My Yaqin CD-2 is here!!!

inspiredsports

heiney9 wrote: »

Chinese tubes really suck compared to a nice pair of NOS type tubes.

Congrats.........Enjoy

TUBES ADD SOUL

I just found an interesting comment by a guy who has dismantled bad tubes to see how they are constructed. He commented that he has found (after measuring with calipers) the plate material to be thinner on new Russian and Chinese tubes

(Fourth paragraph below image captioned "Simple continuity tester has serious drawbacks." at http://www.tone-lizard.com/Tube_Testers.html)

This site is a great reference if you are in the market for a good tube tester (as I am right now).

Conradicles

I just hooked mine up and have a question:
Did I read somewhere that the RCA inputs or outputs are reversed and you need to flip one?
HELP!

kawizx9r

Ben, this thread is useless without pics

Jetmaker737

Conradicles wrote: »

I just hooked mine up and have a question:
Did I read somewhere that the RCA inputs or outputs are reversed and you need to flip one?
HELP!

I did not have to do this on my CD2.

concealer404

Jetmaker737 wrote: »

I did not have to do this on my CD2.

I didn't have to do it on mine, either.


Freddy, i know, i know... I'll clean up my cabling mess tonite and rectify the sad situation.

IT'S GOT PRETTY BLUE LIGHTS OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

NotaSuv

Conradicles wrote: »

I just hooked mine up and have a question:
Did I read somewhere that the RCA inputs or outputs are reversed and you need to flip one?
HELP!

used as they were marked did nt reverse anything......

Conradicles

Sorry, must have lost my mind for a minute. Carry on...

inspiredsports

Conradicles wrote: »

I just hooked mine up and have a question:
Did I read somewhere that the RCA inputs or outputs are reversed and you need to flip one?
HELP!

Just answered your PM.

I've read hundreds of posts about both the Yaqin CD-1 and CD-2 and have never seen anything in print to indicate that they are "phase inverting".

My owners manual also said nothing about phase inversion so I am 99.9% positive that the Yaqin's are NOT phase inverted. I've had mine hooked up left to left and right to right with the most excellent results that any single $100 upgrade has yielded.

concealer404

Well, i still can't figure out my camera. So no nifty dark shots showing off the glow, as well as the rest of the pretty lights of my rig. I'll experiment more this weekend with the camera. It's pretty funny the blue lights (OMGOMGOMGOMG!!) juxtaposed with the tube glow and the old school Sansui tuna.

So here's some lighted pictures of OK quality. And holy crap i need to dust. cables will ALL be Scarlet Vipers shortly.

kawizx9r

Dude, windex that damn rack!

That's one punch I held back when I went to your place, sorry Ben! lol

concealer404

kawizx9r wrote: »

Dude, windex that damn rack!

That's one punch I held back when I went to your place, sorry Ben! lol

Seriously... i'm on it when i get home. Looks gross.

Conradicles

concealer404, what are your thoughts about the Yaqin so far?
Seems like we got ours both about the same time.

concealer404

Conradicles wrote: »

concealer404, what are your thoughts about the Yaqin so far?
Seems like we got ours both about the same time.

I'm liking it. I need to get some better tubes for it, though. It's fully burned in at this point, and even with the Chinese tubes, it's an improvement. It all just sounds meatier and the soundstage seems to have opened up even further, though i have no good explanation as to why that would have happened.

How about you?

Dawgfish

I've got the Grant Fidelity B283, which is essentially the same thing as the Yaqin and couldn't be happier. I noticed all of the same impromvements you have written about. I have replaced my tubes with the Mullard 8100s and it made the sound even warmer. Overall I'm very happy with the change in tone the Mullards made. One more improvement I've made to my tube buffer that made a noticable difference was the addition of Herbies Audio Tube dampers. The sound became a little more detailed and tighter with the tube dampers. Thanks InspiredSports for the tip!

concealer404

Dawgfish wrote: »

I've got the Grant Fidelity B283, which is essentially the same thing as the Yaqin and couldn't be happier. I noticed all of the same impromvements you have written about. I have replaced my tubes with the Mullard 8100s and it made the sound even warmer. Overall I'm very happy with the change in tone the Mullards made. One more improvement I've made to my tube buffer that made a noticable difference was the addition of Herbies Audio Tube dampers. The sound became a little more detailed and tighter with the tube dampers. Thanks InspiredSports for the tip!

Yeah, the 8100s are on my short list. Gotta sort out my DAC first. If the DAC goes the way of the Dodo, then i'll get those tubes stat, and the dampers.

Conradicles

concealer404 wrote: »

the soundstage seems to have opened up even further, though i have no good explanation as to why that would have happened.

How about you?

Same thing. I will admit I had higher expectations for this thing. Guess I was just anticipating a huge improvement.
I do like the "sweetness" it adds to the music and a bit larger soundstage.:cool:
Not ready to say "tubes rule" yet. I'm looking at tube pre's now and hope to get one in the next few months.
I need to sell a bunch I gear I got laying around 1st.

concealer404

Conradicles wrote: »

Same thing. I will admit I had higher expectations for this thing. Guess I was just anticipating a huge improvement.
I do like the "sweetness" it adds to the music and a bit larger soundstage.:cool:
Not ready to say "tubes rule" yet. I'm looking at tube pre's now and hope to get one in the next few months.
I need to sell a bunch I gear I got laying around 1st.

I really think these tubes are hampering it. How many hours do you have on yours?

It wasn't a huge improvement yet, no... it's not something i couldn't listen to my system without, but i expect that to change with some real tubes. I may be thinking there's a bigger difference than there really is. Keep in mind that within two weeks, i added spikes, speaker cables, and this tube buffer. So the cables and the buffer were really burning in at the same time, so i probably had some multiplier effect going on.

Conradicles

I would say mine has about 120 hours now with Mullard 8100's.

concealer404

Conradicles wrote: »

I would say mine has about 120 hours now with Mullard 8100's.

Oh wow... so you're not even noticing a big difference with those tubes? What's the rest of your gear again?

I had the buffer out of rotation shortly yesterday when i was troubleshooting the DAC, and even with the Chinese tubes it was a pretty apparent difference. Still sounded good, just in a different way. Maybe a little crisper. I don't know if it was better or worse, but i preferred the buffer.

concealer404

Keiko wrote: »

You didn't snag those 6AK5W's I linked you to, concealer? They're leaps and bounds better than the stock tubes.

Not yet. I'll get off my **** (or back on it, whatever) today or tomorrow and do it i think.

starkiller

Spring for the 8100's if you can, made a big differnce in my system, tamed the bright highs a bit from the yamaha cdp.