Comparisons moved to link on first post
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Should be implied lol. If people consider unorganized ramblings something they can call a review, the state of audio reviews have hit a very low point lol
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You just keep on Ramblingā¦Iāll take your āunorganized ramblingsā over some of the top reviewers any day of the week! 
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Comparisons moved to link in first post in thread
Also, apologies for kinda spamming this thread, I figure I might as well put more info out on this amp since thereās not much and someone wanted thoughts so theyāre going to get thoughts dammit, it really is good for the money and something to consider for sure, just trying to see if I can try and show where it compares to whatās more commonly out there
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If there is such a thing as good spam then I would take this all day, as would most members !!!
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I like the rambles. They make for good reads.
I was going to ask about a bhc but it seems you beat me to it. I know, especially if you do the work yourself and get it on sale, the bhc is a great value that punches more around the $800 mark.
This quicksilver seems to be a great value at $1k and wants to give amps twice the price a real run for the money.
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I personally wouldnāt agree imo, that puts it in competition with stuff like the echo/tuba/ha-1a mk2/wa6 2nd/ear+ hd ii/etc and personally on a technical level I donāt think the crack competes overall. You might be able to get it close with higher end caps and resistors, psu mods, and a nicer volume pot and wiring, but at that point thatās quite a bit to pay for a crack as thereās only so far you can take it. The crack is a really great value, but I donāt think itās that good per se
It wants to yeah for sure, but if it actually does it depends. Itās in a hard spot to be, from 1-2k you have a barren market for tube amps, alot of the good tube amps start coming up after 2k+ and thereās not much from 1-2k so itās hard to find a whole lot of comparisons that really are reasonable imo. I would just say that I think if they tacked an extra 500 bucks onto this amp it would still be worthwhile unless more competition in the 1-2k range starts to pop up
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This may be the soundstage upgrade Iām looking for over the DarkVoice. Thanks for making the post!
The only other amp where people seem to mention soundstage like this is the Figaro 339. Which so happens to be on sale at Drop. Rare times
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No problem, this would def be a big upgrade from a darkvoice overall, what headphones will you be running and what dac? Still hd600s?
Iād say another tube amp under 1k with fairly immersive soundstage would be the bottlehead crack + speedball, that might be a more logical upgrade over the darkvoice as well, but the quicksilver is a step ahead but also in a different sonic direction. The feliks echo has a spacious stage but itās not as immersive and grand sounding as like the crack or the quicksilver. Another amp to consider with fairly fun sound and spacious stage might be the mapletree audio mellow boy octal duo. I have heard the 339 in passing and wasnāt too impressed for the price, it was an upgrade from a darkvoice with a similar signature, but also didnāt feel like it competed well for itās price and wasnāt a good value (where the darkvoice was a better value)
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Thank you for the commentary/discussion around this piece.
Each time I got ready to reply or comment with a question, I caught a glimpse of something in your next set of writings. After the 3rd time I realized I just needed to read the entire thread. For myself, you addressed or answered all of what I was going to ask. For the moment, anywayā¦
Lol yeah sorry about the nonlinear stream of thoughts almost, I should have just made it into one post with some semblance of organization but Iām lazy and it wasnāt something that I wanted to do in one sitting anyway, as I wanted to just post what came to me vs try and force myself to think about it
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Dudeā¦you should start a Channel man. Just off rip. Your sheer experience alone is valuable. Looking at your setup and the products you ownā¦daaaamn son. Iām genuinely mindblown over here.
OF COURSE HD600s yo. All I need from them is bass and soundstage/imaging. That would make them perfect. I can EQ the bass in. That isnāt a problem. But soundstage? Can only be done by tubes.
I use a S.M.S.L. Sanskrit 6th. Since Iām soldering balanced cables, Iām going to eventually move to a balanced setup. The Sanskrit 6th most likely will be replaced. Would a DAC make a big difference with tubes? I only have my phone and 6th for reference.
As far as different sonic direction, I donāt mind what you described. That would actually play well with EQing if i decided to do so.
I had my eye on the Quicksilver Amp for a while so I may just go with that. I also have a curiousity with the Tor Audio Balanced Amps/DACs.
