudio.pl/en/products.php
TOR Audio Roger: (~$550):
https://www.toraudio.com/main.html?v=6#
xDuoo TA-30: (~$700):
ECP Audio Torpedo III: (DIY ~$400 - ~$1,000,000,000):
http://www.diyforums.org/Torpedo-III/TorpedoIII-overview.php
Hagerman Audio Labs Tuba (~$650 - ~$750):
Bottlehead Single Ended eXperimenter’s Kit 3.0 (DIY ~$600):
If I can think of anything else I’ll type it up.
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Here is another interesting option, it’s been a long time since i thought of them, this thread had me searching though…
https://www.aloaudio.com/shop/continental-v5/
I was thinking about Tor Audio, Monoprice Liquid Platinum, etc.
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Yeah, buy one of those, i want to hear your opinion on them eventually. 
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Oh also all the DIY amps have a base price on their respective sites, and their upgrades cost a bit more, but since they are DIY, they can theoretically be upgraded infinitely like for example, adding 10,000,000 capacitors to the power supply in series and parallel in order to match the original capacitance and lowering ESR by being in parallel, so I put a conservative estimate of $1,000,000,000 since while improbable, it is possible for someone to do such a thing.
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I can vouch for the La Figaro 339 being a solid upgrade from the Dark Voice. They show up on Drop occasionally. I can’t speak for the stock tubes since mine arrived broken, but I had already had some decent tubes waiting that I planned to use anyway. I still don’t think planars are ideal for it, but I have run them off it without terrible results. Some sound better than others depending on the music. I don’t like the Clears off the Dark Voice at all, but they sound decent on the 339. Still not ideal, but for the price it does demonstrate that it can somewhat handle non-traditional tube headphones better than a lot of others in the same price range. Traditional tube headphones like 600s and ZMFs are incredible
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My DV got delivered just over a week ago and what was I gonna do? NOT tube roll? Yeah, right.
Anyway, currently running a Tung-Sol 6SN7GTB pre and an RCA 7613 power. Definitely a more detailed and punchier sound than the stock tubes. My only complaint is the Tung-Sol is taking its sweet time fully burning in. There was a significant hum/buzz when I first installed it (it’s definitely the pre, the buzz gets transmitted through the DV pre-out - also pretty sure Tubedepot sent me a used RCA). It took 18-20 hours before the buzz disappeared enough on my 600 ohm DT880 to be listenable. It’s now barely detectable just in the left channel of my 6XX when no music is playing.
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