Same thing happened to me with the tong sol. About two weeks ago and still a buzz in the left but not as bad. Sounds great too!
1 Like
Have you done the āHum-Fitzā mod? Itās as easy as putting a 100uF - 200uF @ 16V - 25V Capacitor on the 3 and 6 Pin of the Driver Tube Socket (The Small Oneās Socket). Itās just a Capacitor Bypass on the Cathode, tends to quiet things up at the expense of increased Gain, I recommend using high quality Electrolytic Caps, nothing too fancy, Nichicon or ELNA caps would work well, Axial preferably although Radial works as well.
Something like this:
This is an example of a Radial Capacitor being used for the Job, 220uF @ 35V, the capacitance will just mean more gain, 100uF will do the same effect but less gain in volume, just donāt go lower since it may not produce the intended effect otherwise, which is to āFix the Humā (Hum-Fitz).
Also the Voltage rating is irrelevant, as long as itās above 16V, you CAN go lower, but a 100uF @ 16V Electrolytic Capacitor is damn small already, so it doesnāt matter much to use a smaller Voltage Value Capacitor since it wonāt take up much space (Unless you use a Film Cap, but that really isnāt needed here, and itāll take up quite a bit more space).
If you donāt know or would rather not attempt to solder the Capacitors in, then just do the 72 Hour Burn in, Keep the Driver Tube in, remove the Power Tube (You can keep it in if you want though, but it may reduce itās lifespan a bit being on for so long, and kinda pointless really since you arenāt going to listen to the amp) and turn the Amp on, and just keep it on for 72 Hours.
Afterwards just turn it off, put the Power Tube back in, and hopefully the noise would have gone down.
Interesting. The noise is decreasing, so Iāll probably just let it do so. Someday I may play around with this sort of thing.
1 Like
When tubes warm up and burn in noise will decrease most of the time
2 Likes
Iām not sure what youāre asking. As long as the RCA out on the DAC is connected to an amp you can use any of the inputs on the D50s.
I would def suggest to tube roll. Donāt even have to get expensive ones, thereās good cheap tungsol/RCAs
I deleted my comment because im so torn with this unit lolā¦ I was going to wait and get a good feel for the stock tubesā¦ anything specific youād suggest? is there a sort go to upgrade here?
Well, thereās no defined direct upgrade but the NOS tung sol / RCA 6sn7 are good cheap options to start with that will change the sound for the better.
1 Like
It really depends on what type of sound you are looking for and what headphones you are using.
I think the above recommended tubes from @BoomShroom are a good starting point though.
1 Like
I would say that it also depends on what country you are located in as some tubes may be harder to find in some countries.
1 Like
Iāve gone to a Tung-Sol 6SN7GTB pre tube and an RCA 7613 power tube. That combo, and I think itās mostly the pre doing it, combines the tube sound with a healthy dose of solid state speed and resolution. The combo was about $65 from Tube Depot. Beware those Tung-Sol tubes take their sweet time burning in though.
2 Likes
I have a similar combo I like alot using a tung sol 7236 power tube and a tung sol 6sn7gtb (not the new production russian ver. But the original American NOS) and yes it is very much one of the better combos Iāve found to work well on the DV. The 7236 brings a lot of power and with that power speed and bassy goodness.
1 Like
Hd650ās currently and dt880ās should be arriving this weekā¦ more width and depth is what I noticed and appreciated initially but I also have an asgard 3 now and the staging is very comparable to that and i feel like the upper mids are smoother on the asgard 3 as wellā¦ so i guess what Iām looking for is something noticeably different from that
Iām in Canada
1 Like
Is this like EQing a headphone you dont like though? Or should I give up on this thing?
Tube rolling is similar to pad rolling on a headphone imo just another way to change the sound. Some people like to roll for different moods, days of the week, and just because they like to test different combos. Other people just find the combo that works best for their headphone and then never touch it again. It can be as complicated or involved as you want it to be.
I personally like to roll every once in a while when I get bored, but I donāt go spending all my income on the rarest of the rare tubes. And I tend to not worry too much about the technicals of what one tube adds compared to another, if it sounds good it sounds good.
The tube rabbit hole is a deep one.
4 Likes
Tung Sol 7236, JAN RCA 6AS7G and Sylvania 6080wc were my favorite power tubes. My favorite driver tubes were Tung Sol 6SN7-GTB, Ken Rad VT-231 (Black Glass), RCA VT-231 (Grey Glass).
1 Like
I really like the Sylvania VT-231
2 Likes
Does the power and the pre alter the sound equally ish?
1 Like
In my experiences no. The pre usually altered the sound the most. But their are exceptions, the tung sol 7236 sounds drastically different than some of the other power tubes I own, but thats probably due to it having a lot more power compared to some other tubes.
Once I found out that I liked the speed and bass of the 7236 I then stopped rolling the power tube and then started testing combos with different pre tubes until I found the ones that I liked the best. I donāt know if most people do it this way, but itās what worked best for me and made the act of rolling tubes a little less of a pain.
Note: this is all pertaining to the darkvoice 336se. It could be different on other higher tier amps.
5 Likes
I pretty much agree with @Towa. The only thing I did notice though is that some combinations of power and pre synergize better with each other and some that just donāt synergize well.
3 Likes