Octave Tube Electronics Owners Thread - Page 3

DPant what a small world. I would love to hear your system in Khin's room except be about 3 ft farther back.

Do you have an update with the tubes yet? I forgot - what output tubes do you have now? Sorry getting old.

George

Hello all,

Wow, glad to see that this thread is going strong.

I have owned Octave MRE 130's with Super Black Box for about 6 years now. I have done extensive tube rolling in these amps. The original factory tubes were Svetlana Winged C KT88's. These are by far one of the best sounding with the MRE 130's. The second best with the MRE 130's are the EH KT88's. Forget about the JJ's as they are one of the cheapest made and aweful sounding tubes I have ever had in the MRE 130.I tried the Gold LionKT 88's and they are good at providing a linear and balanced soundscape. The EH's have more high end energy and are precise in their presentation. The Svetlana Winged C had the best and most pleasant midrange, with balanced bass and highs. I also have tried the Tung Sol KT 120's and they are also a good sounding tube, perhaps a smidgen more bass. I like them because I believe they do give little more kick, but they lose out to the Winged C's mids. I have a Tube Amp Doctor Bias Master to check bias of each tube, the KT 120's require a little more to be ideal, however, the MRE 130's are averaged to be about 39-44 ma per tube. The KT 120's need higher to reach full power potential, you can run the bias a little hotter with the measurement tool to get the added power required of the KT 120, otherwise, you will be safely in the range of the KT 88's bias range. Luckily the MRE 130's are robust enought to allow for such experimenation. I over biased a set of KT 120's when I was trying to burn them in and set the ma to 70, way to much for these.

I would recommend that you do try finding some Svetlana Winged C's and compare them to some EH's. The EAT KT 88 tubes may be good, never heard them, but I have heard the Psvane KT 88's, and did not like them as much as the others. I believe they are cut from the same vein. The TAD KT 88's are also derived from some Asian markets and sound remarkably close to the Psvane KT88's. TAD offers select versions of the KT 88 that are also really good.

Yes, it is true, the plate voltage of the MRE 130's are 530volts, the V40SE : 480V , V70SE, V80 : both 520V.

I have also experimented with the the drive tubes, I used RFT's, Siemens, and Philips-Jan (original Octave), and Psvane 12AU7's. The 12Au7's are really fast and provide plenty of high end energy, perhaps too much in some setups. I really like the RFT's.

I never owned an HP 300. I have owned the HP 500SE with phono; however, I now own an Octave Jubilee preamp. The HP 500SE with the MRE 130's is a match made in heaven, in fact, one of the reasons I was reluctant to upgrade to the Jubilee, because the HP 500 SE sounds so good. I was able to jump on a super deal while stationed in Germany on the Jubilee, and the rest is history.

The Super Black Box is such a tremendous upgrade, I find it would be almost a waste of components without using the Super Black Box. Image and stereo separation will collapse, along with the bass taking a big loss. In addition, the Super Black Box serves as part AC filter, so you do get cleaner filtred power.

I have been to the Octave shop several times for both business and pleasure, and each time, I am amazed at the quality of the Octave products. The Octave get togethers at the Octave factory are a great experience. They happen towards the end of summer.

You can read about my reviews and experiences in regards to tube rolling the Octave and Aesthetix IO Signature phono amp on Audiogon and Audioasylum.

BTW, I drive B&W Nautilus 800 speakers with these amps.

I have more experiences to share with you all later. Just getting settled back in the US after spending 20 years in Germany.
Ciao
Analogmeister

Hello Analogmeister,

My MRE 130 pair came with SED KT88 winged C.
Its is a great tube, one of the best out there.
I compared it to other tubes, and I think it has the best bass, but i found that on the top, it's not as good as let's say GE or Tung-Sol - it's on a drier side.

I agree 100%, the Super Black Box is a must for this system. I own a pair as well. I tried it with and without.

On the HP500SE, I agree its a great preamp, matches very well with the MRE130. My dilema is the lack of XLR inputs on this unit.
I passed on it for this reason.
Would be nice to see the next products coming out of Octave with both RCA and XLR connections.

I drive my amps into the new C4 sigs Dynaudio speakers and I am happy at the moment.
How do you like the B&W Nautilus 800 speakers with these amps? I was thinking of going this way at one time, but my Sales guy talked me out of it, and I ended with Dynaudio, which I have
no regrets. They are a great company with one of the finest products out there.

Will be happy to hear your experience and testimonials, especially Octave gear.

