This is a dangerous forum
Get out while you still can!
Serious though, congratulations on your F6.
Of course, when you read that member X prefers Papa amp Y to the F6,
you're going to be curious. So don't be surprised if you end up building
many more amps.
Dennis
Thanks and I think it is to late. Im hookedGet out while you still can!
Serious though, congratulations on your F6.
Of course, when you read that member X prefers Papa amp Y to the F6,
you're going to be curious. So don't be surprised if you end up building
many more amps.
Dennis
I built the F6 a few weeks back and have been using it for music, movies etc. on my Altec A5s. Its a great amp and worth every penny in parts, transport fees, VAT and free time.
I could probably live with it for many years to come, but after hearing what the F6 kan do my interest is awoken
I will also keep one FW for a second system (high WAF) in our living room powering more conventional although wall mounted speakers (Carlsson OA-51LE2).
Having had Lowthers (in MAU IV) for a very long time and various Altecs the last 6 years, I have for over two decades been uninterested in transistor amps. I never heard any transistor amps I thought could be used in my revealing systems, other than megabuck class As. I came close to buy a Pass Labs 30 some years back, but it was not logistically feasible to get a loner, at the time, to try in my system. I have assembled a some Class-Ds and e.g. the hypexes are not bad, but my tube amps have been better on most points. The F6 has changed that, its not like a tube amp but does its things in a way that I dont miss the tubes. It has more resolution than my tube amps and makes it possible to enjoy late night low level listening on my A5s. A possibility I have not had since I sold the Lowther horns.
My tube amps have been kt88/el34 PP, 2A3 PSE and 300B SE, and both active tube preamps and passive (simple pots and the hugely better alternative Dave Slagle autoformers). I currently have the Slagle autoformers and an Aikido pre.
I might also take a peek at ZMs pumpkin-variations in the near future or at least try a B1>Slagle autoformer>Sowter 1465 combination. The Sowter 1465 is from a DAC project and is a 1+1:5+5 high quality transformer.
This is a dangerous forum
Having A7s, I can say if you like what you hear with F6, you will love M2. Ditto Aleph J. I had a similar revelation regarding tubes. FW Class A converted me to a sand man.
Russellc
I also love my F6, it's about a year old by know and it has brought me lots of good music during this time. First with a pair of Dynaudio Excite X16s and recently with some nice bass reflex Alpair 10pEn speakers. For my smallish livingroom it has plenty of power to make even the fairly inefficient Dynaudios sing, and with the Alpair's i still havent gone past 1 o'clock on my BA-3 preamp. It sounds gorgeous...
All that said, people keep bringin up the M2, so i've now dived in an bought a set of boards from Tea-Bag, and will gradually start accumulating parts (and eventually a chassis) for that...
All that said, people keep bringin up the M2, so i've now dived in an bought a set of boards from Tea-Bag, and will gradually start accumulating parts (and eventually a chassis) for that...
I have connected the F6 to two very different speakers. I.e. Altec A5s with the 15cell 1505horn and innefficient omnydirectional, wallmounted two ways. And Im quite impressed. Look forward to hear the M2 flavour Russellc and silasmellor
Have an F6 for a year or 2 now. Working flawlessly.
Powering Tannoy Monitor Golds in Bespoke Boxes with Bespoke Xovers.
I like it enough so that I'm not even considering alternates.. ever again.
Interesting bit is I have a 2 yr old Grandaughter who loves listening with me.
Amazingly (to me) .. she will swivel her head around to follow the apparent soundstage.
Her hearing acuity (being 2 and Female) is a whole different Planet more capable than ANY of us.
Often she turns completely around, with a startled look on her face .. following music seemingly emanating from behind her... or even in another room.
About as good as it gets IMO.. after 50 yrs of this Audio Weenie sillyness.
Powering Tannoy Monitor Golds in Bespoke Boxes with Bespoke Xovers.
I like it enough so that I'm not even considering alternates.. ever again.
Interesting bit is I have a 2 yr old Grandaughter who loves listening with me.
Amazingly (to me) .. she will swivel her head around to follow the apparent soundstage.
Her hearing acuity (being 2 and Female) is a whole different Planet more capable than ANY of us.
Often she turns completely around, with a startled look on her face .. following music seemingly emanating from behind her... or even in another room.
About as good as it gets IMO.. after 50 yrs of this Audio Weenie sillyness.
M2 into Jericho Horns sounds pretty good as well.
(Fostex FE208Sigma)
Best regards,
Claas
I am using Sony VFET2 with the Jericho Horsn of the same Fostex 208Sigma driver. Superb combination when I paired with the DCG3 preamp followed by a heavily modded Musical Fidelity X-10D tube buffer. Got the new M2X boards but not sure how it pairs with JH.
