Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[Rowlf]

Congrats Jerry. Absolutely beautiful looking Viva! Looking forward to hearing more of your review after the amp has settled down.

Looks really heavy too and it must have been some exercise for you.

[jandl100]

Looks really heavy too and it must have been some exercise for you.

Yep - getting on for 70lb, I think.

But no problem - I'm used to lugging heavy hifi around!

I will have to figure out where to permanently house it - it's too tall for my normal shelves ...

[jandl100]

Viva amp update ....

The amp is a Viva Audio 300p integrated amp. It has a push-pull pair of 300B valves on each channel giving a specced 17wpc.
A 12AX7 and 6SN7 complete the valve line-up.
It's quite a heavy beast at 68lb or so, and is reputed to have excellent quality transformers.

It has 4 inputs plus a Direct input which bypasses the pre-amp section and allows use as a power amp.,

Hmm. There really does seem to be a "300B magic" - a lovely natural midrange tonality with a real sense of 3D presence. The challenge would appear to be to fettle the overall system so that the bass and treble don't get left too far behind!

As delivered, the valves are 4x EH 300B, a Tung-Sol 6SN7 and a Mullard ecc83.

The EH 300B seem to be a well thought of valve - interesting comparative review here.
As 300B valves are expensive to fool around with - especially when 4 are needed! - I'll stick with those for now.

My first inclination was to swap out the Mullard ecc83, as I generally find them a bit over-smooth and laidback. To hand were Amperex 7025 and a Tung-Sol 12AX7. To my surprise, I find that the Mullard works best in the Viva! -- hey, maybe Nick at the Emporium knows what he is doing after all! The Viva has a tendency to shout a bit with the other valves. I have a TAD 12AX7 on order - that will be interesting to try.

I've played around a bit with the 6SN7, but that is still ongoing and I will report back later - I have KenRad, a nice unnamed Soviet, and EH (non-gold pin) to play with vs the supplied Tung-Sol.

By the end of the evening's listening everything was sounding very nice but a bit vague. So out of curiosity I dug out a pair of Nordost Enchantress speaker cables that I bought on eBay a couple of months ago, but had never got around to trying!
Whoa, yeah. Good synergy - everything just kind of tightened up and came to more dynamic life. Way to go, as our American cousins say.

I'm much looking forward to today's listening, once swmbo hoists herself out of bed!

[jandl100]

Well, come the morning and the Mullard ecc83 is too smooth and laid back - must have been that it suited late night listening.

Valve rolling to suit the time of day - whatever next.
A Tung-Sol 12AX7 has injected a bit of daylight sparkle - I reckon a TAD will be spot-on!

[stupinder]

Stunning looking bit of kit, Jerry!!!

[jandl100]

Yeah! - it's impressive, isn't it, Stu - and it's coming along quite nicely now - the key to happiness with 300B valves (well, this 300B amp anyway, and for my tastes in musical presentation) seems to be to inject a bit of PRaT by careful choice of supporting valves!

[Sovereign]

How does it compare with the Yaqin, Jerry? That's what I'd like to know...

Marco.

Come on Jerry, stop quacking around, how does it sound compared to the Yaquin?

[Ali Tait]

Are the EH's the Gold Grid ones Jerry? If not, the GG's are a fair bit better than the standard ones IMHO.

[glenann]

Come on Jerry, stop quacking around, how does it sound compared to the Yaquin?

+1

[jandl100]

Come on Jerry, stop quacking around, how does it sound compared to the Yaquin?

Hmm ... nah ... I'm not rushing into that question.

They are sufficiently different, and the Viva sound very valve dependent, that it's not a question with an easy answer.

I'd say that the Viva is not a Marco amp, though! ... it's not particularly interested in pinning me to the back wall, at least with my speakers, but it does other things very well indeed and is enjoyable and interesting to listen to (which most amps are not).

I'll play around with the Viva for a few more days - maybe investigate EH Gold Grid 300B valves (I'm pretty sure mine are just the standard EH) - anyone know the cheapest/best source for the EHGG? ... maybe even a loaner set?

I certainly am happy enough listening to the Viva at the moment, with the Yacky and the Parasound 'resting'.