Tortuga TPB.V1 Tube Preamp Buffer Review

[Chagall]

 

[Francis Vaughan]

No surprises with the tube rolling. Whereas the CV2493 and 6922 are basically the same tube, they are not the same as a 6H30. Different gain, anode resistance for a start. A circuit designed for one is quite likely to behave differently with another. It isn’t anything to do with the intrinsic quality of the tube, just a matter of inappropriate use. It is remarkable how may tube enthusiasts miss this. Such is life.
Used as provided this buffer probably can successfully be used to add a little sparkle into the sound. At just the right drive level it will sit anonymously until a peak hits it that it can morph into something that sounds loud and dynamic. Not quite an Aphex Aural Exciter, but not a million miles away either.

 

[GDK]

lets be honest, it cant be any worse!

Wait, in this case, if it distorts more, doesn’t that make it…better?!?

 

[Stoutblock]

No surprises with the tube rolling. Whereas the CV2493 and 6922 are basically the same tube, they are not the same as a 6H30. Different gain, anode resistance for a start. A circuit designed for one is quite likely to behave differently with another. It isn’t anything to do with the intrinsic quality of the tube, just a matter of inappropriate use. It is remarkable how may tube enthusiasts miss this. Such is life.
Used as provided this buffer probably can successfully be used to add a little sparkle into the sound. At just the right drive level it will sit anonymously until a peak hits it that it can morph into something that sounds loud and dynamic. Not quite an Aphex Aural Exciter, but not a million miles away either.

yes, a bit of a surprise to me also. From manufacturer's website:

https://tortugaaudio.com/tube-rolling-preamp-buffer/

It seems to function but barely?

 

[HorizonsEdge]

I know this is tangential but Disney has confirmed the wikipedia claim that . . .

Tortuga was a major center and haven of Caribbean piracy


Why would you name your product in this manner? I am coming around to acknowledging "audio piracy". In my defense, I am currently listening to The Allman Brothers "Stormy Monday"!

 

[tomtoo]

Lets test a tube guitar amp? Hard to imagine it can get much more worse.

 

[Helicopter]

Thanks Amir. Really interesting to see the results if tube rolling.

I like tubes, but don't see myself using them in a main system any time soon. To me, it is just fun to use a component from another era that glows and has some history. That said, a hybrid tube buffer us nit something I see myself uncorporating, even temporarily. Agree with @Jimbob54 this is a <$100 tweak for experimental purposes. Unbelievable this is considerably more expensive than Schiit Freya+. Looking forward to the upcoming Schiit premium headphone amp and the Loxjie P20 if you ever find it. Let me know if you want to borrow a P20. I may get the one Schiit is releasing later, especially if it is a more tube-focused circuit.

 

[soundintubes]

Worth reiterating the third harmonic point here.
Loudspeakers can have very high levels (1-10%) of second harmonic distortion, but very low levels of higher harmonics. Masking works effectively here. In comparison, several percent third harmonic is going to sound quite ugly.

 

[Helicopter]

I know this is tangential but Disney has confirmed the wikipedia claim that . . .

Tortuga was a major center and haven of Caribbean piracy


Why would you name your product in this manner? I am coming around to acknowledging "audio piracy". In my defense, I am currently listening to The Allman Brothers "Stormy Monday"!

Tortuga means 'tortoise.' Likely the port and buffer are both named for the animal rather than the buffer being named for the port.

 

[Plcamp]

I know this is tangential but Disney has confirmed the wikipedia claim that . . .

Tortuga was a major center and haven of Caribbean piracy


Why would you name your product in this manner? I am coming around to acknowledging "audio piracy". In my defense, I am currently listening to The Allman Brothers "Stormy Monday"!

Its also “A gut rot “ when spelled backwards, indicating the consumption of questionable quality rum was real as well?

 

[artburda]

I‘m pretty sure it‘s named after Tortuga from Breaking Bad

 

[SIY]

This is screaming "B+ is far too low." A common problem with cheap tube stuff.

There's good tube amps. There's cheap tube amps. There's no good cheap tube amps.

 

[Helicopter]

This is screaming "B+ is far too low." A common problem with cheap tube stuff.

There's good tube amps. There's cheap tube amps. There's no good cheap tube amps.

This is a $1700 hybrid buffer... but yeah.

 

[pma]

This is an incompetent design. It could have been done much better, with tubes.

 

[SIY]

This is a $1700 hybrid buffer... but yeah.

I confess I didn't see the price. This is indeed incompetent and downright theft.

