Dodd ELP

mmadden28

SolidSqual wrote: »

I can vouch for the sound. That was my Raysonic and XPA-2 with Nick's system.

My Dodd Battery Powered Preamp also sounds excellet with my pair of XPA-2s on my Emerald Physics.

I think you will be fine.

Awesome-good to hear- Thanks

mmadden28

nikolas812 wrote: »

...
If you have any other question about the system. Just let me know and I will be glad to let you know my thoughts.
Nick

Well I guess here is as good a place as any...

Since I know absolutely nothing about tubes yet..well OK I know they glow--:cool:--but to get me on the fast track... how long does it need to be on to warm up before using? And how much juice does it need (or is it negligble)?

nikolas812

mmadden28 wrote: »

Well I guess here is as good a place as any...

Since I know absolutely nothing about tubes yet..well OK I know they glow--:cool:--but to get me on the fast track... how long does it need to be on to warm up before using? And how much juice does it need (or is it negligble)?

I found there is a good to procedure to use when powering on the Dodd.

First. Make sure it is on mute.

Second. Power it on. Wait 2 or 3 minutes and then switch it from mute to operate. then you are good to go.

As for warm up. I never really let it warm up. I just went through the procedure I mentioned and started listening. I don't know about you but I don't want to wait all day before I can listen to my system.

I did notice that about 30 minutes into listening it did seem to sound slightly better. But not enough for me to wait 30 minutes before listening.


How much juice does it need? I don't know. It was usually happy with half a cup of OJ in the morning before I went to work. But you can try other juices if you want. Its totally up to you. You own it now.;)

All kidding aside. It probably doesn't use much and is nothing you should worry about.

As for rolling tubes. Be sure to let the tubes cool at least 5 minutes before removing them from the Dodd. And try to keep the tubes as clean as possible when handling them. I usually never touch them. I would use a paper towel to handle them so I would not get oils from my skin on the glass.


If you have any other questions let me know.



Cheers



Nick

shack

mmadden28 wrote:

I just saw 'entry level' thrown in there with a few mentions of this pre on the net. So I then just assumed that was what ELP stood for.

ELP does stand for Entry Level Preamp. However it is Dodd's entry level and when compared to the field it is entry level in price only. It really is one of those pieces of gear that far outperfoms the competetors in it's price range IMO.

mmadden28

nikolas812 wrote: »

I found there is a good to procedure to use when powering on the Dodd.

First. Make sure it is on mute.

Second. Power it on. Wait 2 or 3 minutes and then switch it from mute to operate. then you are good to go.

As for warm up. I never really let it warm up. I just went through the procedure I mentioned and started listening. I don't know about you but I don't want to wait all day before I can listen to my system.

I did notice that about 30 minutes into listening it did seem to sound slightly better. But not enough for me to wait 30 minutes before listening.


How much juice does it need? I don't know. It was usually happy with half a cup of OJ in the morning before I went to work. But you can try other juices if you want. Its totally up to you. You own it now.;)

All kidding aside. It probably doesn't use much and is nothing you should worry about.

As for rolling tubes. Be sure to let the tubes cool at least 5 minutes before removing them from the Dodd. And try to keep the tubes as clean as possible when handling them. I usually never touch them. I would use a paper towel to handle them so I would not get oils from my skin on the glass.


If you have any other questions let me know.



Cheers



Nick

That's pretty much what I was looking for.

I guess I would consider the initial 2-3 mins a warm up period. I'll see if I notice the same change after about 30 mins-if I can get that much dedicated listening time that is :rolleyes:

I might try some Ruby Red Grapefruit juice .

No idea what 'Rolling Tubes' is, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. Yeah I wouldn't have handled them without kid gloves or something. I guess akin to the same precautions when handling a Halogen buld or projector lamp.

Thanks

mmadden28

shack wrote: »

ELP does stand for Entry Level Preamp. However it is Dodd's entry level and when compared to the field it is entry level in price only. It really is one of those pieces of gear that far outperfoms the competetors in it's price range IMO.

I dig it. Another good tidbit of info. Thanks

:D:cool::cool::D:D

shack

mmadden28 wrote:

No idea what 'Rolling Tubes' is, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.

Geek speak for trying different sets of tubes....:rolleyes:

GEBBY44

I just realized mmadden is only 45 minutes away from me. I really wanna hear that Dodd when you get it...so I can steal it:D

nikolas812

Defiantly give it a listen if you get a chance.





