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Inspire by Dennis Had Enjoying Vacuum Tube Audio

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  #5451  
Old 12-05-2019, 11:27 PM
decooney decooney is offline
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Originally Posted by oldominion View Post
Hey, I sent Dennis an email a few weeks ago but haven't heard back. Proud owner of Inspire preamp and Firebottle amp. I'm going to give them one more try with my Altec 604's, with which they don't play too well, before I sell the Altecs. Would love tube recs for both pre and power amp but mostly pre. I have some KT150 for the Firebottle amp on the way; have cycled thru all of the other tube recs with no real improvement in woofer control.

Have a pair of red base RCA 5692 in the preamp now, which did in fact increase bass...but they also are very microphonic so the increase in bass came at a cost.

Any 6sn7 variants that anyone could recommend that would increase bass? Or any suggestions overall? Many thanks in advance.
No guarantee yet on longevity, but I just received a second quad (backup set) of TJ Full Music 6SN7s. They were supposed to all be backups to my Sylvania 6SN7GTs. The Sylvanias are put away now. Liking the TJs after more burn-in. They were making them for Sophia Electric before. Snagged another set before they are all gone. Time will tell.
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  #5452  
Old 12-06-2019, 09:52 AM
oldominion oldominion is offline
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Maro, thanks tons for the recs. Have heard wonderful things about the Sophia, might be time to pony up the dough! Having shuffled through many tubes over the past few days, I can recommend the Genalex KT77 plus Mullard 5ar4 in the Firebottle amp. I'm also currently using a pair of 6DN7 that Dennis recommended to great effect in the pre! Off to do some research...TGIF.
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  #5453  
Old 12-06-2019, 10:22 AM
oldominion oldominion is offline
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Many thanks for the recs, guys. In researching the Sophia 274, I see references to the cap following the rectifier needing to be pf a particular value. May I assume the caps in Dennis's products do in fact fall within the acceptable range? Also, would the Sophia make much difference in the Inspire 3.1 preamp? I'm enjoying higher power tubes in my Inspire Firebottle amp right now--for whatever reasons they seem more suited to gripping the Altec's woofers than the smaller tubes--so am using a Mullard 5AR4, which is getting the job done. Naturally I'm going to continue to experiment and would be excited if the addition of a Sophia 274 with lower output tubes might also be able to add some oomph to the power amp. As you can see, I'm interested in researching what might result in maximum grunt from the 3.1 preamp and Firebottle amp. Many thanks!
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  #5454  
Old 12-06-2019, 02:59 PM
maro maro is offline
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Actually the blue glass Sophia in my amp is their 274B. it seems to provide more tone and texture than others and doesn't get crazy with soundstage tricks.The input tube on the amp can make a good difference with grunt as well. I found the Sylvania vt-229 to provide the most slam of several other 6SL7's. Of course all this glass rolling can be substantially further enhanced if you want to get into power cords and outlet experimentation. Put an Acrolink 4030 with Oyaide 004 ends on the amp and it will sound like you added a good subwoofer. Put a Oyaide Black Mamba cord on the preamp, all plugged into an Oyaide SWO-GX outlet and you will raise the performance of the rig quite a few notches up.
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  #5455  
Old 12-07-2019, 09:59 AM
oldominion oldominion is offline
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Maro, thanks for the recs. Need to dig through my power cord collection. I admit to not having gone down the Oyaide outlet rabbit hole just yet, but there's still time! I am super curious about the use of the rectifier in the 3.1 preamp. Right now, I'm running a Syl VT-244 (5U4G) that sounds great...but in the search for more grunt I'd be willing to try the Sop 274B; overkill to have in both pre and power amp?

It appears there are two versions of this tube, the mesh plate and the non-mesh. The mesh plate appears to be the one with blue glass, so I'm going to assume that's the one to try? My input tube on the amp is a Philips 5691 which, again, would seem to be a pretty great tube...all ears, as they say. Many thanks.
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  #5456  
Old 12-08-2019, 07:58 AM
FloridaBoy FloridaBoy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oldominion View Post
Hey, I sent Dennis an email a few weeks ago but haven't heard back. Proud owner of Inspire preamp and Firebottle amp. I'm going to give them one more try with my Altec 604's, with which they don't play too well, before I sell the Altecs. Would love tube recs for both pre and power amp but mostly pre. I have some KT150 for the Firebottle amp on the way; have cycled thru all of the other tube recs with no real improvement in woofer control.

Have a pair of red base RCA 5692 in the preamp now, which did in fact increase bass...but they also are very microphonic so the increase in bass came at a cost.

Any 6sn7 variants that anyone could recommend that would increase bass? Or any suggestions overall? Many thanks in advance.
You can only go so far with increasing bass with tube rolling. Then it's time for a subwoofer.

Have you Altecs been refreshed? Before selling them you should talk to Great Plains Audio. They are the Altec gurus.
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  #5457  
Old 12-08-2019, 08:01 AM
FloridaBoy FloridaBoy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oldominion View Post
Maro, thanks for the recs. Need to dig through my power cord collection. I admit to not having gone down the Oyaide outlet rabbit hole just yet, but there's still time! I am super curious about the use of the rectifier in the 3.1 preamp. Right now, I'm running a Syl VT-244 (5U4G) that sounds great...but in the search for more grunt I'd be willing to try the Sop 274B; overkill to have in both pre and power amp?

It appears there are two versions of this tube, the mesh plate and the non-mesh. The mesh plate appears to be the one with blue glass, so I'm going to assume that's the one to try? My input tube on the amp is a Philips 5691 which, again, would seem to be a pretty great tube...all ears, as they say. Many thanks.
I'd consider using the Sophia 274B in the preamp and a Sophia Blue 6SL7 in your amp rather than two Sophia rectifiers.
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  #5458  
Old 12-08-2019, 09:22 AM
maro maro is offline
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The Sofia that seems to work great in my amp is their Aqua 274B. You get different character with 274B vs 5AR4 so it would be good to experiment. Good luck.
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  #5459  
Old 12-08-2019, 10:45 AM
oldominion oldominion is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FloridaBoy View Post
You can only go so far with increasing bass with tube rolling. Then it's time for a subwoofer.

Have you Altecs been refreshed? Before selling them you should talk to Great Plains Audio. They are the Altec gurus.
GPA hasn't responded to two emails I've sent. I've heard that customer service isn't a strong suit...

And yes, I've been recommended a subwoofer by many 604 users. I've never been a fan of subs, have never really heard a system with a sub that sounded that good to me. You are correct, however, that that should be a move to consider...but I'd probably just sell the 604's before going down that road. I have limited room and the 604's already take up enough space!

Back when I bought the amps I had a back and forth with Dennis. He's not a huge fan of the 604's, even though he once designed a xover for them, nor subs.
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  #5460  
Old 12-09-2019, 05:10 AM
david45 david45 is offline
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Quick question for you guys:

Does anybody happen to know if it's possible to purchase a spare faceplate from Dennis for one of his current offerings? I would love to switch from black to gold on a 6FLV amp and imagine this could be done without too much difficulty using a heat gun or something similar.
Most likely glue or silicon is used to glue it on? Perhaps member Straitwire would know?

Last edited by david45; 12-09-2019 at 05:44 AM.
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