 

[mhardy6647]

1) Sixteen hundred and ninety five freaking dollars?!? You can get one for thirty-forty bucks with a weird Chinese/English name on it (albeit sans the balanced I/O).
2) They couldn't get a neatly silk-screened back apron?!?!?
3) The high-mu 6922 is, IMO, an awful choice for a buffer. Why the fug 6922s?!?!?!?!?
(EDIT: Oh, it was designed for the 6h30pi -- yay... that's at least as silly, and, arguably, sillier, given the price and rarity nowadays of the "good" ones -- there are oh-so-many twin triodes that would be fine cathode followers and cost a few bucks a pop even today... why-oh-why ride the hifi bandwangon with a tube choice?)

Other than that, looks like a great product.

PS I really (really) don't like 6922s for "hifi" applications -- I really (really) don't understand why they have become so popular in "hifi".

 

[Billy Budapest]

Aren't tube enthusiasts just old peeps trying to recreate that 80s sound?

No. Tubes were out in the 80’s. From the late 60’s onward, solid state dominated hi-if. It’s more like a yearning to create the 50’s-60’s sound.

 

[Helicopter]

1) Sixteen hundred and ninety five freaking dollars?!? You can get one for thirty-forty bucks with a weird Chinese/English name on it (albeit sans the balanced I/O).
2) They couldn't get a neatly silk-screened back apron?!?!?
3) The high-mu 6922 is, IMO, an awful choice for a buffer. Why the fug 6922s?!?!?!?!?
(EDIT: Oh, it was designed for the 6h30pi -- yay... that's at least as silly, and, arguably, sillier, given the price and rarity nowadays of the "good" ones -- there are oh-so-many twin triodes that would be fine cathode followers and cost a few bucks a pop even today... why-oh-why ride the hifi bandwangon with a tube choice?)

Other than that, looks like a great product.

PS I really (really) don't like 6922s for "hifi" applications -- I really (really) don't understand why they have become so popular in "hifi".

Loxjie P20 does it balanced (probably way better in every way too) for $100... and it's a headphone amp.

And Schiit Freya+ does it better in every way and is $950.

Edit: Nevermind. P20 doesn't have line level outputs. But still, this thing is 1.5x the price of Freya+.

 

[mhardy6647]

I confess I didn't see the price. This is indeed incompetent and downright theft.

No surprises with the tube rolling. Whereas the CV2493 and 6922 are basically the same tube, they are not the same as a 6H30. Different gain, anode resistance for a start. A circuit designed for one is quite likely to behave differently with another. It isn’t anything to do with the intrinsic quality of the tube, just a matter of inappropriate use. It is remarkable how may tube enthusiasts miss this. Such is life.
Used as provided this buffer probably can successfully be used to add a little sparkle into the sound. At just the right drive level it will sit anonymously until a peak hits it that it can morph into something that sounds loud and dynamic. Not quite an Aphex Aural Exciter, but not a million miles away either.

Note the intriguing language in this doggerel verbiage from the Tortuga site

Designed around the excellent current production 6H30 tube, we’ve concluded that the TPB.V1 Tube Buffer is also compatible with the entire family of 9-pin 6DJ8 / ECC88 / 6922 / 7308 tubes which opens up a big wide world of tube rolling possibilities.

We've concluded... so... rather than look at a copy of Radiotron Designer's Handbook or survey many, many decades (nigh on a century's worth) of competent and successful designs... what did they do? Try every B9A base tube in the junkbox and conclude which ones worked when one passed the smoke test, and then recommend the most expensive one?

I mean -- -- designing a proper buffer, in the guise of a cathode follower, using vacuum tubes is pretty simple: RCA wrote the book; just plug and play. See, e.g., pp 28-30 of https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/RCA-Books/RCA-Receiving-Tube-Manual-1959-RC-19-OCR.pdf

 

[SIY]

1) Sixteen hundred and ninety five freaking dollars?!? You can get one for thirty-forty bucks with a weird Chinese/English name on it (albeit sans the balanced I/O).
2) They couldn't get a neatly silk-screened back apron?!?!?
3) The high-mu 6922 is, IMO, an awful choice for a buffer. Why the fug 6922s?!?!?!?!?
(EDIT: Oh, it was designed for the 6h30pi -- yay... that's at least as silly, and, arguably, sillier, given the price and rarity nowadays of the "good" ones -- there are oh-so-many twin triodes that would be fine cathode followers and cost a few bucks a pop even today... why-oh-why ride the hifi bandwangon with a tube choice?)

Other than that, looks like a great product.

PS I really (really) don't like 6922s for "hifi" applications -- I really (really) don't understand why they have become so popular in "hifi".

Are you thinking of the right tube? 6922 is basically equivalent to 6DJ8, and is not high mu. High gm, though, which is exactly what you want for a buffer.