I have a Douk Audio T8 Pro that has slightly different functionality to your Aiyima and Fosi devices. It is a pre-amp with a 7-band equaliser (50, 125, 315, 750, 2000, 6000 and 16000 Hz) and tube buffer with RCA and XLR inputs/outputs. It has no DAC or headphone functionality. It uses 9 pin 6H1N tubes and has four 2068D op-amps. Space seems limited in photos of the inside so I am not sure if discrete op-amps would fit. I have only run it once to make sure it was working so I need to give it a proper listen one day.
Ive never tried any of these little tube devices. I am curious of your measurements. I definitely want to know whats going on the plates of these tubes. That has always been my biggest question anyway. I'll have to finish watching the vid later... painting today.
Truly excellent, wonder if its possible to make a 300b tube buffer that could be used with a SS amp etc so people can get a taste of the 300B sound....Only Steph could make such a great buffer at a great price
You lost me at the "great price"... 300B and great price never belong in the same context. Just a pair of good 300B tubes is 4-5X what these pre-amps sell for.
I understand...Hopefully your channel will get popular enough to attract attention from some of those dealers that wouldn't mind sending you stuff to review. Just stay as honest as possible while doing so.
That is the balance, I already have a problem with some people sending me stuff and then basically saying "We don't need a real review, just say they are great and do a demo with them playing some music, and $$$ out on our affiliate program from the sales." I don't think they understand anything other than this model or why anyone would be on RUclips/be a reviewer other than to hype products for affiliate sales. And the people who understand I am different, don't want to risk it. I do have to applaud Psvane as I explained this all to them on the front end and she replied "This is why we chose you, we trust that our products are good".
Hey Skunkie! What I would love to see you do, is to specialize in Tube Amplifiers reviews. Lately you have been doing some class D ChiFi amplifiers and I think that's cool also. I like the fact that you compared them to your tube amplifiers to let us know how they compare. But here is what I would love to see you do and I know it might not necessarily be be easy. How about comparing some popular Tube amplifiers. Example: Prima Luna and etcetera. You are the only reviewer in your class, or so I think. And as long as you stay true to your honesty, no one can fault.
No one has offered to send me one to review. I seriously can't buy multiple $3-5K amps to do a YT review on. Only thing I can conclude is some of these folks are just looking for infomercials on their products? *shrugs* I get some of you want me to tunnel focus on tube stuff, but then I look at what people watch most and it's not building cool tube stuff. Honestly pre-amps seem to be what people are interested in and yeah these pre-amps all have tubes...
Would the nature of the harmonic distortion change if the tubes are used just as a signal "buffer" or if they are actually used to amplify the signal? If so, in what way--for better or worse?
Vendo o papel Ilford no fundo, me faz lembrar do meu curso de fotografia em 1996. Eu preferia o Kodak. Se não me engano, era o F3, fosco, de alto contraste. O Ilford tinha contraste variável, necessitando de filtros para se obter o contraste desejado. Atualmente não fotógrafo mais.
If I had to pick one just based on what you've gone over in this video, I'd take the Sparkos one. It looks the closest to being a real component. I dunno, but I can't really get into these little 4 inch wide boxes, they don't even seem like audio gear, like if I bump a cable, it's gonna end up on the floor. Kinda like old school car radios, meant to be bolted underneath your dashboard or something. It's weird, and sometimes it sucks to just browse ebay for gear, because all of these manufacturers of these things flood them so hard that it's just a sea of little 4 inch boxes with antennas that you have to scroll through pages and pages of unless you search for something very specific. Maybe I'm just gettin old and crotchety, but the chances of me ever trying to assemble a system with one of them is pretty low, unless someone came to me and asked my opinion on what to get for a child's, like "babby's first tube amp" lol
Yeah I agree, but it's also 10X the price. It's honestly a different market segment but I wanted to toss this one in to show what you get for your money over these $100 units.
The funny thing is the Sparkos unit solder on the op amps. The thing that they make most of their money on, selling replacement op amps. I know they are good units but sometimes a system just needs a different blend of parts to work well. Their is so many really good op amps for under $10. This bring up a point about consumer electronics in general. The pressure to lower cost is everything for most electronics. For most products you would have to fight the engineer to put in a $1.00 op amp much less one that was $4.00. To make it worse many of the OEM 29 cent parts are fakes because a fake is only 17 cents. Yes they are that cheep. So replacing all the op amps with known real parts is worth $30 most the time.
I am looking for my first tube preamp. Budget around 250 EUR. is that enough to buy something decent with tube sound characteristics. Thanks for the recommendation
I *think* you have to define what "decent tube sound characteristics" means to you before anyone can recommend something to you. Any preamp, or amp, can be "voiced" to sound a certain way, tube, or transistor. If you look at the video here about the 2A3 monoblocks, that is what was going on there, the "voicing" of the amplifiers was being changed to suit. The folks at PAIA TubeHead sell preamps that let you change the characteristics of imputed audio to almost whatever you desire, but I don't think that is what you want.
