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McIntosh Audio A Tradition of Excellence |
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#71
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Charles, I have a PrimaLuna integrated amp. PrimaLuna was designed to facilitate tube rolling. I am not suggesting any comparison between your MC 3500s and what I have. However, you may be interested in PrimaLuna’s website. There are a number of pages that discuss tube rolling, and tube rolling for beginners. I think looking at that would probably start to answer some of your questions. It even goes into certain suggested tube rolling combinations and what they would result in. Now all that is particular to the PrimaLuna equipment but I tink it gives a good idea of what you can accomplish with tube rolling and then you can apply that general knowledge to the particular equipment you have in mind. From what I’ve seen, the real tube rollers on AA can be found spending time on the Dennis Had Inspire Amps string. It’s probably worth a few minutes of your time looking there as well.
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Office/Music Room Dynaudio Heritage Special. Uptone Audio EtherRegen Ethernet Switch. Akasa NUC 10i7 with Roon Rock. Bryston BDP-3 Digital Music Player (with 4 Tb Internal SSD and Synology DS920+ NAS)-->Holo Audio May Kitsune Edition DAC-->Shunyata Sigma USB—>Gryphon Diablo 120 Integreted Amp w Transpatent XL PC. Oppo BDP-105D and BDP-203. Power: Shunyata Hydra Sigma S12 PD. Additional Cabling: WW Silver Electra PC, WW Electra PC, Shunyata Venom 3 PC. Digital: WW Starlight Ethernet, WW Gold Starlight AES-EBU, WW Platinum Starlight USB. IC and Speaker: WW Eclipse 8. Bedroom System Ipad with MusicStreamer App-->Schiit Jotunheim DAC/Amp—>Audeze LCD-XC, Focal for Bentley Radiance HO, Massdrop E-MU Teak HP. AK SE 200 DAP. Mobile Survival Kit Astell & Kern SP1000M. Noble Kaiser Encore IEM with Double Helix Balanced cable, Westone W80 IEM w ALOaudio Ref 8 cable, Westone W60 IEM, Shure se535 Ltd with Westone Bluetooth Wireless cable-amp. Mark Levinson No. 5909 Wireless HP. |
#72
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Thanks very much everybody about the sage knowledge. I'm sure that I missed it but this is a first for me on AA concerning basic tube knowledge. What is the recommendation concerning using gloves when handling the tubes? On YouTube I see folks handling their tubes with bare fingers but I have heard this is a no no. Obviously one should not handle their tubes with dirty hands but clean hands leave oils and fingerprints.
Best Charles
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__________________________________________ Charles Updated System: Wilson McIntosh Audioquest Amps: McIntosh: MC3500MKII (2); MC1.25KW (2); MC2.1KW An (1) Preamp: C-12000 An Sources: MCD12000 An; MVP881; MVP851; MR87; Marantz 510LV; ASUS laptop Speakers: Wilson Chronosonic XVX Sub-woofer: Wilson Thor’s Hammer; Wilson ActivXO Stereo Electronic Crossover Cables main system: AQ: WEL Signature speaker cables; 24’ balanced IC; balanced 1-meter Dragon IC ; WEL Signature digital coaxial cable; digital coaxial cable; Diamond optical (2); Diamond USB; Dragon power cords (5 HC cords and 3 source cords); Thunder HC power cord Cables subwoofer system: AQ: Redwood speaker cable; Wolf balanced subwoofer IC; Wind balanced IC from preamp to ActivXO; Hurricane HC (3); Hurricane Source (1); Dragon HC (1) power cords Power conditioners: AQ Niagara 7000 (1); Niagara 5000 (3); (4) dedicated 20-amp lines. Isolation: Wilson Pedestals; Bassocontinuo McIntosh Ultra Feet; X-material plinth Cabinet: Double Custom Woodwork & Design (CWD) Acoustic Treatments: Room and Echo Tunes Last edited by Charles; 07-16-2023 at 07:09 PM. |
#73
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All of McIntosh tube amps (not sure about the two MC3500 models) use the Frank McIntosh/Gordon Gow designed 'unity' circuit. Such noted tube designers as Tim De Paravicini (may he RIP) have said things like, "I wish I would have invented that circuit." The design has several notable features. 1st, it does not require the user to make any bias adjustments. 2nd, tubes do not need to very closely matched (again, do not know about the EL509S tubes used in the current MC3500). Just plug in a pair of decent tubes per channel and the circuit takes care of the rest. 3rd, the power tubes are not driven as hard as they are in many competing designs and tend to last longer than in many other circuits. There are a couple of lesser details that I don't recall at the moment.
For me, the crowning glory is the sound.