The Dodd shipped out today via Priority mail.

Let me know when you get it and if everything was OK..



Cheers



Nick

daboyz

Congrats guys!!

OldSycamoreTree

you will need ez-wider doubles to roll the tubes properly.

and remember to light the electrode end, not the tip. lol.

mmadden28

GEBBY44 wrote: »

I just realized mmadden is only 45 minutes away from me. I really wanna hear that Dodd when you get it...so I can steal it:D

Oh man, do I have to put the bars back on the windows again?

Yeah, some day soon--once I get it setup-and find some time for some listening-I'll have you over. :cool: I don't have a real source nor a dedicated location setup yet. Still all kinda early in the setup. And still have to stay under the radar with the wife att.

mmadden28

nikolas812 wrote: »

Defiantly give it a listen if you get a chance.

The Dodd shipped out today via Priority mail.

Let me know when you get it and if everything was OK..

Cheers

Nick

Awesome--Will Do Thanks!!

mmadden28

So as I left the house this morning to drop the kids off at school, I saw the FedEx guy driving down my street-I said could this be my new toy??
He drove to my neigbor's house-then for the next hour I was expecting th neighbor to be stopping by telling me FedEx deliverd to the wrong house. No such joy.

I got back from school an hour later and worked around the pool, cleaning up. A few hours later my wife came home and said I have a package outside.
It has arrived!! (just via USPS not FedEx) The box was a little beat up but everything inside appears intact. .

Of course the wife anxiously watched as I unpacked it, asking me what it was and where was her jewelry package :eek:

It's all hooked up and warming up now. I'll be trying out tubes for the first time tonight--Doh-I have to pick the kids up. More later in a new thread...:D

george daniel

I've got an ELP,and lately the capacitor upgrade bug has bitten,, especially since I put the Jenzens in an Anthem,which is run with the ELP.Anyway, my point is,, get your read on about the Dodd line, these things are just plain fun.It just goes to show that you Don't have to spend alot of money to get great 2 channel sound,,not to mention that Gary really stands behind his products,and takes the time to respond to questions and provide support for those products that are no longer made.I'm just pumped about Dodd at the moment. So,, get your listen on and let us know your impressions. Gongrats,have fun,,I know that you will enjoy it.

nikolas812

Thats awesome!!!

Nothing like getting a new peice of gear two days after you pay for it.;)

I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it!!!! So hurry!!


Cheers


Nick

mmadden28

george daniel wrote: »

I've got an ELP,and lately the capacitor upgrade bug has bitten,, especially since I put the Jenzens in an Anthem,which is run with the ELP.Anyway, my point is,, get your read on about the Dodd line, these things are just plain fun.It just goes to show that you Don't have to spend alot of money to get great 2 channel sound,,not to mention that Gary really stands behind his products,and takes the time to respond to questions and provide support for those products that are no longer made.I'm just pumped about Dodd at the moment. So,, get your listen on and let us know your impressions. Gongrats,have fun,,I know that you will enjoy it.

I saw that other thread revived---I'm following it. I can't find much about he Dodd ELP out there yet-but havn't had the chance to do any real seraching.

Thanks!!

mmadden28

nikolas812 wrote: »

Thats awesome!!!

Nothing like getting a new peice of gear two days after you pay for it.;)

I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it!!!! So hurry!!


Cheers


Nick

Ya know? Now that's what I call fast-Thanks Nick!! now I can play all weekend and won't have to take any days off of work :rolleyes:

mmadden28

OK, well so far I'm impressed-:D of course I'm not sure by what yet. I'm still learning what I should be listening for when doing comparisons, anyway I'll just report if it sounded good or not.

The rig I'm using so far is far from complete:
Source: iPod
Pre: Dodd ELP (duh)
Amp: XPA-2
Speakers: LSi9s
Cables: Monoprice Premium ICs (Also trying some Cryotweak Silver ICs), Just some Home Depot GE 14 Gauge (or was it 12??) for speaker cables for now-Getting some better ones next week.

I don't have a dedicated CD Player or DAC att, however I plan to test with my Pioneer DV-46AV SACD tomorrow (Sat), which is supposed to have a decent DAC in it (that's a question for another thread).
I'm using my iPod for now--Yes I know its not the best source-but its all I can do for now. It can only get better right?

