I bought this amp and iâm loving it. When using the volume pot i have to tune it by the micrometer lol. But ive got good motor control so its not a problem lol.
Ive been tube rolling on this amp a lot and i was surprise to find out that the 6N1P-EV 6DJ8 ECC88 6922 Russian NOS doesnât work on it. I contacted the seller on ebay and he said they dont work on it and its a known issue. anyone heard about this?
I also just tried a pair of Mullards on it and they did not work either. the seller said âthese are the incorrect tube for the Liquid Platinum. That preamp should be using 6922s rather than 12AU7s.â I guess this tube thing isnt as simple as i thought lol.
6DJ8âs are pin compatible with a 6922, but they arenât rated for the same voltage IIRC.
i.e. itâs safe to replace a 6DJ8 with a 6922, but not the other way around.
12A?7âs etc are completely not compatible, they have a different filament Voltage among other âissuesâ.
I dont understand all this stuff. iâm new to tubes. can you list the model numbers for the tubes that work with it so i dont buy the wrong tubes in the future?
The easiest way to do this is troll the head-fi thread on tube rolling for the Liquid Platinum and try some of the suggestions. Bear in mind some people are using adapters.
Or stick to things you can verify are actual 6922âs or E88CCâs.
Note ECC88 is a 6DJ8, and E88CC is a 6922.
Just because you can plug it into the socket doesnât mean it will work or even that itâs safe to do so, there is a chance you could destroy the amp by plugging the wrong tube in there.
Both the 6922 and the 6DJ8 both are specâd for the same heater voltage: 6.3V. They differ in the amount of heater current they draw: 300mA for the 6922 and 365mA for the 6DJ8. Alex Cavalli mentioned that one shouldnât use tubes that draw over 350mA of heater current (https://www.head-fi.org/threads/liquid-platinum-tube-rollers.898852/post-14799862), which rules out using the 6DJ8 with the LP for long-term use (it draws too much heater current).
7308âs are specâd at 6.3V and draw 335mA of heater current, but are generally pricier than the 6922âs.
If you have a preamp, a passive volume controller (e.g. JBLâs nanopatch), or can control the volume from your dac/source, then you can turn the volume of the Liquid Platinum to its unity gain (around 1:30pm on volume knob). Someone set their preamp gain down to -10dB on their player (Liquid Spark vs Monolith THX 887). When I use the unity gain, I set my playerâs preamp down -12dB. Tbh, I like the sound without fiddling with my preamp settings despite having to whip out the old micrometer from time to time
At unity gain, input and output of a component have the same voltage levels.
Having unity gain throughout a signal chain helps with SNR and distortion.
I had the same issue on my first LP. I ordered another LP from monoprice and this one was better but the jump was still there at 10-11. It sounds great i get it but I canât be bothered with such a giant leap in sound. Sending it back for the last time and getting a LYR 3. It may not be the same sound wise but has no shouty issues on the pot. My chain was a BF2 > balanced cables > LP > Balanced 250 ohm HPâs.
A quick workaround would be to lower your pre-amp gain so that you can comfortably use volumes above 11 oâclock, but yeah the LP really needed a gain switch.
I donât think you can lower the volume with a BF2.
I wondered about that as I use my SU-8 to lower the input volume by quite a bit.
And still my efficient headphones are limited to a range of 8:00-9:00 and my lees efficient headphones top out at 10:00-11:00.
We could use a workaround to make up for a faulty pot but for a $500 piece of equipment it should at least function properly. Oh well i guess something else will have to do.