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Glenn... Canton Reference 9 Clearaudio SM Pro Focal Bathys JLA 10" Dominion Kuzma Stabi S w/MC & MM Magnepan 1,7i McIntosh MA8950 & MR88 Oppo 203 Roon Nucleus Rose Hifi RS150B Shunyata Gemini-4 Sony ST-A6B, TA-F6B, ST-J75 & PS-X75 Sorane SA1.2 & TA-1L Stillpoints LP1v2 WW Pt, Au & Ag |
#74
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Opinions will vary on this one. Some claim that the oil from your fingers can create a variation in the heating of the glass and lead to premature failure or glass breakage. Others claim that's an old wives tale, probably derived from the effect of oil and grease on halogen bulbs, which is quite real. I use gloves or a cloth or a tube grabber/holder when removing and inserting tubes because I like them clean and not with fingerprints on them, and also to protect my fingers just in case a tube is tough to remove and breaks in my hand. It only happened once in 20 or 30 years of playing with tubes, but once was enough.
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Tony D'Agostino Momentum S250 MxV & HD pre; Linn Klimax Organik DSM, SonicTransporter, EtherRegen; Acoustic Signature Typhoon Neo, Koetsu RSP, Boulder 1108; Sf Il Cremonese; Shunyata Everest, Altaira, Sigma & Alpha v2 |
#75
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Quote:
IMG_3103.jpg IMG_3104.jpg
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Tony D'Agostino Momentum S250 MxV & HD pre; Linn Klimax Organik DSM, SonicTransporter, EtherRegen; Acoustic Signature Typhoon Neo, Koetsu RSP, Boulder 1108; Sf Il Cremonese; Shunyata Everest, Altaira, Sigma & Alpha v2 |
#76
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Quote:
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Glenn... Canton Reference 9 Clearaudio SM Pro Focal Bathys JLA 10" Dominion Kuzma Stabi S w/MC & MM Magnepan 1,7i McIntosh MA8950 & MR88 Oppo 203 Roon Nucleus Rose Hifi RS150B Shunyata Gemini-4 Sony ST-A6B, TA-F6B, ST-J75 & PS-X75 Sorane SA1.2 & TA-1L Stillpoints LP1v2 WW Pt, Au & Ag |
#77
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Yes on either gloves or paper towel. The oil from your fingerprints will increase heat. At least one well respected tube source ships gloves with tubes
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Clearaudio Ovation with Tracer Dynavector KARAT 17DX Naim Uniti Core Schiit Yggdrasil McIntosh C22/MC275 Wilson TuneTots B&W DB3D Nordost QKore/QBase/Frey 2 Transparent Super IsoAcoustics GAIA II Stax SR-009S with SRM-700T |
#78
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Quote:
Best Charles
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__________________________________________ Charles Updated System: Wilson McIntosh Audioquest Amps: McIntosh: MC3500MKII (2); MC1.25KW (2); MC2.1KW An (1) Preamp: C-12000 An Sources: MCD12000 An; MVP881; MVP851; MR87; Marantz 510LV; ASUS laptop Speakers: Wilson Chronosonic XVX Sub-woofer: Wilson Thor’s Hammer; Wilson ActivXO Stereo Electronic Crossover Cables main system: AQ: WEL Signature speaker cables; 24’ balanced IC; balanced 1-meter Dragon IC ; WEL Signature digital coaxial cable; digital coaxial cable; Diamond optical (2); Diamond USB; Dragon power cords (5 HC cords and 3 source cords); Thunder HC power cord Cables subwoofer system: AQ: Redwood speaker cable; Wolf balanced subwoofer IC; Wind balanced IC from preamp to ActivXO; Hurricane HC (3); Hurricane Source (1); Dragon HC (1) power cords Power conditioners: AQ Niagara 7000 (1); Niagara 5000 (3); (4) dedicated 20-amp lines. Isolation: Wilson Pedestals; Bassocontinuo McIntosh Ultra Feet; X-material plinth Cabinet: Double Custom Woodwork & Design (CWD) Acoustic Treatments: Room and Echo Tunes |
#79
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Just rolled in a set of matched Tung-Sol gold-pin 12AX7, an EH 12AX7 and a Gold Lion 12AT7 in my C22. To my ears, a nice improvement in black/quiet background and deeper sound-stage with better location of instruments. All-in-all, a nice improvement which was worth the effort of pulling the top and tube-clamp, which is a bit of a pita. Glad it isn't needed very often.
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Glenn... Canton Reference 9 Clearaudio SM Pro Focal Bathys JLA 10" Dominion Kuzma Stabi S w/MC & MM Magnepan 1,7i McIntosh MA8950 & MR88 Oppo 203 Roon Nucleus Rose Hifi RS150B Shunyata Gemini-4 Sony ST-A6B, TA-F6B, ST-J75 & PS-X75 Sorane SA1.2 & TA-1L Stillpoints LP1v2 WW Pt, Au & Ag |
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