MY Black Bat

Marvel

My Silver bat has been turned into a Black Bat after 2 years leaving my system. Of course this time is a totally brand new box housing a newly designed circuit with full nickel brick transformer support for the input / output / phono stage...when turned on last night on a briefly listen after the usual wrestling for the cable connections...it is really a 'wow' for me...a more matured presentation with an extremely dark background, no immediate recognition of a tube design with a lightning speed and transient.

More to come...

Marvel

coupled with my newly installed DaVinci Grandezza Ref cartridge, I feel a total reborn of my LP system. Previously my old DV cartridge+arm combo lacks a bit on the extensions on the two ends and dynamics. With the new one, tonality remains rich full of ambience and timbre and at the same time addressed the above shortcomings of its ancestor. PT is a 'playboy' of cartridge and I have heard many exotic cartridges in his system, both of us cannot find a better one than DV, I am not sure whether it is synergistical effect to pair with the DV arm, the new cartridge marks a new height in the performance of my LP source is undoubted!

VoyR

Are you running the black bat with takumi?

Marvel

Voy,

Yes, I am. I like it very much and it matches seamlessly with Tidal speaker. Syren Black Label has flying colors on tonality and density and when running in tandem with my new DV cartridge, I am really enjoying a much livelier musical soundstage than before!

Marvel

VoyR

Is it better than the Preos in your setup?

Marvel

Voy, after more than 1 year using Preos, I have already quite well adapted to its sounding including the phono...changing to Syren gives me a mix of feeling because Point (1), it is a different presentation compared to Preos (2), it brings back the fond memory of my Silver bat way back 2.5 years ago. In both cases, I feel the Syren Black Label converges with Preos and likewise to Presencio (flagship preamp of Tidal) in a sense that they all does not exhibit a strong taste of either SS or tube....they are simply the top notch 'decoder' of what the original music was about, is Syren noticeably better than Preos, I don't think so, does it match with Takumi power amp better than Preos? Not really. All I can say at this mmoment is Syren delivers a 'freshness' and liveliness making Preos sounds a bit disciplinary. On the other hand, the phono section of Preos seems to have an upper hand in terms of resolution, this may be a prematured observation...give me a few more days.

Marvel

pcosta

Marvel

Is your Syren have the MC phono stage inside the case, or do you have the MM with outboard MC.

I have a early Syren and I am considering having it updated with new black circuit boards and MM phono to use Tron's outboard step-up transformer with dual inputs, for multiple tonearms.

Marvel

Hi, it is a built in MC phono stage...to me Syren is a preamp and the phono is a bonus...Preos is a phono and the linestage is a bonus...

Tubefreak

Marvel, how's your Syren sounding, do you power it up with the stuff, with the ground switch on or off, interested to know your findings.

Prof M

The Kondo M-1000 disappointed me. It was compared directly to this one box sleeky Tron line stage directly last week. It was much noiser than the Tron. I didn't realize it is that noisy in my own setup. Though the M1000 was sitting on solidly on the floor versus the Tron on the strange orange rack with inadequate support beneath, the differences make me difficult to comprehend. What troubles me ever since is I started recognizing the noises that weren't at my setup before. Isn't it spooky?

I need explanations. Can anyone shed some light?

wavac

English teacher,

The racks carried by AE are not just another rack. There is no chance anything put on floor and up against them. Had you tried SRA underneath any of your component before?

Wchow

Prof M

I did some researches on the tube amps carried by AE. The best selling tube amp in this group, based on what I read in this forum, is the Wavac HE-833.

I studied the review by Stereophile. I have a question about the output impedance of this amp with over 5ohm. I wonder how can it control the bass at all. The bass must be mellow as described by the review. The conclusion is not the most extended treble; not the most tight bass; but it carries a holy body mid range that is to die for.

With such descriptions, unless my English comprehension is below standard, it says the amplifier basically fail in major areas that an amp is supposed to excel.

But if it sells so well in this group, I wonder how do you guys comprehend the bass control with respect to constraints imposed by the room?

Raymond

English teacher,

If you are a fact-based reader, what you described is 100% correct. This is physics and even God cannot change. I can only share my thoughts based on facts. Preferences are a subjective matter, even though how wrong it can be sometimes.

Had you ever visited PT's Beta system? I listened to this system when he drove it by the solid state Takumi amplifier and now the Tron 211 amplifier.

Frankly speaker, the Takumi drive the Beta so much better than the Tron. It is because, using arguments based on your facts - output impedance - of 211 tubes is about 3 to 4ohm, that says clearly it can't control bass well. The Takumi on the other hand has an output impedance of 0.07ohm. It has much better control, there is simply no match.

But of course SET fanatics argue there is no magic when a Horn speakers has to be controlled by a solid state amp. But considering the Beta lower mid bass horn generates so much energy at PT's home, it is actually a better idea to use the Takumi to control the lower mid-bass.

I remember there was a comparison between Takumi and Wavac 833 at DSo Cessaro based system sometimes last year. To me, it was totally meaningless because the applications are completely wrong from top to bottom. We can put in FM acoustics 811 or Boulder 2060 and they will always lose because they over control the bass.

That's why I avoid tubes as I grow older knowing more and more about various faults. There are many excellent tube preamps, I agree but there is none that is up to the standard for tube power amplifiers either because of power limitation or tube distortions.

By the way, the Zanden 300B push pull will drive PT's Beta much better because the 300B has lower output impednace than 211 tubes. It is about 2ohm, most of the time. But of course, you can't be too loud with the 300B but at least better control in the lower mid bass.

VoyR

That's probably why Da Vinci has started using solid state technology in their new Virtu Master Reference lineup.