Best Regards,
DPant

I absolutely love the combination of the B&W 800's with the Octave MRE 130 amps. I had the Germany based B&W distributor at my house in Germany and he said that he never heard these speakers sound so good before, well I also had excellant room treatment in a complete concrete basement, with cement ceilings. You hear a lot of people comment that the B&W's are inefficient, and require substantial power to drive them, well, I never had this issue with this combination. In fact, I was using a pair of Bryston 4BSST's before I went the tube route, and before that I was using ML equipment, Carver, and ADCOM. The tubes give such a euphonic sound to these speakers that make you want to listen for hours. I did lose some bass compared to the transistor amps; however, the bass I had with the tubes was articulate and realistic sounding, whereas the transistor bass hit a bit harder and deeeper but lacked the realism of the drums. It was the hard dry sound of the resonating drumbeat that it appeals to me. I also have two 15" sealed subs, B&W Nautilus ASW 850 15" and HSU ULS 15", both sealed and rated at 1500 watts peak, perfect blend when I want to party and want really deep bass.

The Dynaudio speakers are nice. I had a lot of listening opportunities while I was living in Germany. I am sure you are enjoying them.

I tried using the XLR inputs on the amps with RCA-XLR adapters to the previous HP500SE and I did not hear any differences. With the new Jubilee preamp, which includes XLR input and outputs, I may be tempted to experiment later. I am sure that it would be a change in sound based on the balance approach. Unfortunately, I am sending my Aesthetix IO Signature to the shop for some repairs. I wil need a subsitute phono amp until then, so I cannot experiment with the phono XLR inputs.

I have been trying to located some Svetlana winged C's, can't seem to locate any though.

I have been eyeing the new MRE 220's. They have 220 watts, with 300 watts pulse power. Those compare in power to the Macs 2301's with 300 watts, interesting.

I am using Neotech IC's between the preamp and the amps.

Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Nicholas check here
http://www.upscaleaudio.com/products/Svetlana-6550C.html
George

Thanks for the link. It appears that they only had KT6550's and not KT88's. I will send out a request for information anyway to see if they could get some Winged C KT88's.

Thanks!

My bad - I just assumed you were looking for 6550's. Do they have to be Svetlana's or will Sed's do.
George
I only have the Sed's and if the Svetlana's are like the Sed's the KT88's will be less linear with more emphasis in the bass
http://www.boiaudioworks.com/kt88?kw=kt88&gclid=CM7xqMeXzbQCFUZgMgodeG8AcQ
If you want I can ask Dynaudio (north american distributors of Octave) what they may have. Although when I ordered my 6550's they got them From Andreas and it took about 6 weeks.
Edited by OctaDyn_Dude - 1/3/13 at 2:03pm

Hey George, Analogmeister:
MRE 220 is on my shopping list as well. I have been reading about it.
Let me know if you locate the Svetlana winged C's tubes, I may want to get a set as well.
On the XLR vs RCA, its a preference in many cases. I seem to hear a difference. And being an Engineer, I tend to favor the XLR approach. So I am in the XLR camp.
I am curious about the B&W 800's- will see if I can borrow a set from my local dealer and bench mark it against my Dynaudio C4 sigs. Stay tuned.

My current project is to upgarde my turn table cartridge. I am doing it this month. I decided to go with the PS1 super.
On a separate question, have you any experience with 24 bit vs 32 bit CD players?
I own the Ayon 5S CD player from Austria. It is very nice, all tube design. I am just seeing a lot of marketing buzz on the new 32 bits players and was curious if anyone has any experience with this.
DPant

Here is a web site I found that has what apears to be some Svetlana Winged C's:

http://www.tubeampdoctor.com/product_info.php?products_id=578&url_node_name=sonstige_Markenroehren_Endstufenroehren_Pentoden&language=de


I will send them a note and to see what these are really are.
On the N800's. It really is a great combination with the Octave MRE 130's. You hear alot about how diffucult it is to drive these speakers and how the actual ohm value are closer to 3 instead of the 8 listed. In various forums. A lot of misinformation considering that many have not heard this combination. Yes, any amp not adequate for a specific speaker will make the combination sound bad, awfully bad. I never had such an experience. I like to be in the ignorant bliss crowd who knows otherwise and watch the ramblings and B&W bashing continue while I listen to my system with none, I mean, none of the issues that are mentioned in the forums as to why not to get B&W, especially with the combination of the MRE and Super Black Box. Anyway, you will either like them or not like. I can listen at pretty low volumes and they play music effortlessly. At loud volumes, I can play as loud as my ears will take it. In fact, I have run the MRE 130's into overdrive, shutitng them down, playing some music that was causing the rooms to vibrate, you could not hear each other talking,, even when shouting, and just jamming out. oh yeah, these speakers love to jam out. I added two subs to increase ultra deep performance because on any tube amp speaker combination, gven the law of physics, you will not have any ultra deep bass. There are many tube amp users with the B&W's, they are the silent minority. Of course, there are many other reasons to to like and not like these speakers, size, weight, costs, and WAF.

Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Those are SED KT88 winged C. As I understand it SED bought out Svetlana and took over the line. Not sure though if that was before New Sensor acquired them. I do know about 2 - 3 years ago the production stopped on SED 6550's due to quality issues. Their biggest customer was AR Corp which accounted for the majority of sales. I don't know if Svetlana ever had a winged C version. Here is a link to New Sensor. Looks like they do have some Svetlana KT88's
http://www.newsensor.com/ProductListing.aspx?CatId=35
New Quest sound on ebay has some KT88's
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Matched-Octet-8-tubes-Svetlana-KT88-Power-Amp-Tubes-NEW-/150879685274?pt=US_Home_Audio_Amplifiers_Preamps&hash=item2321214a9a
Edited by OctaDyn_Dude - 1/5/13 at 9:52am

Hi guys.

I am a owner of RE290 with EAT tubes. Currently using an Ayon CD5s as a preamp. Dpant are u using the Ayon as a pre as well.

As to EAT tubes i had one go down after 4 months of use!!!

I have the V70SE and out of 6 Eat KT88's I had 3 go bad. I did buy my Eat tubes used. Mine have serial #'s that begin with 'D'.
I'm currently using vintage Gec KT88's with Gec CV6091 (12at7) drivers and a rca 5751 (12ax7). Pretty close to the Eat sound.
Edited by OctaDyn_Dude - 1/23/13 at 3:52am

Hey Petng

Yes I use the Ayon 5S as a preamp and it sounds great.
I have two Mac amps driving Dynaudio C4 speakers in monoblock.
The Ayon drives the Macs as a preamp.
I use this system primarily for CD listening.

One of my next to-do projects is to add a dedicated preamp with the Ayon 5S and see which I like better.
I have been told that the Ayon as a preamp is the way to go but I do want to try and experiment with an added preamp to the Ayon.
This will bypass the Ayon preamp and if the preamp is a high quality one, I may take my sound to another higher level.
The Ayon CD drive/section is one of the best.

I have been looking to hear any feedback on anyone who has used a 32b CD player.
The Ayon is 24b and it sond awesome.
Does the 32b CD players sound better, or just different?

Dpant

I thought you at using a pair of octave 130 amps?

I am also trying out a few preamps, in particular a Shindo Masseto. Anyone using Shindo pre with Octave power?

Hi Petng,

I have two systems in two rooms.
One room is dedicated to Vinyls. So I use a Nothinhgam space 294 turntable, A Mac preamp, MRE130 monblocks with super black boxes driving the new Dynaudio C4 sig speakers.
This is a great sounding system. I would like to replace the Mac preamp with something better in the future. This is on my list.

The second room has my second system which is dedicated to CDs. Here I use the Ayon 5S in preamp mode and driving a pair of Mac amp monoblock into a pair of C4 Dynaudio speakers.
This system sounds great. I do want to check into bypassing the Ayon preamp and will find a real nice preamp to connect to it.
Not sure if this will sound better for me. But I do want to find out. The Ayon preamp is a real nice all tube design and I use great tubes in it and it sounds great. So this is a task that is challenging. I am sure if I spend a lot of money, I may get something that works for me, but again it depends how much better than what I currently have with the Ayon Preamp.

Let me know which sounds better for you, the Shindo Maseto or the Ayon Preamp. I am really interested in hearing if there is a preamp that will surpass the Ayon preamp sound.
My other option is to move my mac preamp to the CD system room, connect it to the Ayon CD player and purchase a real nice preamp for my Vinyl system.
It would be great to hear your feedback and experience on bypassing the Ayon preamp.

Guys,
I was very close to purchasing Dynaudio Temptation speakers, these were a show room model, I did not see them, but was told that they were just like new.
We did not converge on the final price, and the deal fell.
Anyone, let me know if you know someone that is selling Temptation speakers, I am still interested in acquiring a set.
Thanks
DPant