I hate to say this.....

Ricardo · October 2009

But tubes do rule.

Not that it's something new to me. I just like to mess with Ted. I've always known that tubes bring something special, and I've owned several tube preamps and a couple of tubed amps. I have to say though that tubes are a love/hate thing for me. I love the sound they bring, but I hate microphonics, matching triodes, good NOS tubes cost, the heat they bring (I have a small room), the thought that the sound is not as good today as it was yesterday, did one of the tubes go south, etc, etc.

The reason I bring this now is that I'm playing with a new preamp that brings all the good things about tubes to the highest level I've experienced. Particularly the air around the notes that gives you the feeling that you can touch them. It puts a smile in my face. Too bad this thing has 10 tubes....I try to stay away from those sites you all know of that have these amazing NOS tubes at $300 a piece. For now I'm enjoying some russian tubes and it is good enough for me. Looks like I found the perfect mate for the Pass Labs amp.

I present you the BAT VK-5i

xj4094dg · October 2009

Wait a minute! The sound is not as good today as it was yesterday! :eek:, Did one of the tubes go south

:eek:

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Enjoy your new tube hell.....;)

heiney9 · October 2009

Tubes add soul................and while I know Ricardo was a convert before me.......I am now a convert.

H9

ben62670 · October 2009

Love tubes if they are the right tubes! I posted a thread on how tubes are band aids a while ago. People took it the wrong way. Tubes fix a lot of wrongs in audio. Love em!!!

heiney9 · October 2009

Ricardo, I have a few tubes tips if you need them..............mostly stay off the internet. Damn, I've bought ALOT of tubes in a short time

dkg999 · October 2009

All this tube love is getting too much to take :rolleyes: I'm breaking out the Victrola and training a squirrel to crank it. The quality of those 78's was highly overlooked

Ricardo · October 2009

heiney9 wrote: »

Ricardo, I have a few tubes tips if you need them..............

I'm game. Just tell me where I can find some 1960's gold pin Amperex 7308's for $10 a piece

BTW, that sock in the picture is my magic tube handling tool :eek:

ben62670 · October 2009

dkg999 wrote: »

All this tube love is getting too much to take :rolleyes: I'm breaking out the Victrola and training a squirrel to crank it. The quality of those 78's was highly overlooked

Sorry bro that squirrel is in my fridge.

ben62670 · October 2009

dkg999 · October 2009

I've never really liked squirrels, cooked or otherwise. I had an aunt who used to make a pretty good squirrel and dumplings recipe. but I just never got into hunting the little tree rats.

ben62670 · October 2009

Stew is good, but straight up squirrel is too much even for this cracker.
Ben

heiney9 · October 2009

Let's stay on topic here! This thread is about TUBES not squirrels.

Fireman32 · October 2009

Tubes do rule. I miss my tube amp just have the pre. Ricardo I hope that was a clean sock.

ben62670 · October 2009

I guess coons are out too?

Ricardo · October 2009

Ben, why don't you open your own thread for all your disgusting pictures? Just saying.

ben62670 · October 2009

Sorry I thought he was warm and fuzzy like tubes. I shall refrain.
Take care Ricardo, and yes tubes can rule!

thsmith · October 2009

I have had my first peice of tube equipment for a week now and love it. I thought my Carver TFM-45 was the one and only but it now sits unpowered, cold and lonely while tyhe Anthem AMP 1 gets all my attention.

For me the thing I like best about tubes are being able to tailor the sound to what I like.

reeltrouble1 · October 2009

Ricardo is quite modest about his newest baby.

Lets see............

well those two toroids to begin with offer about 200 joules of high current power.....those are amplifier numbers, so what?, well you can drive any amplifier despite its impedance, no small task in its self, but the power supplies allow for a PERFECT yea I said perfect sine wave down as low as 100 ohms, no distortion no matter the gain, this thing can go down and stay stable. The boards, look close, those are copper traces, well laid out.........ONE gain stage, thats it one, talk about careful handling of an audio signal.....so then those tubes each side mirror imaged (of course fully balanced), dont think they plunked down where they would fit.....nope, the location is based on case nodes with lowest possible vibration point. The Gain Control....Vishay shunt metal foiled, it allows for just one resistor to be in the signal path at a time... no potetionmeter sound degrading Volume control.....I could go on and on but this one is tried and true. To top it off.........all the space, timbre, stage, clarity you could want from any preamp.

Congrats Ricardo. I have used different Russki tubes with BAT in numerous configs, they are just fine, not suprising as Khomenko and the gang at BAT might of enjoyed a shot of Vodka or two, however, enjoy rolling a few.

Just a little Edit....Ricardo I did let the MLP go for the BAT VK-31SE now that I think of it.......the Pass and BAT sounds like an audio nirvana match just waiting to come together.

RT1

megasat16 · October 2009

Congrats Ricardo! You'll be broke before you know it when the time comes to re-tube that money sucker!

Ricardo · October 2009

megasat16 wrote: »

Congrats Ricardo! You'll be broke before you know it when the time comes to re-tube that money sucker!

Not if I can avoid the temptation to try fancy NOS stuff; it sounds just about perfect with cheap russians (and I mean tubes....).