Thats why I be sayin dude. You would make a nutty Youtuber.
Lol Iām not really interested in doing that, I more just do this stuff for fun
Gotcha gotcha, def one of the headphones that begs to be paired with tube amps, especially otl
With something like a quicksilver for sure, that would be a massive bottleneck if you stuck with the sanskrit, or mostly any other higher end amp for that matter. You could upgrade your dac and even with the darkvoice get good benefit depending on what you choose. I would say if you go with a quicksilver, the bifrost 2 would be my pick for a reasonable price for enjoyment factor while being plenty technical, other options would be more expensive
I havenāt tried doing any eq with this amp, but I would say it could potentially respond well if it wasnāt overdone
So I havenāt heard the tor balanced, but I have heard the tor roger and while that was an enjoyably tuned and reasonably competent tube amp for the money, I donāt really think itās on the same level as the quicksilver from my experiences
Iād say donāt get too caught up on things being balanced, as itās more a design choice than anything. A good single ended amp can sound as good as a good balanced amp. Personally I see more benefit from having balanced inputs rather than a balanced output. For a true balanced tube amp, you will be looking around 2k+ and even then most tube amps arenāt really true balanced and balanced outputs are more there for convenience rather than anything. How most tube amps get balanced input and output is through a transformer, so typically they are internally single ended, and will convert balanced incoming to single ended if they have balanced in, or take single ended and convert it to balanced on the headphone out side of things. Whereas a true balanced amp is pretty different (and fairly uncommon in tube amps), but Iād say it doesnāt really matter all that much. All that matters is that you get quality gear, it will sound great if itās quality regardless of if itās balanced or not.
lol thanks for the praise but I donāt think thatās in my plans anytime soon
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Thanks for the info again!
Trust me Iām not getting too caught up with it. I figure if iām upgrading the DAC, I might give it the shot at least from a power perspective. It seems like every amp that has a balanced section also has more power available to it. And since I still plan on getting the DT-880, why not right?
I mean it all depends. If we compare the power output of the tor balanced amp which is a similar price, that gives you 450mw, whereas the quicksilver should give you (I read somewhere) 3.5 watts. Iād say if you are after balanced input and output and power with still good quality, you would be setting your sights more with something like a cayin ha-6a which I think is balanced, and will give you a bit more power (really not much more powerful than the quicksilver though for example), but itās also a higher quality amp overall in a higher price bracket. I canāt really think of many under 2k examples of a tube amp with balanced input and output. So mainly your logic of balanced having more power holds somewhat true in solid state amps, but for tube amps it can wildly vary and just having balanced will not mean something is more powerful.
Also something to consider, you mainly want quality of power, not quantity. Letās take the dt880 600 for example, that can sound fantastic with only a few hundred milliwatts as long as the power is quality, I personally think something like the rupert neve rnhp is higher preforming than a topping a90 or 789 with a 880 600 ohm despite the minimal power that thing puts out (but you need a dac with high gain). Also regarding the power statement, if you compare another amp in the same price bracket as the topping a90, the lake people g111, that amp outputs more power at 600 ohms single ended than the a90 does balanced at 600 ohms, despite the g111 being single ended. The reason people think the 880 600 ohm is a power hungry headphone tends to not actually be power, but more just because it is more amp picky on what it will sound good with as it really appreciates quality of power more than quantity (but ideally you can have both lol)
To basically sum things up, donāt assume balanced is better sounding, donāt assume balanced is more powerful for tube amps (and some solid state), and quality quality of power is more important than quantity of power. There will be some cases where you do want to go balanced, and some cases where you will stick single ended, and that all comes down to the amp you end up going with, as you are just going to use the preferred output method of that amp
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So @M0N can i skip the Bottlehead and just use this for High and Low Impedance stuff? I think this with a Cyan would cover me for everything really
It is a great all rounder overall, so I think it totally could. Before I comment on the cyan pairing, let me go test with some dacs that I can use to estimate the synergy of the cyan with this amp from memory
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awesome thank you
I think it would be a pretty solid pairing, I might say there could be a bit of potential dryness but otherwise I donāt foresee any problems with that combo
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Right on right on