Octave Tube Electronics Owners Thread

Brad,
It is so good to see this thread get started. The Octave line of Tube electronics has been hand built in Germany for the last three decades and recently we(Dynaudio) began importing the product into North America. Engineering, build quality and performance is on par or better than many of the better known tubes lines in high end audio.

Brad,

Thanks for starting this thread! I can't wait for my Octave V80!

Hi,

I am a Dynaudio Fan. I've owned many but now I have the C1s. Is Octave the way to go?

Curious as to who has bought Octave and to other product comparisons like Naim.

Check out this amazing review of the MRE-130 Mono Blocks in Tone Audio, everything we have said about Octave is summed up here.

http://www.tonepublications.com/MAGPDF/TA_037.pdf

http://www.soundstage.com/index.php?...&id=6&Itemid=4

Very nice review!

The MRE 130 is one fine tube amp. I have mentioned to many people on other forums that the MRE equipped with the Super Black Box drives my B&W Nautilus 800's pretty easily. The bass is taught and very dry. The description in the review regarding the dimensionality and spaciousness is absolutely true. Truly remarkable. I had the HP500SE with the MRE 130's for several years and now own an Octave Jubilee preamp that has raised the bar of sound quality. I am pretty much addicted to listening to music on this system.

I have experimented with every KT 88 known to man it seems. The EH KT88's seem to be the best fit in terms of sound quality. The GL KT88's are nice, but not as dynamic as the EH's. The Svetlana Winged C's were my top reference, they have a tremendously wide soundstage. I tried the JJ KT88's and they sucked the life of the system. They did now work well. I am also using NOS driver tubes I purchased TAD, but now I want to try the PSVANE because in the test the reviewer said it made a positive impression.
Cheers,
Analogmeister

Hi Analogmeister,

Have you posted your KT88 findings anywhere? I'm curious to know your findings. Did you find that rolling the output tubes made more tonal difference than rolling the input tubes?

What amps do you own from Octave? Do you have an integrated or a mono amp? The reason is that what I have tried pertains to the MRE 130's, and some folks claim great listening success with the GL's in the V70 or V40.

Analogmeister

Try this link to a forum discussion about KT 88's:

Read what was said in the following link about various tubes.

Follow the posts in the thread:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr...openfrom&1&4#1

Analogmeister

Any feedback from the customer? That would probably be the first Octave MRE 130 owner in the states. Intersted in hearing the results as well.
Analogmeister

My cousin owns an octave v80 and is thinking about swapping his speakers for the Dyn Sapphires. He tells me that with the stock kt88s the mids are a little too glaring.

I found your post to be interesting as hes thinking of the Gold Lions.

Hello everybody! I also own a V70SE integrated and the stock tubes which this integrated is delivered with, here in Europe, are the 6550 ones (Svetlana). I am thinking also in rolling the tubes and my choice leans towards the GL KT88's, therefor any suggestion/personal experience is welcome.

If any interest for you, there is also a "tube list" for V40 posted on German DYI online store site which you can find here (document is in German)

http://www.tube-town.net/info/doc/Oc...binationen.pdf

Thanks for the tube update. I am experimenting
With tung sol KT 120 right and PSVane 12AU7 right now.
I still think the EH and Svetlana winged C KT 88
are the best for the MRE 130's.

I have an Octave V70SE (in black) with black box driving Dynaudio C1's signatures in Mocha. My source is a Merdian G08 with Nordost Frey Ic's and speaker cables. Sounds Fantastic to say the least

The stock tubes are the SED KT88's and have tried several output tubes. For the money I like the GL KT88 re-issues. Better more liquid mids - crystal clear highs and a tighter bass. The EAT KT88 diamond is even better than the GL's but very expensive. My favorite is the Tung Sol 6550 black plates. They have that EL34 magical midrange and better bass. Most important they have power the EL34's lack.

To me the SED and GL KT88's and SED 6550's sound more like solid state where the EL34's and TS 6550 black plate have a more tubey sound.

Has anyone heard this option? Is there a better phono stage for less money elsewhere?

Haven't heard it because I don't have a TT but I think for the price of a V70SE and a phono stage you could get the V80 which has a phono stage.

Hi,

I am new to Octave and read that their amps have an Ecomode Power Management System. Do all the amps have the Ecomode or just the integrateds?

Thanks!

Joe

They all have the ecomode and multi stage soft start. Although I just went through the brochure and the Jubilee's may not have it.

Thanks!

The Octave gear looks very nice.

have to admit - it's the first I've heard of it. And I'm a tube guy from way back.

Sounds great too. I Have the V70SE and tube rolling is a ball. It's my first tube integrated.

Octave has only been in the US for about 2 years. Octave is made in Germany and has been making amps for over 25 years.

Has anybody here tried KT120s in their Octave integrateds?

I bought my first tube amp from Germany a couple of weeks ago. The V70SE to go with my C1s.
It came with 1 Sovtek 12AX7 and 2x RCA 12AT7 + 4x Sovtek 6550WE
I thought I'd pass on some info from my correspondence from Koray Kural at the www.nostubestore.com:

"Sonically, most important tubes in the tube amp topologies are those used in input/preamp stages which is a single 12AX7 tube for your Octave V70SE. This tube gives its sonic character and tones to the system overall. Swapping only this tube with another one would make a serious difference soundwise. Therefore, any upgrade or improvement must start with this stage. Other stages, drivers and output which are RCA 12AT7 and Sovtek 6550 in the amp could be (or must be) just follow ups according to the result of the first upgrade, if necessary.
Here are my suggestions below :

1) Tungsram 12AX7 preferably military stock with balanced sections. Why? Because this tube has an open, warm sound with a large body. The balanced sections property is another "must" since each section of this tube gives the gain for each channel. Here is a link to our web site for this tube >>>http://www.nostubestore.com/2010/04/...v8156b339.html

2) Optionally and with less importance, the RCA 12AT7 driver tubes (only if the stock ones are gray plate types) can be replaced by the black plate Raytheons or Siemens ECC81

3) It is too early to suggest any upgrade for the power tubes. After all or a part of the above done, it might be even unnecessary to do any.

The tubes will come to you tested for anode current draw, GM, gas, heater to cathode insulation, noise and microphonics and matched on the Amplitrex AT1000 computer tester with test scores labeled on boxes.
P.S. As electrons flaw between electrodes inside the tube improve and get stabilized slowly in time, tubes tend to sound better after use for sometime. However, this does not that much apply to the NOS tubes since they were hard tested up to their spec limits being operated 100 hours minimum during quality control process. This was especially important for military and industrial/telecom spec tubes which were intended for war or communication etc. The current production tubes are not subject to such quality control process and strict industrial standard liabilities. So, the end-user (costumer) practically makes the quality control."

After a few hours of listening all I can say is replacing the Sovtek 12AX7 has taken this baby up a whole new level. Much tighter punchy bass and natural sounding instruments.

I agree 100% Driver and output tubes will make a difference but not as dramatic as the input.

So how many Octave users have Dynaudio speakers, specifically C1's. Let's see if we can get this thread going again. I like the gear and am thinking about getting an Octave amp.

Thanks!!!!