I have the XPA-5 for my HT, and did limited listening to music on the LSi9 with that setup, but the room has poor acoustics so I never really got to 'listen' to the LSi9s.
Just got the XPA-2 from Earlyb-again don't have a source or another AVR with pre-outs so I connected the ipod's headphone out directly to the XPA and the XPA to the LSi9s, and it sounded pretty good-really good actually, but the volume was severly limited-I supposed that because I have no pre for gain.
So I played with that for a bit to get the speakers setup for good separation and imaging. Now I am not sure if I have it optimum but it sounds pretty good so we'll use it for my baseline.

Today I plugged the Dodd in and chose the EI tubes (just because I saw some reviewer chose them even though he mentioned he hated them or something). Turned it on and let it warm up for about 10 minutes. With the amp on I could hear the forementioned hum. It is a bit bothersome, but as said once the music starts pumping its barely noticeable if at all. Actually I noticed it a lot in some George Winston Solo Piano. Everything else-not really. I think I'll definately pursue getting that corrected though.

First impression is it sounds incredible!! It certainly has added to the volume that I can crank it up to. But then any pre or AVR woudl likely do that right?

So I had the ELP at 50% and used the iPod to control volume-the iPod was typically at around 80% when I got to very loud levels. Actually I thought I broke something in my early tests-When I had the volume up too high or during some dynamic part of the song- I kept putting the XPA into protection mode on the right channel. :eek::eek::eek: Well that's the first time I saw that-I was shocked I thought I broke something..but continual playing and tweaking allowed my higher volumes without protection mode. I also had one left channel protection kick in.

Maybe the ipod at higher volumes (from the headphone jack) is probably too much-I don't know. It wasn't room shaking eardrum busting levels. For now I'll attribute it to the iPod and the headphone jack. I'll venture to guess that I should only be using a line level into the ELP????
Anyway I was able to go louder w/o protection mode kicking in by setting the ELP to 75% adn the iPod to hover in the 25-35% range.

OK so I think the setup sounds pretty good even in its infant state, but what was it, the XPA-2? the LSi9s? the Dodd ELP? I'll say all three, but how to tell what the Dodd is doing... I did some comparisons to listening with and without the ELP (at the same loudness--adjusted) and I can clearly notice the difference-I'm not sure I'm supposed to though-some reviews indicated the ELP is transparent and won't add anything-but my ears tell me different. Then others say different tubes affect the sound in different ways-.
I noticed an increase to the sound stage (wider-deeper) as well as, I'm not sure how to descibe it, I want to say a smoothness. Overall top notch (in my limited book). I kept going back and forth and came to the same conclusion each time. I really have to do a blind listening test to be sure.

I was only able to get some very limited listening in today--to nice a day to be suck inside-no matter what auditory bliss may be awaiting :eek:--gotta take care of the kids and the wife was complaining about the loud noise-saying something of feeling like she was in a college dorm and hearing stuff through the walls - so I had to keep it down. (Oh I can't wait to get a dedicate Media room with sound isolation. Or perhaps a separate outbuilding

I noticed the noise floor very high in some songs -for now I'll attribute that to the poor source and likely compressed source music.

Well tomorrow (Sat) I plan to bring the Pio Elite 46av down from the HT rig and see what I can get this thing to do with Redbook and SACD. I'll also try some of the silver ICs, although since they will likely require burn-in I probably won't concentrate on that too much yet. I might even 'roll' different set of tubes (now that's a whole nuther area of learning there) :cool:

zzzz
zz
I'll try to get some pics of the currwent setup as well.
I keep falling asleep at the keyboard-good night. I am a happy camper so far :cool:

mmadden28

mmadden28 wrote: »

...

Of course the wife anxiously watched as I unpacked it, asking me what it was and where was her jewelry package :eek:

...

Its funny-actually the first thing she thought when she pulled in the driveway was that I bought her a present from Crate and Barrel.

nikolas812

Thanks for the post!. I loved reading it.

You already know. But get all them crappy cables out of there and get a decent source. You'll be amazed. With that setup I don't think your even hearing half of what the Dodd can do.

What do you mean by noise floor? Besides the slight hum. There was none when I had it. You could max the Dodd out and there would be no hiss or distortion of any kind. The hum was still there but even it didn't get any louder.

