I want to report that Victor has been great with getting the 8600S with all upgrades to me. Because I have neither the skills or tools to put it together I asked to pay for assembly. Victor put me in touch with @xsiliconkid who only lives a couple of hour away, who could assemble the kit for me. I also got a nice friendship during the process as well!
I'm at about 60 hours of burn in and loving the quietness and warmth of sound already. Cossor 300B, Gold Lion 12AX7 Genalex, the 2 smaller ones are BVA. The highs have seem a little rounded off right to me. Maybe it's the warmth or these particular tubes will get better high detail after burn in? It maybe that I'm also used to my solid-state Schiit Rag1? The Clears are known to be warm also, so that's not the ideal synergy perhaps? My only means of comparison at the moment is my Focal Clear headphones and UM Mest OG iems. The Mest iems are extraordinary in the high detail retrieval without being harsh, so that's a better combination at the moment. But I think the highs are better now on the amp on day 3. My Focal speakers are the active xlr fed Solo6, so I can't use the amp there. I'm shopping now for passive efficient speakers, but want to finish burn-in so that I can see if the high detail emerges more.
Oh I remember that I also have ThieAudio planars which have generally been a little bright for my taste. At least for the the current state of burn-in, they are now only slightly bright. Patience....
But kudos both to Victor and Graham. Graham was patient with my mistakenly feeding the amp with my Schiit Freya+ preamp and with the volume low, so I even set the headphone gain jumper at 3, instead of 2, before I discovered the mistake! Such a pleasure to get to hear this amp! So quiet even with iems.
I'm at about 60 hours of burn in and loving the quietness and warmth of sound already. Cossor 300B, Gold Lion 12AX7 Genalex, the 2 smaller ones are BVA. The highs have seem a little rounded off right to me. Maybe it's the warmth or these particular tubes will get better high detail after burn in? It maybe that I'm also used to my solid-state Schiit Rag1? The Clears are known to be warm also, so that's not the ideal synergy perhaps? My only means of comparison at the moment is my Focal Clear headphones and UM Mest OG iems. The Mest iems are extraordinary in the high detail retrieval without being harsh, so that's a better combination at the moment. But I think the highs are better now on the amp on day 3. My Focal speakers are the active xlr fed Solo6, so I can't use the amp there. I'm shopping now for passive efficient speakers, but want to finish burn-in so that I can see if the high detail emerges more.
Oh I remember that I also have ThieAudio planars which have generally been a little bright for my taste. At least for the the current state of burn-in, they are now only slightly bright. Patience....
But kudos both to Victor and Graham. Graham was patient with my mistakenly feeding the amp with my Schiit Freya+ preamp and with the volume low, so I even set the headphone gain jumper at 3, instead of 2, before I discovered the mistake! Such a pleasure to get to hear this amp! So quiet even with iems.
If highs still seem rounded off after plenty of burn-in, I would try changing the BVA (Mullard?) 12au7 to something a bit more open, e.g. RCA cleartops.
Gold Lion 12AX7 is actually a good tube, but if a bit more resolution is needed, Sylvania 12AX7(7025) is a good one and not expensive.
It was a pleasure building your TU-8600S.
Especially for such a knowledgeable & renowned professional musician as yourself.
Always a delight to meet an interesting new person.
Graham
Ps thanks Victor for the introduction
Especially for such a knowledgeable & renowned professional musician as yourself.
Always a delight to meet an interesting new person.
Graham
Ps thanks Victor for the introduction
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Now about 70 hours. Highs have returned both on my iem and the Clears. Oh my oh my! That is sweet. Could have been the tracks I listened to early. But now I did my 6 or so favorite test tracks?
So my detailed path:
Roon Rock on NUC-> Wifi to RPI4 USB out on Supra USB cable -> Yggy DAC (with Unison USB module upgrade) -> SE Out cables nothing special - > TU-8600S headphone jumper gain set to 2 -> Focal Clears, UM Mest OG.
Detail, soundstage, micro dynamics , slam in bass, ink black silences, like being there presence. It's all there! I can't imagine it getting better with more burn in. But I'll let it go 100 hours. Recommendations for how many hours?
I saw that the latest version of the kit sends all of its goodness to the headphone jack while an earlier version of the kit didn't. So glad I have this version!
So my detailed path:
Roon Rock on NUC-> Wifi to RPI4 USB out on Supra USB cable -> Yggy DAC (with Unison USB module upgrade) -> SE Out cables nothing special - > TU-8600S headphone jumper gain set to 2 -> Focal Clears, UM Mest OG.
Detail, soundstage, micro dynamics , slam in bass, ink black silences, like being there presence. It's all there! I can't imagine it getting better with more burn in. But I'll let it go 100 hours. Recommendations for how many hours?
I saw that the latest version of the kit sends all of its goodness to the headphone jack while an earlier version of the kit didn't. So glad I have this version!
There is room to improve the sound stage..
Once you amp is burnt in .. you can replave the tube set
Once you amp is burnt in .. you can replave the tube set
The Focal Clears are very sensitive to the output impedance of the amp, and the stock Elekit amps all have high headphone output impedance. They do not match well without mods.
I do not have the schematics for the TU-8600S in particular, but there must be a 90-300 Ohm resistor connected in series with the headphone output irrespective of the output level settings, which needs to be bypassed with a wire.
The TU-8600 headphone output settings were discussed in details here:
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/ele...600s-available-july-2020-a-4.html#post6443860
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/ele...600s-available-july-2020-a-4.html#post6443860