yup, ive not been tempted to change mine.
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KR makes great sounding valves.
Have a pair of their Balloon 300Bs in my SET power amp, and they don't give anything away to the Elrogs I had in there before.
Great looking system, bravo.
They are good.
With the DAC in its current configuration, the PX4 is actually not as good as the other KR offerings. In fact, I would rank all the other valves in the last valve pic above it. Reading my last PX4 post, I think I over-hyped it. I'm fessing up to my inner "judge" here.
The KR 242 is very popular among Lampi owners, and now works in the DAC's current configuration, which has had it's output level dropped. However, it is still an extremely high gain option, and 9 o'clock on the volume control is about the same as 11:30 with, say, the KR 300B RK, according to my DB meter. 6 o'clock is zero volume.
It is fine using my Air Tight passive, which has super fine volume control. However, I still prefer it with the active preamp, so I have ordered some Rothwell attenuators for use with it.
The PX25 is also high gain, though not quite so high as the 242. Of all of the recent batch, the PX25 is my least fave, but it is still good. Definitely better than the PX4.
Whilst I mentioned the EML Special 45 in my earlier post on the PX4, it is in fact quite superior to the PX4 in the current set up. And far better than I remember an EML solid plate 45 as being. It has a really sweet, delicate mid range, presenting detail in an almost delightful fashion. But the bass is still very good, as is the soundstage. The problem is it really was a limited edition. I had given up on EML a bit, but this really is good. If available new I would definitely buy it. Word is it isn't going to happen. Shame - it should be in every self-respecting Lampi owner's arsenal if it gives the same result I am hearing now.
The Special 45 isn't necessarily the best, but it offers a flavour that is up there with the very best.
More later, especially when I have had more time with the replacement RK 300Bs and the attenuated 242.
The Rothwell ttenuated 242 didn't really work. You're better off not using the attenuators at all, it would appear, for this particular case. They just seemed to strip the life out of the sound.
However, the KR 242, KR PX25 and Lampi Anniv 45 are now gone since the owner came round for a listening session, and I let him have my KR RK 300B for a while. I also gave him a brand spanking NOS Chatham 5R4WGA rectifier. An incredible beast of a rectifier used in B52s and rated up to 60,000 feet and 900G. 900G FFS?? WTF? Seemed only fair to give him that and the KR RKs.
So, here is some capacitor porn:
https://kgbatw.db.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none
I have my preamp set up so you can switch between the Jupiter and Dueland output capacitors at will via the remote and flick over fairly quickly to the Xiang by changing the optical input.
The difference in caps is subtle. Quick flicks (5 seconds on each) and you can't hear much difference. But when you listen to entire tracks you most definitely can.
The Jupiters are warmer and more relaxed and confident. Duelands are more accurate, but less warm and confident. But it isn't a fair comparison as the Duelands are 4.5 times less capacitance than the Jupiter.
Then again that cap rating in Dueland wouldn't fit in the box and would cost a fortune.
They are both copper foil paper and wax caps and so they shouldn't be expected to sound too different, I suppose, but generally these caps do tend to get reviews that suggest they are about the best going commercially.
Might swap out the Duelands at some stage for something else. Having two outputs is interesting and adds that little bit extra to an already super flexible DAC.
Justin,
out of interest where did you get the white base KR 300Bs?
I wanted a set of those to rellace the Elrogs I had in before, but was told the improved white base ones were for the American market only and were unavailable.
Black base standard 300Bs sound great but if my next set could be the better ones....
these lampi top level products freaks me out - i have amber II and i just can't imagine digital sounding much better than that.
From Frank at Best300B. Frank is actually Lucasz Fikus's brother. They were quick to send them out.
I forgot to mention the chap that owns the KR 242, PX25 and Lamp Anniversary 45s also came round with a KR white base 5U4G rectifier (not the RK version).
In our opinion, the Chatham rectifier provided a better sound than the KR 5U4G. I am not surprised by this. The Chatham is a beast of a mil spec rectifier made to incredible standards.
I won a FIVRE 5U4G recitifer on ebay that should be here soon. It was a lowball bid I really wasn't expecting to win it! FIVRE have a good rep, so it should be interesting.
I have ordered some CMC Teflon UX4 sockets, and some WBT Ag Topline RCA sockets, which should go in soon. Not expecting much change in sound but I have just decided to keep dumping really high grade stuff into this DAC, because, well, why not?
So my valve ranking head reckons the best available valves in this iteration of the DAC are the KR 300B RK and Lampi Anniversary 45. The KR RK has a strong sound especially when it come to bass. But its mids and highs are nice too. It is supremely detailed but not quite as sweet as the Anniversary.
The classical music man who lent me the valves reckoned PX25 was best on classical and I'd have to agree it was, even though I don't listen to it. Just seemed to work really well with strings.
I am asking JAC Music what the difference between the EML Mesh 45 and Lampi Anniversary is because internally it looks identical. Just the sockets and globe shape glass appear to be the only visible differences (apart from screen print).
I am also interested in the EML AD1 - an implementation of the Telefunken AD1. But that would need an AD1 to UX4 socket converter which are available on ebay. Original AD1 are so expensive as to not be realistic, though I'd love a pair.
It's just one of the first Big 7s, given a circuit change by Lampi recently following their recent discoveries, plus my idea of running dual output caps. Since they were never PCB based they are more flexible, so you can basically mess around with them, which is what I am doing. It is proving to be well worth it. It really is a lot better than it was.
Next up are the transformers. I reckon there's better out there.
I know you might not want to, but have you tried a really good mains cable on it?