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My new handcrafted headphone valve amp

Discussion in 'Headphones Area' started by walkman archive, Oct 24, 2017.

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  1. walkman archive

    walkman archive Administrator Staff Member

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    hi there,
    I've received past week my new headphone valve amp. It's made by two guys in Madrid (Spain) and it's simple yet very powerful. I've been waiting for it since April.

    It's designed specifically for the Sennheiser HD800, although it works very well with other high impedance headphones. At first sight it shows powerful 'punchy' sound, yet smooth. I love it!

    IMG_0361.JPG
     
    Boodokhan and Radio Raheem like this.
  2. Jorge

    Jorge Well-Known Member

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    Looks interesting! Not quite sure about the "butcher's block" wooden panels, but teflon plates over ceramic tube sockets is a bold touch.
    The market for h/p amps is vicious nowadays, please post more about this company!
     
  3. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    and tell us more about the amplifier.

    Is it Stereo ?

    I am rather puzzled by the large Valve / Tube at the back that looks as if it has come straight out of something like a Marshall Amplifier.

    Such large Valve / tubes tended to be single function (and high power) so I would expect everything to be paired up for a stereo amp.
     
  4. walkman archive

    walkman archive Administrator Staff Member

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    The amplifier is called Torchscout v2 (it's the 2nd gen.) You can read more about it here:
    https://www.auriculares-hifi.com/foro/index.php?topic=9547.0 (in spanish) with a lot of photos.

    It's made by two guys who are also admins of that spanish forum. I don't know where or how they got the idea but it seems that it all started 1-2 years ago.
    there's no company at all, just two friends doing it for friends and users of that forum. However, if you are interested I can get you in contact with them.
    Wooden panels are really bamboo panels.

    Yes, stereo of course :nodding:

    The small valve is for preamp and the big one is for final power. It heats up so much than it really hurts if you touch them when they keep working for more than a minute...
    I like the sound very much, with thicker and punchier bass than my ALO The PanAm, which is a high-end valve too (review here). the downside is that it's extremely sensible to any vibration. If you touch the body of the amp, you can hear a very slight 'buzzz' in the sound. If you rotate the volume knob, you can hear something. Even if you put your hand very smoothly over the table you can hear something. I guess it's something related to the vibrations that pass through the valve. I'll try sorbothane foots to help isolate it.
     
  5. Jorge

    Jorge Well-Known Member

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    I am the biggest sucker for Antivibration Plates, even use them under Discmans!!... Go for it!!!
    My 5 cents of personal experience: do Not use hi-temp damping rings for the tubes! When I had BAT VK-75SE amp in my system I fell for them. They left pretty ugly indents/rings on the glass! Tells you something about the temperature out there...
    Sorbothane pads, the only nice thing I can say about them is that they r cheap!
    Mapleshade platform and pads would be my recommendation, would look nice under this beauty of yours:)
     
  6. Longman

    Longman Well-Known Member S2G Supporter

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    Thanks for the link Hugo

    I understood enough to determine that the large valve / tube is one of these

    http://www.tube-sale.com/index.php/...ies/shuguang-treasure-cv181-z6sn7old-version/

    which is an updated version of one of these dual triodes

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6SN7 which explains how they get stereo from it.

    The only tube amp I would fancy myself is a vintage Radford. That is mainly because I recently discovered they were made less than a mile away from where I first lived. I wonder how many times I passed their factory while sat in my pushchair :rockonbaby
     
  7. walkman archive

    walkman archive Administrator Staff Member

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    Thanks for the recommendation. I'll take a look at them!

    Hmm, very interesting. Thanks for the info. I like the sound of this my russian tube but it's definitely very ugly in matte finish.
    I'd like to find another one that sounds similar but is transparent...
     
  8. Jurgen

    Jurgen New Member

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    Looks to be an absolute beast for the HD 800. You describe it as 'smooth'. Makes me wonder how it would sound with the already smooth HD 650 or if it would make the Beyerdynamic DT 770 sound less analytical.
     
  9. walkman archive

    walkman archive Administrator Staff Member

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    Yes it sounds very well. I usually plug in my 540 or the 650 rather than the 800. However, many customers say that's the best sounding amp for the 800, even better than the official amp or a Lehman BCL.
    As I don't like the 800 signature as much as the 540s or the 650 I cannot say. I prefer a little bit dark sound instead of flat, neutral sound.
     

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