Hi all,
I received my Suppo EL84 amp approximately a week ago. There were a few stop start moments with the first unit that I received, with it ultimately being non-functional due to shipping damage. Joe at Suppo dealt with this fabulously, sending me a brand new amp and for a small cost the parts required to fix the original amplifier.
I use a HTPC as my source with an Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 as the soundcard - using the analog outs as they sound infinitely better than the DAC in the receiver. Cables are a run of the mill shielded interconnect, I've never heard a great improvement with fancier accessories. The speakers I use are detailed here -http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/141742-tony-gees-low-budget-speaker-build-thread-3.html. Ordinarily I use a Peter Daniel's kit built LM4875 gainclone to drive the speakers and am more than happy with the noises it produces.
First impressions of the Suppo EL84 were good, I was very impressed with the sound. It was warm and detailed - vocals sounded superb. I listened to several tracks before deciding to fiddle with the tubes a little. To start with I replaced the drivers with a pair of matched JJ E88CCs (6DJ8s). I was amazed at how big an improvement this made. It's hard to describe in words, but the bass seemed to be more controlled or "present" and it really made acoustic instruments pop into focus. Happy with this tube substitution I tried changing the stock EL84s with a matched quad of JJ EL84s. This was not a good idea. The new tubes made high pitches almost unbearable to listen to, it was very grating on the ears. Everything else sounded relatively the same, but the grating of the higher frequencies (particularly vocals) made music almost unlistenable. I quickly swapped back to the original tubes and have been using the amp in this configuration since.
I'm not one to describe the sound of an amplifier with countless fancy words, but I am very very happy with this little tube amp. Compared to the LM4875 I was using previously it is perhaps a little less detailed but has other redeeming features that I suppose slot into the "warm" tube sound.
For an amplifier that I really wasn't expecting much from, the Suppo EL84 has really blown me away. The price is definitely right and considering the openness of Suppo with the schematic, there's plenty of room to mod.
Steve.
I received my Suppo EL84 amp approximately a week ago. There were a few stop start moments with the first unit that I received, with it ultimately being non-functional due to shipping damage. Joe at Suppo dealt with this fabulously, sending me a brand new amp and for a small cost the parts required to fix the original amplifier.
I use a HTPC as my source with an Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 as the soundcard - using the analog outs as they sound infinitely better than the DAC in the receiver. Cables are a run of the mill shielded interconnect, I've never heard a great improvement with fancier accessories. The speakers I use are detailed here -http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/141742-tony-gees-low-budget-speaker-build-thread-3.html. Ordinarily I use a Peter Daniel's kit built LM4875 gainclone to drive the speakers and am more than happy with the noises it produces.
First impressions of the Suppo EL84 were good, I was very impressed with the sound. It was warm and detailed - vocals sounded superb. I listened to several tracks before deciding to fiddle with the tubes a little. To start with I replaced the drivers with a pair of matched JJ E88CCs (6DJ8s). I was amazed at how big an improvement this made. It's hard to describe in words, but the bass seemed to be more controlled or "present" and it really made acoustic instruments pop into focus. Happy with this tube substitution I tried changing the stock EL84s with a matched quad of JJ EL84s. This was not a good idea. The new tubes made high pitches almost unbearable to listen to, it was very grating on the ears. Everything else sounded relatively the same, but the grating of the higher frequencies (particularly vocals) made music almost unlistenable. I quickly swapped back to the original tubes and have been using the amp in this configuration since.
I'm not one to describe the sound of an amplifier with countless fancy words, but I am very very happy with this little tube amp. Compared to the LM4875 I was using previously it is perhaps a little less detailed but has other redeeming features that I suppose slot into the "warm" tube sound.
For an amplifier that I really wasn't expecting much from, the Suppo EL84 has really blown me away. The price is definitely right and considering the openness of Suppo with the schematic, there's plenty of room to mod.
Steve.
Oh boy, I already own the EL84 but I'd love to hear more about this EL34. I can always find room for another great little amp!
Right now I have installed Manley EL84M tubes and 6N1P-EV in the input. The front tubes look nices, but the sound is not much different.
I also changed all wires to silver and installed a fuse in the transformer primaries (1A slow). You should really be doing that. I knowthe fuse and its holder will add costs, but is a must to have.
The coupling caps are bypassed with silvered mica and the supply caps are bypassed with WIMA MKS and WIMA FKP.
The last mod is not tried yet on my main system. I will also swap the EL84M for NOS Philips EL84, see what that does. The sound is very rich and has a huge soundstage (really 3D), but is not as delicate and detailed as Peter Daniels INT-1.
Maybe it is the lesser control of bass that the tubes have in comparison to the INT-1.
As a bonus here is a square wave of 5kHz into 8Ohms
I also changed all wires to silver and installed a fuse in the transformer primaries (1A slow). You should really be doing that. I knowthe fuse and its holder will add costs, but is a must to have.
The coupling caps are bypassed with silvered mica and the supply caps are bypassed with WIMA MKS and WIMA FKP.
The last mod is not tried yet on my main system. I will also swap the EL84M for NOS Philips EL84, see what that does. The sound is very rich and has a huge soundstage (really 3D), but is not as delicate and detailed as Peter Daniels INT-1.
Maybe it is the lesser control of bass that the tubes have in comparison to the INT-1.
As a bonus here is a square wave of 5kHz into 8Ohms
Attachments
Wow! Here I am saving some spare cash for a EL84 and you come along to tempt us with a better one!