I haven't had a chance to listen to the tube sound, what I'm trying to achieve (I'm using a 20w class A amp) is to widen the soundstage, give the instruments a bit more weight and the vocals a bit more forward. Since I have no experience, I have read that a tube preamp might help. I can stretch the budget a bit if it is on the right track to get the desired effect.
@@JošJedan-j2y You can't manufacture "soundstage", maybe with an EQ you can "enhance" certain frequencies, but whatever you are looking for has to exist in your source material. If it is not there at the beginning you aren't going to magically find it. Some source material is just plain no good, mp3s are no good being an approximation of a source, some vinyl is no good either mastered badly or plain worn out. There is an entire process to find the sound you like.
Wow! This is what worries most of us. Reviewers that become sellouts due to pressure from merchandisers prompting them to be dishonest. Thank you for sharing this information. I feel so much wiser now. I became aware of this sort of behavior through sheer observation but never there was a reviewer that honestly came out and said it like you did. You have earned my respect all over again.
@@MasterofPlay7 So, you simply are not buying anything, you are kinda renting it, until it ends up in it's final resting place, a hole in the ground with all the other toxic garbage? Well, how about "no thanks"? Isn't *thinking* like this the reason for environmental disasters we seem to be regularly hearing about?
I still listen to an amp that uses 100 year old tubes. I do understand these digital audio manufacturers depend on folks wanting to upgrade every 6 months to a year. Someone even noted my 6 month old DAC that was "The newest tech!!" is apparently too old to use for a legitimate source now? Yeah, no I'm not buying into that train.
I got the Aiyima T1 Pro when it first came out. I put GE 5654w tubes in and it improved my '89 JVC CD player a lot.
Definitely looking forward to your measurements on these
exciting stuff
I have a Douk Audio T8 Pro that has slightly different functionality to your Aiyima and Fosi devices. It is a pre-amp with a 7-band equaliser (50, 125, 315, 750, 2000, 6000 and 16000 Hz) and tube buffer with RCA and XLR inputs/outputs. It has no DAC or headphone functionality. It uses 9 pin 6H1N tubes and has four 2068D op-amps. Space seems limited in photos of the inside so I am not sure if discrete op-amps would fit. I have only run it once to make sure it was working so I need to give it a proper listen one day.
Ive never tried any of these little tube devices. I am curious of your measurements. I definitely want to know whats going on the plates of these tubes. That has always been my biggest question anyway.
I'll have to finish watching the vid later... painting today.
Truly excellent, wonder if its possible to make a 300b tube buffer that could be used with a SS amp etc so people can get a taste of the 300B sound....Only Steph could make such a great buffer at a great price
You lost me at the "great price"... 300B and great price never belong in the same context. Just a pair of good 300B tubes is 4-5X what these pre-amps sell for.
Good stuff!
Glad you enjoyed it
I understand...Hopefully your channel will get popular enough to attract attention from some of those dealers that wouldn't mind sending you stuff to review. Just stay as honest as possible while doing so.
That is the balance, I already have a problem with some people sending me stuff and then basically saying "We don't need a real review, just say they are great and do a demo with them playing some music, and $$$ out on our affiliate program from the sales."
I don't think they understand anything other than this model or why anyone would be on RUclips/be a reviewer other than to hype products for affiliate sales. And the people who understand I am different, don't want to risk it.
I do have to applaud Psvane as I explained this all to them on the front end and she replied "This is why we chose you, we trust that our products are good".
Hey Skunkie!
What I would love to see you do, is to specialize in Tube Amplifiers reviews. Lately you have been doing some class D ChiFi amplifiers and I think that's cool also. I like the fact that you compared them to your tube amplifiers to let us know how they compare.
But here is what I would love to see you do and I know it might not necessarily be be easy. How about comparing some popular Tube amplifiers. Example: Prima Luna and etcetera. You are the only reviewer in your class, or so I think. And as long as you stay true to your honesty, no one can fault.
No one has offered to send me one to review. I seriously can't buy multiple $3-5K amps to do a YT review on. Only thing I can conclude is some of these folks are just looking for infomercials on their products? *shrugs*
I get some of you want me to tunnel focus on tube stuff, but then I look at what people watch most and it's not building cool tube stuff. Honestly pre-amps seem to be what people are interested in and yeah these pre-amps all have tubes...
Would the nature of the harmonic distortion change if the tubes are used just as a signal "buffer" or if they are actually used to amplify the signal? If so, in what way--for better or worse?
Yes it would change, can't really say "better or worse" just different.