For my Klipsch La Scala I had both F5 & F6
Both are well suited but the F6 to my taste was a better match
I have now moved on to the M2 and loving it, as it’s the best match so far
Slightly off-topic:
I tried various amps on my Jericho Horns / Fostex 208Sigma.
For the record, the Fostex runs crossover-less. I have added Fostex T90A as super-tweeters and a subwoofer to augment the bass in my relatively small room (18 m^2). (I had them in a larger room, approx. 45 m^2 before, and the bass of the stand-alone Jerichos went much deeper there, down to about 30Hz).
Pre-amplifiers are either a Linn AV5103 or an Aikido that I am still in the process of voicing.
I like them a lot with my diy 2A3 SE tube amp. This is a very clean amp, not tubey sounding. Very nice and fully fleshed out, bass control is good (massive output transformers)
The first solid-state amp I built has been an LM3886 chip-amp based on BrianGT boards. This sounded too mechanical / sharp for me, maybe somewhat overdamped. It has been much better since I biased it into Class A for the first watt.
Next up is a restored Sony TA-4650 VFET amp. Sounds very good, very controlled, but too my ears not yet overdamped, more incisive in the highs than the 2A3 SE, but not overly so. This amp has something that I keep coming back to, something special in the way it makes you feel listening to music.
I built an Aleph 30 with a single output pair of IRFP140 (does that make it an Aleph 10 ?
), based on BrianGT boards. Front-end was Fairchild FQP3P20 first, later converted to LSJ74, which would make it into an "Aleph J Single".This was run at 19V rails and 2.2 amp bias (have large heatsinks
). Sounded very good, more fleshed out than the Sony TA-4650, nice harmonic structure. Also special. When I tried the same amp at 24V rails and 2.0 amp bias, I found it a bit overdamped in the bass, sounded like a bit too much control for the Jericho Horns. Didn't like it as much as the 19V version.
Right now I am running the Jerichos with an all-Toshiba M2. 2SJ74 / 2SK170 front-end, and 2SJ201 / 2SK1530 outputs with 0.33R source resistors. It runs at 24V rails and 1.81 amp bias. Very very nice
All the punch I need, but also a lot of feeling; good control everywhere, not too much of it, and a very nice harmonic structure to the treble. Absolutely no bleached-out treble.
Sorry for the off-topic, thought it might provide some data points for folks who run Fostex wide-banders ...
manniraj, the M2 is a special amp that pairs very nicely with the Jericho Horns / Fostex 208Sigmas. With the option to choose between five different front-ends, I am certain that you will find a version you would like very much.
Best regards,
Claas
I think the M2 is an easy model to underestimate. I know that Srajan has stated it is his least favorite First Watt model, but I think he kind of missed the boat on it.
I almost missed the boat on it as well.
I bought a First Watt M2 shortly after they went out of production at a steep discount a couple of years ago. I kept it as a “spare” amplifier. I would only take it out once in a while, let it warm up, and listen.
I thought it sounded good in some ways, but a little “wonky”, like a binocular with barrel distortion.
I almost sold it but decided I needed to give it a proper try. I left it on for a week, and when I listened to it, I went WOW, where did THAT come from. It sounded great, all wonkiness and wobbles were gone.
I have been using it lately as a STAX headphone amp, where it also sounds great, albeit flanked by another output transformer for the STAX electrostatics.
The darn M2 just gets better with use. The upper midrange continues to refine in a very nice way.
Perhaps because of the magnetic, M2 requires an extended annealing and break in process, whereas VFET can be appreciated more or less immediately.
In perusing some of the Asian blogs by the transformer fanatics, they had a saying that a signal path transformer sounded better after a year of use, but best after twenty years of use. Patience, patience!
I almost missed the boat on it as well.
I bought a First Watt M2 shortly after they went out of production at a steep discount a couple of years ago. I kept it as a “spare” amplifier. I would only take it out once in a while, let it warm up, and listen.
I thought it sounded good in some ways, but a little “wonky”, like a binocular with barrel distortion.
I almost sold it but decided I needed to give it a proper try. I left it on for a week, and when I listened to it, I went WOW, where did THAT come from. It sounded great, all wonkiness and wobbles were gone.
I have been using it lately as a STAX headphone amp, where it also sounds great, albeit flanked by another output transformer for the STAX electrostatics.
The darn M2 just gets better with use. The upper midrange continues to refine in a very nice way.
Perhaps because of the magnetic, M2 requires an extended annealing and break in process, whereas VFET can be appreciated more or less immediately.
In perusing some of the Asian blogs by the transformer fanatics, they had a saying that a signal path transformer sounded better after a year of use, but best after twenty years of use. Patience, patience!
