Halgorythme in the house!

[bart]

Explaining about tube life, maintenance,...



Taking out the tubes of the boxes:



And putting them into their socket:





Look at how old these tubes are, and from where he got them:





Cédric has a big stock of really old tubes.
Nothing beats them he says.

[Still-One]

Bart. As usual, fine photos by Meta. Looking forward to follow your journey as you add more comments and photos.

[bart]

Almost ready now:











Connecting cables:







I know, not as tidy yet as Ivan's systems, but I don't have the ambition to better him. Impossible!

[chessman]

Gorgeous!

[bart]

Ready to go!

[bart]

We knew what to expect, we had heard these beauties in our system.
But I think it takes more time to really understand what a change of gear does.
That's why I waited to post this thread.

Let me start by something I first considered as a (small) downside: there is a little less bass in my system than before.
The first week, I noticed it but because of all the other advantages, I didn't think much about it.
Then I realized: with my Burmester, I usually adjusted the bass to +4.
So what I was hearing now was the music in pure mode!
I have to admit that on a lot of albums, when the bass was too heavy, I went back to position zero on the Burmester also.
Is the bass as it should be then?
Oh yes, it is even more accurate than before.

The mids then.
I can now understand my friends here who have always sung high praise about tube amps and glorious mids.
It is true.
Basta.
Together with this: the soundstage has become even deeper, and the voices and instruments are more defined, but at the same time more rounded.
I guess this is what people call "musical", and indeed, it comes closer to the real thing.

My wife and I attend some 25-30 concerts a year, mostly classical, and some jazz.
Our system now is able to produce more faithfully what we experience there.
Isn't this the wet dream of every true music lover?!

The treble? Well, it was already very good and it got still a bit better.

[bart]

We are in the process of a WAF-friendly room treatment.
A specialized company has come to do measurements.
We should realize this in the next months.

I'm going to upgrade my source.
The Burmester is good, even very good.
Cédric's amps can handle even a higher quality signal though, I'm sure about that.

But we're already very very happy as it is now.
This is going to be a fine winter, full of wonderful music in our living room!

[John49]

Well done! I am VERY impressed. I started off with valves, maybe I should go back?

Look forward very much to further reports and more wonderful photos.

[bart]

The 2 main tubes meant for our pre amp were blocked at the French customs.
So our first week, we spent with replacements from the 50s.

Then we got a message from Cédric, that our tubes finally arrived.



Western Electrics from '45!
They sound a bit "warmer", very agreeable for our taste here.

He came to install them last week, and also brought a pair of other tubes for the power amps, so that I can compare them to the others he put first.
He wants me to be able to tweak the sound until I'm fully satisfied.
What a service!
He also left a pile of marvelous CDs.
We came to know we have very similar tastes in music, and he likes to share his favourites.

He's now building the last piece of my order: a mono block for my center channel.
This way, all three front channels will have the same sound signature when I play multichannel music (or movies).
I'm already thinking of a Halgorythme stereo amp to drive the surrounds!

[bart]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Bart. As usual, fine photos by Meta. Looking forward to follow your journey as you add more comments and photos.

Hi Jim, thank you!