Aiyima T8 valve amp, to grease or not to grease...?

[Schlippwhip68]

This level of tweakery is just weird to me.

I care not to judge for the fear of inhibiting creative possibilities and crippling even myself but as for motive and reason these I will leave before God, He makes more sense.

 

[Chrispy]

I care not to judge for the fear of inhibiting creative possibilities and crippling even myself but as for motive and reason these I will leave before God, He makes more sense.

God is a fantasy, and makes no sense in almost every religion to some extent. Using an amp vs eq for frequency control is just stupid.

 

[Leiker535]

Not worth damaging your amp just to try out something that will most probably be placebo, as it is already working as intended. With tubes, just practice proper hygiene, such as never touching the glass with your fingers (the oils get hot and stain the glass, which can lead to less longevity in the future) or keeping oxidation from the pins and sockets. For the pins, steel wool is enough to keep them shiny, for the sockets, just insert and take out the valves a few times.

 

[Vespa]

I think you might be able to fit a Mullard ef95 (5654) 8100 in there too if you want even better bass and clear stronger vocal range. The A07 is very well complimented with a tube preamp. I use an AIYIMA T6 Pro with my A07 with the Mullard Valves and it sounds better than my old Denon PMA720AE amplifier.

Thank you for this tube suggestion, I'm quite happy with the GE 5670 but maybe I'll try those in the future, I assume it's best to get a socket saver if I'm swapping these around.

I spent 4-5 hours just listening to various materials I'm familiar with, it seems the sound from a tube is highly agreeable with me lol

 

[egellings]

Not worth damaging your amp just to try out something that will most probably be placebo, as it is already working as intended. With tubes, just practice proper hygiene, such as never touching the glass with your fingers (the oils get hot and stain the glass, which can lead to less longevity in the future) or keeping oxidation from the pins and sockets. For the pins, steel wool is enough to keep them shiny, for the sockets, just insert and take out the valves a few times.

I am not aware of fingerprints on the glass of home audio tubes causing any problem other than a cometic one.

 

[crack_squirrels]

Hey, thanks for this, I was seriously thinking about sending this back, purely speaking about my tests using it as a headphone amp it was veiled/muddy, but with the valve swapped out with a GE 5670 I can hear things like vocals much better. I have no experience with Tube amps of any kind but I'm enjoying the smooth sound. Looking forward to testing how this sounds with my A07 next.

Ok so my GE 5670 just arrived (from https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274614902695 - have I got the right one?), I've given its 5 mins or so to warm up but it sounds significantly worse. Flatter sound, no details, duller bass.

The test track I use to test lows and highs (Boris Brejcha - Pillenkafer) there are details that are just completely lost and there's hardly any bass extension.

What could cause this? Does it need to warm up for longer until those details appear? (it does feel hot to touch!)? Is it a bad one?

Am using with A07 and Wharfdale Evo 4.1s

 

[DavidEdwinAston]

Its also a widely agreed and known fact across the entire planet.

Really?

 

[Vespa]

Ok so my GE 5670 just arrived (from https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274614902695 - have I got the right one?), I've given its 5 mins or so to warm up but it sounds significantly worse. Flatter sound, no details, duller bass.

The test track I use to test lows and highs (Boris Brejcha - Pillenkafer) there are details that are just completely lost and there's hardly any bass extension. Soulless

What could cause this? Does it need to warm up for longer until those details appear? (it does feel hot to touch!)? Is it a bad one?

Oh wow, yes that's the same valve from the same vendor. As far as warming up I've read it takes 15 to 30 minutes. I don't know if 'burn-in' is a thing but for me, it was an immediately noticeable improvement over stock. I'll have to check out Pillenkafer on it when I can

 

[crack_squirrels]

Oh wow, yes that's the same valve from the same vendor. As far as warming up I've read it takes 15 to 30 minutes. I don't know if 'burn-in' is a thing but for me, it was an immediately noticeable improvement over stock. I'll have to check out Pillenkafer on it when I can

Yeah be good to know if you can hear the same high-freqency details. I wonder if someone's done a frequency response graph for it.

I actually quite like the sound in a certain way, perhaps it's warmed up now properly. Will check out the Brejcha track again later.

 

[Vespa]

Yeah be good to know if you can hear the same high-freqency details. I wonder if someone's done a frequency response graph for it.

I actually quite like the sound in a certain way, perhaps it's warmed up now properly. Will check out the Brejcha track again later.

Spent some time listening to the T8+GE 5670 combo a bit more and evaluating it vs my Creative X3 headphone amp (All my stuff is 'low-budget hero' things). Overall I'd say without messing with the tone controls the bass is lacking or unremarkable and the highs are laidback/recessed, thankfully not as dark as the stock tube. It seems to shine best somewhere in the mid-tones? I'm using Oratory1990's fixed band EQ settings on the X3 which go a long way to helping the two headphones I was using with the T8 (KSC75+YaxiPads and X2HR). The KSC75 is very bright and lacks bass, the EQ settings really help with those two problems, on my creative X3 the EQ for bass is +4db and -2db for treble, using the T8 tone controls to do the same the bass at least returned to what it sounded like on the X3 amp. Since I feel the T8 is laid back the tone control changes didn't seem as significant with the X2HR interestingly enough, the Oratory1990 settings for bass are -3db and +1.2db for treble, I ended up using -1db and +1db respectively, the distortion wasn't really there on the X2HR's bass, sounded closer to EQ'd X3 sound but perhaps a bit weaker.

Overall, as a headphone amp, I found X3 EQ'd > T8+GE 5670 > X3 no EQ

Listened to Oratory's playlist here: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuxJ_ZhLlBSwYFLALdPcDHGaABUjyotLO
Adele - Hello: Vocals sound a little flat, preferred EQ'd X3
Boris Brejcha - Pillenkafer: Sounded good with some tone control but the highs didn't sound as good as EQ'd X3
Boris Brejcha - Spicy: Really needs the additional bass on tone control on the KSC75
R4 - THE 20TH ANNIV. SOUND - Epilogue (Remastered): This one sounded best on the T8, the mid-tone here seems to resonate in a way where it has a little more depth