Back where the sweet luscious mid's and high's with the bottom end filling out. The change over in tubes had an instant impact on the sound this little amplifier could achieve, it was like a veil was removed from the sound. Although imaging side to side was excellent, back and for depth of the sound stage was not as deep as the Electrohome. The midrange and highs were not warm even having a bit of shrill at times. The sound was very clear and transparent in the mid range and high's. The Tannoy's are very efficient so it was best suited to the 3.5 watts per channel. I first had a listen with the stock Chinese Sino EL84's with the Sino 12AX7B connect to a pair of Tannoy Oxford Gold's. I burnt the amp in for 12 hours before giving it a serious listen.The Tube Cube 7 can be found on the Tube Depot site and runs for $179.95 with free delivery in the USA. I was pretty excited to see what this 3.5 watt would sound like in a comparison. I am just listening to my Electrohome Marseilles tube amp for the past few months as my only source of amplification. It feels like a solid little amp in your hands. This fully assembled unit was well packaged and the fit and finish is really nice. But for any smaller speakers, or Heritage speakers, I can't imagine finding anything better for $200.I picked up this little desktop tube amp for my son's Christmas present this year, replacing the Realistic System 11. ![]() It just seems like it takes more power to get big drivers to perform at 100%. I do plan to try it with the RP-280F as well, but I'm expecting it to perform similarly to the KGs. When I use an Adcom preamp, it's no problem. ![]() When I fed it the DAC, it reached distortion pretty fast. It's definitely interesting that I can enjoy similar levels with a seventeenth of the power! So far, it seems to have plenty of juice for any of my ordinary listening, I haven't been any more conservative with levels than when I use my 60w Adcom. I haven't pushed it to massive levels yet, but I like to listen fairly loudly no matter what. It really does raise the issue of good watts vs many watts, if you ask me. Volume knob and power switch feel good, too, and it's nice and heavy. I like how it looks and the thick metal enclosure is great. Instead, it's quite presentable and looks really nice. (But as is always the case with Heresies, a subwoofer is much needed)īuild quality seems quite nice as well, I initially wondered if it would have suffered aesthetically to meet its price. I like processed music as a benchmark for smoothness, if I can listen to Psy or dubstep and not want to cover my ears, then something's being done right. I've used it for jazz, big band, pop, and electronic so far, as well as video games, and it holds up quite well. ![]() Those speakers sound pretty bright to me no matter what, but with the APPJ they were unlistenable. Haven't tested with the RP-280Fs yet, but it's a delight with the Heresy KP-201s. It's no good with the KG 5.2s, I suspect that it has a much harder time pushing the 10" driver and passive than the horn. I listened to it a good bit over the weekend and I'm definitely impressed that you can have sound like that for $200! I'll certainly be back with impressions once it arrives, but while we're here, has anybody here heard it? What does a tube amp sound like when it runs out of juice? Do you need to wait for the tubes to warm before you listen, or can you listen while they warm? Will it blow up if I feed it from my Adcom direct-coupled preamp? Will it blow up anyway? What a world to live in where you can try tube sound so cheaply! I've ordered a self-reputed updated version that has two tubes: īy the way, it's $180. In true "Shoot first, ask questions later" spirit (and possibly against good judgement,) I've ordered one of these second hand. I'd ordinarily be wary, but between being sold by Tube Depot and having an awful lot of good impressions available around the internet (and no counts of one bursting into flames,) I find it quite interesting. This is one of those China-built wonders that has no clear origin, but appears under several brand names.
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