V1's are easiest to tell apart from the others because they do not feature a dust cover over the drivers.

Durability sucks. The pleather from the ultrapads started to feel slimy while the cans were stored in the stock case. Eventually, pieces of the pleather started to peel off despite the cans being stored for the past two years in a custom case with desiccant packets. The same happen to my HEKv1...

Solid combo that should cover most, if not all, genres out there.

He didn't mention a specific part. He told me, "Does the volume control make the sound louder? If not, then it would be in the amp stage after that. There were a few units where the regulators were thinner parts and over time the stress would build up and crack the part. I can’t remember what...

With the proper adapter (e.g., 12AU7 to 6922), the 4th and 5th pins of the 12AU7 are connected together so that heaters are in parallel, which means that the heater voltage will now be 6.3V on the 12AU7 with the adapter according to the 12AU7 spec sheet I'm looking at right now. Heater current...

Does anyone know if Avenson Audio is still in business and doing CA repairs? Their website is up. I contacted them several months ago (around August) about an issue regarding static in one of the channels. The problem seemed to go away before Brad Avenson responded a day or two later. In his...

Oh, definitely the Modi 3 is the weakest link in my chain. I do not doubt that the Piety will likely synergize better with an R2R (chip/ladder) DAC. Then again, the CTH and the SW51+ just sound so darn good already. I was actually surprised how I enjoyed my CTH with the HD6XX. Then again, maybe...

A CTH owner PM'd me to compare the CTH, Piety, and SW51+, so here goes: The chain is Musicbee (FLAC) (WASAPI) > Modi 3 (USB) > Amp > HD6XX Notes: - CTH uses a non-stock tube (Sylvania 6C8G) + socket saver + adapter (6922/6DJ8 to 6F8G) and I used its 4-pin XLR output - Piety set to high gain...

The Piety and Magni 3 are my solid state amps at my office desk. Other amps there include the CTH and SW51+, tube hybrid and OTC respectively. I revisted the Piety last week after it has been sitting on my desk for the past several months collecting dust (I typically used the tube options). I...

HE-6 (4-screw), enjoying the punch from the drum machine in the above track.

Some are fairly easy to remove, which preclude their ability to be socket savers if they're advertised as such. I would imagine that one wants a socket saver to be a tight fit if one wants to protect their amp tube sockets from the wear and tear of tube swapping. One brand whose socket savers...

Your 5670's would need a 5670 to 6922 adapter to work with the Liquid Platinum. Plenty of online sellers for that adapter out there.

One reason that Final Audio wouldn't make much sense for Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE LLC) because SIE LLC is headquartered in the Bay Area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Interactive_Entertainment SIE LLC is the entity who acquired Audeze...

Sorry you cannot make it. I cannot go too because the end of the month is usually the time where I have to bill quite a bit and this month is no exception. I was planning to bring either my HE6 4S setup (BF2, Bryston 3BST) or my Utopia setup (BF2, Liquid Gold OG*). Maybe next time, hopefully...

I tried a non-Frankie 7N7 (no wonder why it was so cheap) and it was an awful muddy mess in the Liquid Glass.

Sheesh, were those direct from Focal? I wonder if they were selling some NOS goop-prone pre-2020 pads. Shame on them if they did. Supposedly Focal fixed the goop issue around 2020 based on what Focal support supposedly told a redditor, so nothing official that I can find based on a cursory search.

I feel the same. This little amp certainly punches above its price point. With a 1940's 6C8G Sylvania (green leaf logo), it sounds absolutely wonderful with my HE500 and Utopia (whenever I bring these two to work). Yeah, it is a few notches below my home setup, but sometimes this little guy...

Those qualities likely accentuate that warmish and open-sounding grey glass RCA.

Tell me about it. Prices for 6SN7/6F8G octals and ECC88/6922/6DJ8 novals are pretty insane, especially for matched pairs required by my Liquid Glass. Thankfully, the LG can accept other tube types including the oft-ignored 12SN7GT's, which are still reasonably priced due to the lack of amps that...

Shhhh! Prices for KR staggered plates are still somewhat reasonable compared to the black glass variants.

Congrats. I jumped on the Adorama Xmas deal for the Utopia 2020's (Focal dumping old stock) and I've been loving them with my Cavalli Liquid Gold or Liquid Glass. A far better experience than what I had with the Elex, Elegia, and Radiance (albeit on lesser chains). I liked the Clear MG though.

The subreddit mods verified that the account was real.

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Nice location. My place is across the street from the park.

My Focal Utopia (2020) from Adoroma's blowout several months ago (around Xmas IIRC) sports black LEMO connectors.