Ern Dog · October 2009

Ricardo wrote: »

I have to say though that tubes are a love/hate thing for me. I love the sound they bring, but I hate microphonics, matching triodes, good NOS tubes cost, the heat they bring (I have a small room), the thought that the sound is not as good today as it was yesterday, did one of the tubes go south, etc, etc.

Ricardo- I can totally relate to this love/hate thing with tubes- I got the same thing going. I recently decided the hell with my tube amp and I pulled the trigger on a Pass Labs X-150! I'm putting the Pass Labs amp head to head with my Rogue 90 tube amp to see which one stays. :eek:

reeltrouble1 · October 2009

love/hate what the hell are you talking about your wife/girlfriend????

I love my tubes, I adorn them, I brush their pins for them, make sure the holes they enter are clean, I dust them off and talk softly to them each night as they cool down from our session of pleasure, you guys should pay respect to your tubes, especially when one dies, afterall they do live a long life, years and years....its quite a loss for me and the rest of them when it happens, the mourning takes a bit, of course a new one always shows up, never know for sure how long it will be though before the others accept it and they all get along again.............it can be a dark time in the Rabbit Hole, Rum helps a bit...........................

RT1

miner · October 2009

I recently acquired a McIntosh C2200 - my first tube piece. It still has the stock tubes. Can anyone recommend a 'proven' dealer to buy tubes from - 12AX7, 12 AU7?

megasat16 · October 2009

Ricardo wrote: »

Not if I can avoid the temptation to try fancy NOS stuff; it sounds just about perfect with cheap russians (and I mean tubes....).

I agree cheap Russian tubes can sounds very good. Russians can do just about everything we do at a 1/10th of the cost. Just be careful these Russian Tubes are not radio active.

Bat shipped these Russian tubes as stock?

Ricardo · October 2009

megasat16 wrote: »

Bat shipped these Russian tubes as stock?

I have no idea; this is a 10 years old amp......but I do think they use Sovtek for stock tubes.

reeltrouble1 · October 2009

many of the tubes used by BAT were first used by the Russki's in a variety of military applications. Their high current amplifier tube was designed for use in their Mig fighter jet.....yousa. BAT tests each tube it ships before it goes out with a product, Cofounder Steve Bednarski did tell me personally that alot of stock tubes get cut for not meeting the grade, so there you go.......I dunno, anyway, you can roll away Ricardo.

You can call and ask them, man I would love to hear the thick-tongued conversation between Ricardo and Vladmir Shutnov BAT's chief engineer tech, now that would be something.....Ricardo just call them, you will not believe the customer service and explanation tutorial this company will provide. Just wait till you get into the concept of Khomenko's Signal Width, you will be a bigger geek than you already are.........krikey, anyway the folks at BAT are very serious about music and play it, as well as record it at a professional level.

RT1

disneyjoe7 · October 2009

Disneyjoe7 is getting TUBES.... I feel the LOVE already.

Ricardo · October 2009

Ted, I communicated with Victor when I was considering buying the preamp, to get details on output impedances, tubes and other stuff. He's a man of few words, at least by email, but he helped me with the information I needed. On tubes, he recommended Upscale Audio. I'll steer clear of that for now

SCompRacer · October 2009

Ricardo, I can tell you liked it cause it blew at least one of your socks off. And you don't need all them tubes. Just jumper some of them and you'll only need to buy a couple of the high priced NOS tubes.:D I preferred the 6H23P-EV's in the 3i/5i over some of the pricey NOS tubes which made it too warm sounding for my liking. The EV's were not expensive at that time.

Are you going to go for the six pack upgrade?

gdb · October 2009

Here is an interesting video on the crafting vacuum tubes.:)

http://mxrk.net/home/2008/1/9/****-and-the-art-of-vacuum-tube-fabrication.html

reeltrouble1 · October 2009

Ricardo wrote: »

Ted, I communicated with Victor when I was considering buying the preamp, to get details on output impedances, tubes and other stuff. He's a man of few words, at least by email, but he helped me with the information I needed. On tubes, he recommended Upscale Audio. I'll steer clear of that for now

you gotta talk to him in person, these are guys are nuts.....example,

RT1--I have a power tube that won't bias.

Bednarski--(who answered the phone)--well sounds like its gone bad--hey, have some fun with it, go to a buddies house, sit down in front of the fireplace with a couple shots of Vodka and toss the tube in......in a short time....DUCK.

RT1--What AMP line should I run my BAT-VK500 with.

Vladmir--oooh, VK-500 (thick Russian accent) is very powerful amplifiiiiier. YOU neeeed 30-40 amp line the more the better, is very powerful, did I say...yes is fully balanced operation, don't put cheeeeep power line, OK, OK, now you put line and listen, you like you send me some Vodka and come to factory, I show you all different powerlines we have coming from street eeeeech different polarity, then weee eat Borsht.....

RT1--OK Vladmir, sure thing

waaaaaaaaaaa

Ricardo-Kevin Deal does sell some nice stuff but I hear you man, my BAT tubed stuff works/worked great with suppliers we are accustomed to, the way the gear is designed the circuitry that is, it sort of put the tube in and forget it. The VK5i has soft start no??? Older tube gear was very hard on tubes as they first warmed so lots of guys just left them on burning tube life and so on, with the soft start now being made, self biasing power tube amps and so on its become a moot point, the tubes last a very long time, and when its done you know it.

RT1

I hate to say this.....

Comments