[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Yeah he is! Wonderful chap.
When he sold some stash to fund his Hifiman HP, grabed it quickly. At least am confident it was genuine...

 

[xtr4]

Looks like I'm 6 years late into the game hahaha

I've had fun rolling 12AU7s into the Aurium via adapters.......wonder if I should with the Inpol hahaha

 

[chaZZZy007]

Looks like I'm 6 years late into the game hahaha

I've had fun rolling 12AU7s into the Aurium via adapters.......wonder if I should with the Inpol hahaha

You're not too late.
Buy some 6922's or 7308's.
Go onto Rob's tube rolling thread and familiarize yourself with the different flavors of the tube. Lots of great NOS tubes out there. Siemens, and Telefunken are probably the 2 most well known, but there's plenty more out there. Some, maybe lots with a warmer and more euphonic presentation.

EDIT-BAHHH!
I just remembered you already bought some 60's Siemens!

 

[chaZZZy007]

I'm 50+ hours into the Inpol Ear burn in, and 6 hours on the Reflektors. For those who might be wondering about noise, the Pathos is dead silent on my Utopias. Absolutely zero noise thru balanced 4 pin output.

 

[xtr4]

I'm 50+ hours into the Inpol Ear burn in, and 6 hours on the Reflektors. For those who might be wondering about noise, the Pathos is dead silent on my Utopias. Absolutely zero noise thru balanced 4 pin output.

I concur that the Inpol is dead silent. Except that I may have dirty contacts on my right tube (rolled the Siemens as I was as patient as you guys haha). There's a slight buzz/crackle during certain treble passages on certain tracks. Annoying thing is that it's intermittent and playing peek-a-boo with me.

But Siemens are definitely a step up from the stock Electro Harmonix.
Brief session brought more sparkle to the treble region, vocals sounded more intimate, especially female. Haven't gone through any bass tracks yet as I was letting Roon Radio do it's thing and I started off with Sarah Brightman

 

[chaZZZy007]

I concur that the Inpol is dead silent. Except that I may have dirty contacts on my right tube (rolled the Siemens as I was as patient as you guys haha). There's a slight buzz/crackle during certain treble passages on certain tracks. Annoying thing is that it's intermittent and playing peek-a-boo with me.

But Siemens are definitely a step up from the stock Electro Harmonix.
Brief session brought more sparkle to the treble region, vocals sounded more intimate, especially female. Haven't gone through any bass tracks yet as I was letting Roon Radio do it's thing and I started off with Sarah Brightman

Try cleaning and or re-seating the tubes. I rolled new NOS Reflektors on my 205 today as well and had the same thing happen. Re-seating made it completely disappear. It wasn't the Tube either. When I switched tubes the same side stayed crackly/noisy on the same side. Then I swapped and re-seated a 3rd time with the tubes I had in my Inpol Ear and gone.

I wonder if @carboncopy may have had something similar happen since he complained of noise thru only 1 side of his Inpol Ear.

 

[xtr4]

Try cleaning and or re-seating the tubes. I rolled new NOS Reflektors on my 205 today as well and had the same thing happen. Re-seating made it completely disappear. It wasn't the Tube either. When I switched tubes the same side stayed crackly/noisy on the same side. Then I swapped and re-seated a 3rd time with the tubes I had in my Inpol Ear and gone.

I wonder if @carboncopy may have had something similar happen since he complained of noise thru only 1 side of his Inpol Ear.

Yeah, didn't have time yesterday to whip out the trusty old

This thing best thing I ever bought for tube amps. It cleaned up the contacts and now the Inpol is dead quiet again.

 

[carboncopy]

Try cleaning and or re-seating the tubes. I rolled new NOS Reflektors on my 205 today as well and had the same thing happen. Re-seating made it completely disappear. It wasn't the Tube either. When I switched tubes the same side stayed crackly/noisy on the same side. Then I swapped and re-seated a 3rd time with the tubes I had in my Inpol Ear and gone.

I wonder if @carboncopy may have had something similar happen since he complained of noise thru only 1 side of his Inpol Ear.

Well...I did change tubes and the noise was exactly the same. But! It was onyl with Grado headphones with L and F pads. The driver sits really close to the ear + Grados are well know for they ability to show *any* noise. It was dead silent with every other phone I tried.

But I haven't made any extra cleaning. Try with Grado to see if there is something. If you care for a Grado...