As for cables. If you want I have a brand new pair of Signal Ultra Speaker cables. And a pair of Signal Analog II's. The speaker wires are just broke in and the IC's are brand new. They need burnt in. If you want I'll send them to you and you can use them while my rig is down. You are more than welcome to use them and I would be glad if you did. I have a pair of silver IC's from Ben also. But I think you mentioned having a pair of those?



Just let me know.


Cheers


Nick

mmadden28

nikolas812 wrote: »

What do you mean by noise floor? Besides the slight hum. There was none when I had it. You could max the Dodd out and there would be no hiss or distortion of any kind. The hum was still there but even it didn't get any louder.

Yeah as I mentioned I think its entirely because of my source. When I turn the Dodd up it gets louder, so the hiss is getting further amplified. We'll see if using my SACD makes a difference-I think it will.

nikolas812 wrote: »

As for cables. If you want I have a brand new pair of Signal Ultra Speaker cables. And a pair of Signal Analog II's. The speaker wires are just broke in and the IC's are brand new. They need burnt in. If you want I'll send them to you and you can use them while my rig is down. You are more than welcome to use them and I would be glad if you did. I have a pair of silver IC's from Ben also. But I think you mentioned having a pair of those?

Thanks for the offer-table that for now--for now I'm going to try with what I already have (which may require thier own burn-in for all I know) I also have some Zu Julian speaker cables on the way.

I don't have Ben's Silvers (yet) although I'm tempted. The Silver ones I got are Cryotweaks Silver ICs from tweekgeeks.com-but they are not avail anymore-thier (cryotweaks)website is gone too. hmmm. They still have a pic of them here. I hadn't used them yet in my HT rig because I heard that sometimes Silver can be a bit bright and I think my RTi12s are a tad on the bright side at times (not to mention they are too short for my HT rig setup). Not suire if anybody else here has experience with them.

Well right now-its too gorgeous a day to be inside-summer is fading fast--going out back with my boys and going swimming. I'll listen to my Atriums :cool:.

nikolas812

Sounds good!

Keep us posted,



Nick

mmadden28

Other than the fact that I keep putting my XPA-2 into protect mode (posted a new thread on that)....I tried the SACD today--Had a hard time listening with my boys banging pots and pans in my ears, but it certainly sounded better-crisper-cleaner, perhaps louder.
I also had a friend (Q) listen in-she agreed.

I still have a high noise floor or hiss-I'll figure that out-my be the power source.

FYI on the hum on the Dodd-You can hear the transformer humming just by listening close to the unit. No speakers required-just like the hum of a walt wart kinda. I will likely pursue getting that fixed by Gary. As stated not noiceable when playing music, but some music it pronounced such a some quiet moments in classical. Q was more aware of the hum even when music was playing.

I also switched out my ICs and Speaker cables as mentioned above. I left them burn in all night and day-not sure how long they might need, but initially with the Silver ICs, something definately sounded OFF, but they sound much better tonight. Actually in one case in one song it was way off-most of the off-ness has gone now but I can still hear something off still everytime-I hear it with or without the Dodd-so its likely a source defect. I'll post that issue in a new thread.

I'm still highly optimistic-little things like this can't bring me down. Just posting an update.

george daniel

I think that it's time to call or e-mail Gary,,he can take care of the hum,,next,, Ben brought up in your other thread about the 9's dipping to 2 ohms,,if so,, there is your problem.I'm not familar with your amp,, but do know that if you are goinf to plat em' loud,, you are gonna need alot of high current/power,,I found yhis out by powering some relatively non efficient speakers at high vols and having the a,p go into a protection mode. Good luck.

mmadden28

george daniel wrote: »

I think that it's time to call or e-mail Gary,,he can take care of the hum,,next,, Ben brought up in your other thread about the 9's dipping to 2 ohms,,if so,, there is your problem.I'm not familar with your amp,, but do know that if you are goinf to plat em' loud,, you are gonna need alot of high current/power,,I found yhis out by powering some relatively non efficient speakers at high vols and having the a,p go into a protection mode. Good luck.

Yep--I'll call him this week.

I'm thinking it might be impedance as well-(not that I would know but sounds logical). I'll have to ask on the Emotiva forums.

Thanks!

phuz

Killer pre. I was sad to see it go. Still want to get one of Gary's newer battery powered pre-amps when I have the chance.

When I had it I had inquired about getting the hum fixed. Gary said $60-$70 and he'd add an external power supply and do whatever else needed to be done to make it dead quiet.