Please let us all know the cost of this one as soon as you can. I'm sure you will get a great response.
As a bonus here is a square wave of 5kHz into 8Ohms
Was that when the amp was stock, or with your mods?
I've still got to get my "official" review posted. I've got a brand new pair of Omega speakers that I've been using with this amp and I know they are notorious for needing 100 hrs of break in before sounding correct. I want to make sure that I'm attributing (as much as possible) the sound of the amp to the amp.
Thats great Joe! The larger case will offer some advantages too, I think about a soft start circuit for the heaters. I believe that will improve the life time the tubes and not too difficult to install for DIYers
So today I got a lot of free time so I tried the amp with the added caps and tubes. They offered a somewhat clearer sound, but not spectacular, so it could even be in my head. The soundstage was still huge, but is was quite harsh and I couldn't listen too long to it.
Next step was changing the output tubes to NOS Philips EL84/6BQ5. Now this was an improvement. There is now pure music! Not the analytical transparant sound as from the LM3875 INT-1 amp, but nice warm and clean sound. Away is all harshness so I recommend the Philips NOS EL84 with this amp.
Recordings like Diana Kralls Temptation, or even Kings of Leon latest CD are a joy to listen to!
This will be in my main setup for a while I think, although I may change the front tubes some time again.
mods:
-fuse added
-signal wiring to pure silver
-silvered mica caps bypassing the signal decoupling caps
-WIMA MKS and FKP decoupling the supply caps
-front tubes: Voskhod 6N1P-EV
-power tubes: NOS Philips EL84
Next step was changing the output tubes to NOS Philips EL84/6BQ5. Now this was an improvement. There is now pure music! Not the analytical transparant sound as from the LM3875 INT-1 amp, but nice warm and clean sound. Away is all harshness so I recommend the Philips NOS EL84 with this amp.
Recordings like Diana Kralls Temptation, or even Kings of Leon latest CD are a joy to listen to!
This will be in my main setup for a while I think, although I may change the front tubes some time again.
mods:
-fuse added
-signal wiring to pure silver
-silvered mica caps bypassing the signal decoupling caps
-WIMA MKS and FKP decoupling the supply caps
-front tubes: Voskhod 6N1P-EV
-power tubes: NOS Philips EL84
Someone on the Meng Yue thread in the Tubes forum here wrote that applying a similar circuit design as the Suppo's really improved the sound quality of their Meng Yue 6P1 amp. That might also apply to the Meng Yue EL84 as well.
I recently purchased a matched quad of the new production Genalex Gold Lion EL84s, and this made a tremendous improvement in sound quality. Together with the OS RCA clear top 6FQ7s as the driver tubes, the soundstage has expanded in all three dimensions with more precise imaging. The GL EL84s has tightened up the bass and provided a more liquid midrange.
I have my cousin and his family over for the holidays. They aren't audiophiles, but they're enjoying the music coming from the system. My cousin's wife was a navy electronics technician at one point in her life, and she actually was part of one of the last training classes that learned vacuum tube electronics. She wanted to see the circuit, she was so impressed with the sound.
I am still waiting for my .1uF Ampohm Tin foil, PIO signal caps to come in, but I may not install them as the sound with the stock Panasonic film caps is great.
Someone on the Meng Yue thread in the Tubes forum here wrote that applying a similar circuit design as the Suppo's really improved the sound quality of their Meng Yue 6P1 amp. That might also apply to the Meng Yue EL84 as well.
I recently purchased a matched quad of the new production Genalex Gold Lion EL84s, and this made a tremendous improvement in sound quality. Together with the OS RCA clear top 6FQ7s as the driver tubes, the soundstage has expanded in all three dimensions with more precise imaging. The GL EL84s has tightened up the bass and provided a more liquid midrange.
I have my cousin and his family over for the holidays. They aren't audiophiles, but they're enjoying the music coming from the system. My cousin's wife was a navy electronics technician at one point in her life, and she actually was part of one of the last training classes that learned vacuum tube electronics. She wanted to see the circuit, she was so impressed with the sound.
I am still waiting for my .1uF Ampohm Tin foil, PIO signal caps to come in, but I may not install them as the sound with the stock Panasonic film caps is great.
After reading all the positive reviews on this forum I decided to order one as well.
Unfortunately, the link redirecting me to PayPal doesn't seem to work. It just takes me to the defaul PayPal-Homepag/my account information but no page where I could finish the purchase. I'm ordering from/to Germany (if that's important). Maybe someone else had the same problem and knows how to fix it? I already wrote an e-Mail to audio@suppomodel.com and cs@suppomodel.com.
Unfortunately, the link redirecting me to PayPal doesn't seem to work. It just takes me to the defaul PayPal-Homepag/my account information but no page where I could finish the purchase. I'm ordering from/to Germany (if that's important). Maybe someone else had the same problem and knows how to fix it? I already wrote an e-Mail to audio@suppomodel.com and cs@suppomodel.com.
I am not sure if this is related or not to the above, but a friend of mine in the U.S. recently ordered a Suppo Golden Voice GV-2 amp and paid via PayPal. A few days later, he received a notification from PayPal that his account was temporarily shut down, because another entity in China took a payment of $150 USD from his PayPal account. When PayPal determined that the transaction was not authorized by my friend, they returned the $150 USD to his account and they are investigating the culprit. My friend and I do not believe this other Chinese entity is related in any way to Suppo Audio, but be very careful when posting PayPal payments. There are a lot of phishers out there. I recommend that you contact Joe at Suppo Audio directly to get payment information.
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