 

[chaZZZy007]

***Using my Modwright Oppo 205 as DAC/PRE-AMP***

I am currently about 100 hours into Pathos and WyWires umbilical burn in, and 50 hours into the NOS Reflektors burn in. (2 sets. One on the Pathos and the other on the Modwright Oppo) Listening is quite enjoyable as Reflectors are beginning to open up. Based on previous experience I've found that @ 100-120 hours in they are about 75-80% burned in with another jump at about 150 hours before gradually settling in and finishing their improvements somewhere around 200-225 hours.

The #1 item with the Pathos is replacing the stock EV 6922's with good NOS. Rolling in Reflektors removed a somewhat thick layer of 'grainy warmth' that clouds hearing into the musical presentation. With those replaced the Pathos really begins to sing.

2+ hours of listening today.
REDBOOK CD'S of both the 2012 Led Zeppelin 4 disc remaster and The city of Prague Philharmonic orchestra- Music from the Game of Thrones. After these 2 some assorted female vocals off Qobuz of both Celine Dion and Christine Aguilera. I wanted to post a bit earlier but I kept extending the session.

 

[chaZZZy007]

One thing I must add.
During my earlier listening session with the City of Prague Philharmonic, the scale of the soundstage impressed. Given that I had earlier posted about limiting comments until I knew the Pathos, umbilical and 2 sets of Reflektors were completely burned and settled in I decided not to post anything about it.

Then this evening while watching Lord of the Rings 4K extended edition, in scene 27 at the 1' 38:59 mark there is a scene in which at the council meeting Boromir approaches and extends his hand towards the ring. Gandalf stands and utters something in the tongue of Mordor during which there is a 2nd voice, presumably Sauron's, uttering something in the same tongue. In the background there is a rumbling, that is immense and very powerful. I have never heard the scene at this scale, though I must also say I cannot play my home theater setup at reference level where I live either. LOLZ

I was so impressed with the scene that I played it a number of times. The size of the entire soundstage was immense. During the 3 hours of watching I never once missed my 5.1 system. Not once.

 

[Vangelis]

The Pathos is has been on for 300hrs and it has improved. It has opened up a bit more and texture and density is better. So, to take it up a notch I’ve read, I need to ugrade the tubes. Surprisingly the tubes came installed so I’m not sure what the stock tube are. I would like to light up the top a little more but retain the midrange magic. What kind of improvements came with upgrading the tubes?

 

[chaZZZy007]

The Pathos is has been on for 300hrs and it has improved. It has opened up a bit more and texture and density is better. So, to take it up a notch I’ve read, I need to ugrade the tubes. Surprisingly the tubes came installed so I’m not sure what the stock tube are. I would like to light up the top a little more but retain the midrange magic. What kind of improvements came with upgrading the tubes?

The stock tubes are of the 6922/7308 family. There are lots of NOS tubes that you can roll, many with differing levels of warmth. I'd read this thread here on Head-Fi to educate yourself on some of the best tubes to roll and how they sound in relation to each other. It is the GOAT of all tube rolling threads and happens to cover our family of tubes.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/692...922-6n23p-e88cc-cca-7308-e188cc-tubes.761078/

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

The stock tubes are 6922 from Electro Harmonix.

They come from a very popular preamp tube family. Aside from 6922, drop in replacements are 6Dj8 / ECC88 / E88CC / E188CC / 7308, / CV41086 / 6N23P / 6H1N / 6N1P / CV5358 / PCC88 / 7DJ8.

Popular places where to buy:
America: Upscale Audio, Tube Unlimited,
Europe: Tube Amp Doctor, TubesandRecords

 

[xtr4]

I'm thoroughly enjoying the Inpol and HE6SE pairing. Only gripe is that I'm noticing a bit more siblance on some tracks. Not sure if it's the recording or the tubes or a combination.
Haven't had much time to myself due to a new addition to the family, but whenever I get the time, it's just so easy to meld into the music.

 

[chaZZZy007]

Pathos now has about 185 hours on it.
Both sets of Reflektors (Modwright Oppo and Pathos Inpol) have about 135 hours so they are still a bit away from being 100% burned in.

2+ hour listening sesh of Led Zeppelin tonight. Redbook CD. 2012 4 disc remaster set. So good! I only stopped listening because I work in the morning.