Arjen Helder tube pre on ta2020 and maybe a MINIDSP?

[JOHNNYFAMOUS]

has anyone seen the new tube pre? I am very curious on thoughts combining this board with a TA2020. I own a sure amp and there is allot of noise. The idea of incorporating a tube sounds interesting but there does not seem to be much posted here on this combination..


I might even add a miniDSP in one chassis....with a 2.1 plugin.. ?


MKIV Universal Pre-amp Uses all double triode 11 pins valves! 14~30V input! | eBay

[Bone]

11 pin valves?????

[vakkuj]

I have ordered one from Arjen and mine is on the way..

[damarfi]

I see that Arjen corrected it. It is not 11 pins now, it is 9 pins.

[Johnny2Bad]

I don't see any reason to expect it would not perform well, although the supplied Chinese 6N11 may be microphonic which is typical of this tube type.

The tube was originally designed to replace a TV tube but found favour in test equipment (Tektronix scopes, etc). They were popularly re-purposed for low noise phono preamp and headphone amplifier use.

The North American equivalent is 6DJ8 and European is ECC88. For audio use you may want to substitute 6922 (North America) or E88CC (Europe) and British Military CV2493 or European Military E88CC/01 which are all low microphonic versions and typically have gold pins.

Other versions are CV2492 which may or may not be military; as well as the European manufacture they were also made in Yugoslavia and Russia well into the 1980's, possibly longer.

The Amperex Holland/France E188C is a European version of the 7308 (following). Gold pins, high specification.

The 7308 is a US high specification version; matched triode sections, and very tight selection so that any two tubes from the same manufacturer should match very tightly to each other. Gold pins.

All of these tubes in general are quiet with the E188C and 7308 essentially noiseless under almost any circumstances.

Beware of fakes; Chinese knock-offs of Telefunken ECC88, Amperex/Phillips "Bugle Boy" ECC88 are known to exist. The genuine Telefunken labels on the tube itself are somewhat chalky and tend to wipe off; fakes do not wipe off. Similarly, "Bugle Boy" tubes are nicknamed for the cartoon logo on the tube; they were never officially called that by Amperex. The knock-offs sometimes have "Bugle Boy" on the carton itself, a sure sign of a fake. Put another way, "Bugle Boy" should always appear in quotation marks since it's a nickname not a trademark.

I am not a fan of the capacitors used in Arjen's stock boards; you could replace the "audiophiler" marked red caps with your choice. Similarly the volume control is a commodity-spec unit that you may want to consider replacing. Other than that, I don't see any major issues with the setup (although I haven't heard the new tube preamp myself). You should have a basic meter to check trimpot values on the preamp and also DC offset with Arjen's Tripath amps.

An example of an original "Bugle Boy" cartoon logo marked tube:

[reo]

have also ordered the tube pre , and also ordered a 9 pin 6H23n-EB from the tubestore with both sections matched so will see how they do, will be interesting to compare with the included tube .
As to the audiophilers well i'm sure it's important to hear all recorded frequencies as they were intended but maybe other than audiophilers can have different signature tones that sound more gracefully musical, especially in the high frequency notes which tend to be exacerbated when using full-range drivers .
reo

[reo]

anyone got the pre-amp up and running , i have mine but not knowing how to and where to probe to check currents , i'm sitting on it for now
regards
roland

[JOHNNYFAMOUS]

Originally Posted by reo

anyone got the pre-amp up and running , i have mine but not knowing how to and where to probe to check currents , i'm sitting on it for now
regards
roland

any luck yet???

i have stil not purchased,, waiting for some feed back??

[JOHNNYFAMOUS]

Originally Posted by vakkuj

I have ordered one from Arjen and mine is on the way..

do you have any results or perspectives to post? i would be very interested in your feedback?

[reo]

hi
follow up from my last post
i have it up running i have adjusted the heater to 6.3V and high voltage 75V for the included tube .
So all is well and working fine .
regards
rol