Back in the 90s, I bought a number of these ECC83s from Centre Electronics in Birmingham (UK). They are NOS (plain white boxes), apparently Yugoslavian, and look a little like Mullards. They have an ‘O‘-getter. I wonder if they might be Ei? Any ideas? Sound is both warm and detailed. Labels...

Just one question for all those OTL tube amp experts out there: By their very nature, OTL headphone amps can put out DC at the headphone socket unless a coupling capacitor is used on the output. Unfortunately, as this tends to be quite a high value, it tends to be a bipolar electrolytic. Of...

Just ordered one of these: Looking forward to it!

As there doesn’t seem to be much discussion about these at the moment, I thought I’d give my impressions after a few days... Looking for a “backup” pair of travelling cans, I stumbled upon these on Amazon for 99€. At the price, I thought they were worth a punt. First impressions were very...

As a long-time Garrard 301 owner and enthusiast, I am wondering if there are kindred spirits out there. Anyone else using an idler drive deck, e.g. Garrard 301 & 401, Dual 1229, Lenco GL75, Thornes TD124, anything interesting from the US (Rek-O-Kut et al) or similar?

Has anyone here taken delivery of an NP5 yet? I’m very interested in hearing if it lives up to its promise...

I know this is a long shot: Back in 2015, I bought a Shinrico D3S audio server. It has worked flawlessly up until a couple of weeks ago, when it suffered a fairly catastrophic failure. It can read the contents of any SD card or USB drive, but when I ask it to play a track, it simply reboots. I...

I know it’s specialised, but here is a new home for all those Garrard, Lenco, Thorens (TD124) and Dual enthusiasts out there. Time to show off your plinth constructions and exchange tips on driving out the demon rumble! Here’s my 1950s Garrard to start the ball rolling: The hard work...

At the weekend, I turned on my main system, and noticed that the output of my CD player (Consonance CD 2.3 MK. III) was getting lower and lower, and that the dynamics were becoming compressed (only this source was affected). On opening the player, I discovered that the tube in the output buffer...

I'm planning another trip to Japan in June, and have the opportunity to pick up either the FX-850 or Donguri Syou for JPY 25K, or the Flat-4 Sui for JPY 30K. I already have a selection of neutral (favourite: CKR9) and mid-focused (favourite: Heaven V) IEMs, and am looking for something with...

The rig will be my hotel room system, so transportability rather than portability is key. Most of the time, I will be using a single-ended external amp (iBasso P4, Tube Amp BL-2 or Elekit TU-HP01) with full size cans. Occasionally, it will be used standalone with IEMs (although I generally use...

I have heard a rumour that ALAC, unlike FLAC, is not genuinely lossless, but uses an element of lossy compression. Does anyone know if this is true? I really don't want to have to re-rip all my CDs...

I am thinking about getting one of these while they are still available:) What is the difference between the HM-601LE and the HM-602? Is it just the USB DAC capability and the on board memory, or is there also a difference in the op-amps in the line stage? I gather the headphone amp is the same...

I'm looking for one of these for my iPod Classic / Sony PHA-1 combo, preferably with right-angled plugs (so that it can remain connected when the rig is in its case). Interestingly, this product has disappeared from the ALO Audio website. Does anyone still produce something like this? AFAIK...

I recently restored my 3 year old iPC and re-loaded all my content onto it. Since then, it periodically freezes up, not responding to the touchpad. Sometimes it keeps playing, sometimes it goes silent. To recover from the freeze, the only method is to reboot, using the enter key and the "up"...

Given the resurgence in interest in orthodynamic (planar magnetic / isodynamic) cans in recent years, the availability of cheap, powerful portable amps (e.g. Fiio E12), and the advances in material technology allowing more efficient planar diaphragms and magnets to be used, why has no...

Having more or less arrived at a collection of fullisze cans (dynamic, planar magnetic and electrostatic) which meet all of my musical needs, I have turned to updating my portable system. The first step was the acquisition of a Sony PHA-1 in order to enjoy the capacity and UI of my trusty iPod...

Has anyone tried this DAC? It seems to be the only commercially available portable (i.e.small, self-contained and battery-powered) NOS DAC out there: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Non-Oversampling-DAC-TDA1543-DIR9001-96kHz-SPDIF-Coax-Optical-9V-NiMH-charger-/200858459050? I am considering using it...

Having just pulled the trigger on a Tube Amp BL-2, I felt it might be a good time to set up a dedicated forum here for the discussion of portable tube amps. At present, no such thread appears to exist. The thread has been created for the discussion of all portable tube and tube/solid state...

At present. I am using an Opera Consonance Cyber 20 (transformer-coupled EL-84 SE amplifier, outputting 1W into 32 Ohms) with these two headphones. I find it is a very good match for the HE-500s, only sometimes I wish for a brighter, faster, more incisive sound. With the HD600s, I enjoy the...

Has anyone here recabled a pair of EW9s? What did you use? How successful was it? How can the cans be opened up without causing damage? Thanks in advance...

I am looking for a pair of EW9s (I need something discreet and my ENT specialist has told me to stop putting things such as IEMs in my ears...). I spotted these on Taobao: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=24679104825 It seems that they are private imports from Japan, but I can't use Google...

Does anyone know if it is possible to output HD files digitally from an iPhone running FLAC Player, using a Pure i20 or Onkyo ND-S1 digital dock? I believe it is possible via CCK from an iPad.

Lately, I have found myself spending an increasing amount of my listening time OTG. My current portable setup consists of iPod Classic 160GB -> Toxic Cables Silver LOD -> Blaze S-1 (a Chinese amp "similar to" the RSA SR-71A) -> Oyaide OCC cable -> HD25-1 II. I am broadly happy with the sound...

Is it possible to connect two amps to the same DAC using a Y-splitter, only switching on the one currently in use? Will the presence of a second, powered-down amp on the DAC output degrade the sound?