# Added a new tube amp to my collection.



## WhiteNoise (Sep 24, 2017)

Tubes aren't for everyone but for some...tubes are everything. I found this very sweet sounding Golden Tube SE-40 that has been fully upgraded by Sonic Craft with their SE40REL+ upgrade. These amps were notorious for sounding sweet and failing; hence the upgrade performed by Sonic Craft.

Now the guy i bought it from had a tube go bad so he put a stock tube in its place. Same tube but different brand. These are the power tubes and don't effect the sound tbh. I ordered a matching replacement though which arrives Monday.

The tubes that do change the sound are the 6SN7 and I have a couple of shuguang treasure cv181-z tubes (matched pair from one of my other amps) to pop in. That tube sounds amazing. It is pretty much a drop in for 6SN7. I will of course bias all the tubes once installed. I'm going to run these Tung Sols for awhile though.

Amp has shocked me. For a tube amp it is the most resolving, detailed amp I have heard. Loads of openness, wide sound stage, thick mids, detailed highs and solid lows. This has been an ear opening experience. I'm no stranger to tubes but this amp has surprised me.

Feeding a set of Hsu Research MB-1 mkII's and a Velodyne CT-150. Simply fantastic ear love.

Using a Schiit SYS passive preamp to handle gain control. It's the big tube amp to the right in picture.


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## biffzinker (Sep 24, 2017)

Is that middle tube amp from the 50's? Add a plus to the Monkey Shoulder whiskey.


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## WhiteNoise (Sep 24, 2017)

biffzinker said:


> Is that middle tube amp from the 50's? Add a plus to the Monkey Shoulder whiskey.



Yes it is. It is a 1950's maggie from an old console. To be exact it is a 1950's Magnavox 8802 stereo tube amp push/pull 6V6 and it sounds lovely. It pushes a clean 10 watts per channel and I have it setup to run my headphones; though it is meant to power speakers. I use a HiFiman HE-Adapter to run cans from it. My Audeze crave power.

That Maggie was custom built for me by By: Dave Ricciardi.  He has a thing for Magnavox amps from that time period and builds some very sweet amps. He likes to give them a nice 50's look too and makes the boxes for the amps.


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## droopyRO (Sep 24, 2017)

Top right corner of the pic, are those Sony XB500 ?


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## WhiteNoise (Sep 24, 2017)

droopyRO said:


> Top right corner of the pic, are those Sony XB500 ?


Sony XB700

Many people prefer the XB500 actually but I demoed both and liked the XB700 better myself. Not the best headphones around and they do require EQ to sound their best but when I just want bass...they kick butt.


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