Vendo o papel Ilford no fundo, me faz lembrar do meu curso de fotografia em 1996. Eu preferia o Kodak. Se não me engano, era o F3, fosco, de alto contraste. O Ilford tinha contraste variável, necessitando de filtros para se obter o contraste desejado. Atualmente não fotógrafo mais.
You got that right!! :)
No Schiit? I got the Saga+
I really encourage you to perhaps check out the Hagerman Labs Cornet MM. Tube based design also. But, the best I’ve ever had.
Maybe in the future, that's a phono stage, these in this shootout aren't for phono use.
Comparing the cornet to the ear would be interesting, passive verses active eq using similar tubes.
If I had to pick one just based on what you've gone over in this video, I'd take the Sparkos one. It looks the closest to being a real component.
I dunno, but I can't really get into these little 4 inch wide boxes, they don't even seem like audio gear, like if I bump a cable, it's gonna end up on the floor. Kinda like old school car radios, meant to be bolted underneath your dashboard or something. It's weird, and sometimes it sucks to just browse ebay for gear, because all of these manufacturers of these things flood them so hard that it's just a sea of little 4 inch boxes with antennas that you have to scroll through pages and pages of unless you search for something very specific.
Maybe I'm just gettin old and crotchety, but the chances of me ever trying to assemble a system with one of them is pretty low, unless someone came to me and asked my opinion on what to get for a child's, like "babby's first tube amp" lol
Yeah I agree, but it's also 10X the price. It's honestly a different market segment but I wanted to toss this one in to show what you get for your money over these $100 units.
The funny thing is the Sparkos unit solder on the op amps. The thing that they make most of their money on, selling replacement op amps. I know they are good units but sometimes a system just needs a different blend of parts to work well. Their is so many really good op amps for under $10. This bring up a point about consumer electronics in general. The pressure to lower cost is everything for most electronics. For most products you would have to fight the engineer to put in a $1.00 op amp much less one that was $4.00. To make it worse many of the OEM 29 cent parts are fakes because a fake is only 17 cents. Yes they are that cheep. So replacing all the op amps with known real parts is worth $30 most the time.
you should get the aiyima T8
Possibly in the future we can look at that unit.
I am looking for my first tube preamp. Budget around 250 EUR. is that enough to buy something decent with tube sound characteristics. Thanks for the recommendation
Not for a "pure" tube pre-amp. But at the end of this shootout, maybe one of these will be a starter option into the world of tube?
I *think* you have to define what "decent tube sound characteristics" means to you before anyone can recommend something to you. Any preamp, or amp, can be "voiced" to sound a certain way, tube, or transistor. If you look at the video here about the 2A3 monoblocks, that is what was going on there, the "voicing" of the amplifiers was being changed to suit.
The folks at PAIA TubeHead sell preamps that let you change the characteristics of imputed audio to almost whatever you desire, but I don't think that is what you want.
I haven't had a chance to listen to the tube sound, what I'm trying to achieve (I'm using a 20w class A amp) is to widen the soundstage, give the instruments a bit more weight and the vocals a bit more forward. Since I have no experience, I have read that a tube preamp might help. I can stretch the budget a bit if it is on the right track to get the desired effect.
@@JošJedan-j2y You can't manufacture "soundstage", maybe with an EQ you can "enhance" certain frequencies, but whatever you are looking for has to exist in your source material. If it is not there at the beginning you aren't going to magically find it. Some source material is just plain no good, mp3s are no good being an approximation of a source, some vinyl is no good either mastered badly or plain worn out. There is an entire process to find the sound you like.
Wow! This is what worries most of us. Reviewers that become sellouts due to pressure from merchandisers prompting them to be dishonest.
Thank you for sharing this information. I feel so much wiser now. I became aware of this sort of behavior through sheer observation but never there was a reviewer that honestly came out and said it like you did. You have earned my respect all over again.
Bluesound has 3 new models.
And next week those will change...
😂 👍@@SkunkieDesignsElectronics
Here is my "bottom line". Is any of this stuff repairable?
they are cheap enough that you can replace them if they break
@@MasterofPlay7 So, you simply are not buying anything, you are kinda renting it, until it ends up in it's final resting place, a hole in the ground with all the other toxic garbage? Well, how about "no thanks"? Isn't *thinking* like this the reason for environmental disasters we seem to be regularly hearing about?
@@junkmangeorge6363 plus technology improves overtime, so likely you'll something new after awhile
I still listen to an amp that uses 100 year old tubes. I do understand these digital audio manufacturers depend on folks wanting to upgrade every 6 months to a year. Someone even noted my 6 month old DAC that was "The newest tech!!" is apparently too old to use for a legitimate source now? Yeah, no I'm not buying into that train.
None of it is other than possibly the Sparkos unit.