[Farrellc]

Got my V8 yesterday and it's definitely a beast. Looks and feels great, but most importantly, it sounds great! Very clean and spacious with good imaging and positioning of instruments throughout the soundstage. I'll assume it's the improved noise filtering of the Level II at play, but this is easily the quietest tube amp I've owned - dead silent. As @vkenz said, it gets pretty hot, but it's what you would expect from all the power it's making.

Somewhat limited on tube combinations at the moment, but I just ordered some different pairs of 6080 and 12ay7 tubes which should arrive next week. For now, I'll just play around with what I've got and see what works best.

 

[The Piper]

Got my V8 yesterday and it's definitely a beast. Looks and feels great, but most importantly, it sounds great! Very clean and spacious with good imaging and positioning of instruments throughout the soundstage. I'll assume it's the improved noise filtering of the Level II at play, but this is easily the quietest tube amp I've owned - dead silent. As @vkenz said, it gets pretty hot, but it's what you would expect from all the power it's making.

Somewhat limited on tube combinations at the moment, but I just ordered some different pairs of 6080 and 12ay7 tubes which should arrive next week. For now, I'll just play around with what I've got and see what works best.

12ay7s will give it a sweeter, richer,fuller harmonic presentation. A touch more "tube" sounding for those that want a different sonic profile.

 

[ken6217]

deleted

 

[ed7090]

I dug out my Dragon lvl 1 recently and re-realize what a treasure it is. Crazy how many ppl slept on it... not gonna lie control like adjusting gain isn't as convenient as some highly commercial products out there which you can just flip without switching the amp off. But the sound quality itself is worth it.
All these days I was using the Cayin IHA6 the difference is night and day the thing that surprise me the most is that it really drives inefficient headphones and sensitive ones equally well, the finesse really is there. I have 2 extremes here - the AKG K240DF and Fostex TH600/900/909. Potential buyers - give em a shot.
Now my plan is to buy a decent preamp to pair with it so I can use the 2nd lv gain for all headphones(this gain lv sounded the best to me, smoothness, saturation just right).

 

[Ufanco]

I dug out my Dragon lvl 1 recently and re-realize what a treasure it is. Crazy how many ppl slept on it... not gonna lie control like adjusting gain isn't as convenient as some highly commercial products out there which you can just flip without switching the amp off. But the sound quality itself is worth it.
All these days I was using the Cayin IHA6 the difference is night and day the thing that surprise me the most is that it really drives inefficient headphones and sensitive ones equally well, the finesse really is there. I have 2 extremes here - the AKG K240DF and Fostex TH600/900/909. Potential buyers - give em a shot.
Now my plan is to buy a decent preamp to pair with it so I can use the 2nd lv gain for all headphones(this gain lv sounded the best to me, smoothness, saturation just right).

My Dragon is being serviced and really missing it. Hopefully hear back soon on status of repair. I picked up a Musical Paradise MP 701 Mark II preamp to pair with it.

 

[elira]

My Dragon is being serviced and really missing it. Hopefully hear back soon on status of repair. I picked up a Musical Paradise MP 701 Mark II preamp to pair with it.

What was wrong with it?

 

[ckhirnigs113]

Nevermind. Found the answer to my question in the product manual.

 

[Bonddam]

Love the 12au7 Ray tubes from Apos in my V8. Currently listening to hd800s as I write. Wow with all the right stuff bringing more life to RCA 6as7 orange label version.

Bass from edm is more enjoyable using HD800s vs on the Dragon lvl3 so OTL magic. Still wondering how my V8 powers Fiio ft5 awesome mundo in my head .

sure the ft5 has a too low of an impedance for other OTL amps.

 

[Bonddam]

Luckily I don’t have to sell my Dragon or V8 so Jeff will be happy. I’m lucky serial 002 on v8 who has 001?

 

[Bonddam]

If you had one wish for a SET amp which power tube and drivers would you like it to have? Myself KT tube as I’ve never heard one. Driver I’m not sure which is best. Or could KT88 be a good OTL power tube?

 

[Ufanco]

What was wrong with it?

When first received unit there was a slight hiss in left channel on lowest gain. Since warranty was still in effect wanted to get it fixed before it expired. I was going be traveling so was a good time to ship it back.

Everything’s fixed and back to enjoying my unit. Thanks Jeff

 

[The Piper]

Great to hear back from you Mike. Glad we were able to maximize your Dragon enjoyment. Thanks much for sending back the other erroneous shipment. Really appreciated.

 

[erics75]

Got my base V8 OTL back from service, and am giving it some time with of all things a ZMF Caldera open planar magnetic headphone. I was worried the Caldera (CO going forward) might not work well on an OTL but the V8 has the ball.....muscles to control those drivers easily. Really impressed actually, I was not expecting to like the pairing as much as I do. I missed the V8 while it was away, having it back really reinforces my initial thoughts, this is a truly remarkable sounding amp. Tons of power, really nice tonality. Not too warm, but not solid state clinical either. Really resolving and spacious sounding. Just an all around enjoyable amp that easily belongs next to my DNA Stratus. What shocked me was doing a few quick side by side comparisons of the two for just power, the V8 seems to easily rival the Stratus for driving power on the CO. The CO isn't terribly hard to drive, but definitely harder than the 300ohm dynamics I tend to listen to. The V8 is showing no signs of being underpowered at all with the CO. Everything is tight, crisp, fast, and well defined and separated. I know how the CO sounds when underpowered (Schiit Vali 2 was struggling), it slows down, transients lack speed and precision. Everything sounds hazy, like a wool blanket was thrown over the driver. The V8 again shows none of this, nor does the Stratus. Both have exceptional control of the drivers.