Joining the tube rollers club.

[_thelaughingman]

Hey y'all,

Thought I'd dip my toes and fingers into the vacuum tube amplifiers club. Went and bought a Sabaj PHA3 tube headphone amplifier to start out with and test before jumping up the ladder (isn't that what most of us audiophiles do ). I also purchased a matched pair of Phillips NOS E180F to replace the stock tubes. I received the bad boy today from Amazon and plugged it in, paired to the Topping E30. Definitely going to be listening to this all day to get some idea of how it sounds.

 

[_thelaughingman]

The Red Glow!

 

[pozz]

Just for reference: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...be-rolling-of-schiit-saga-pre-amplifier.6522/

 

[fordiebianco]

Hey y'all,

Thought I'd dip my toes and fingers into the vacuum tube amplifiers club. Went and bought a Sabaj PHA3 tube headphone amplifier to start out with and test before jumping up the ladder (isn't that what most of us audiophiles do ). I also purchased a matched pair of Phillips NOS E180F to replace the stock tubes. I received the bad boy today from Amazon and plugged it in, paired to the Topping E30. Definitely going to be listening to this all day to get some idea of how it sounds.

Hi,

received the thing as well today, but finding it pretty noisy without any input, and unfortunately the noisefloor bleeds into the music when playing not particularly loud. Is that your impression as well or might it be the stock tubes?

FB

 

[Vini darko]

Hey y'all,

Thought I'd dip my toes and fingers into the vacuum tube amplifiers club. Went and bought a Sabaj PHA3 tube headphone amplifier to start out with and test before jumping up the ladder (isn't that what most of us audiophiles do ). I also purchased a matched pair of Phillips NOS E180F to replace the stock tubes. I received the bad boy today from Amazon and plugged it in, paired to the Topping E30. Definitely going to be listening to this all day to get some idea of how it sounds.

Into the money hole you go , bon voyage mon amie .

 

[_thelaughingman]

Hi,

received the thing as well today, but finding it pretty noisy without any input, and unfortunately the noisefloor bleeds into the music when playing not particularly loud. Is that your impression as well or might it be the stock tubes?

FB

You might have one tube that's bad and making all the noise. I had that issue with E180F replacement tubes where one of the tubes kept bleeding noise when listening. Had to replace it with another set of russian made tubes.

 

[_thelaughingman]

Into the money hole you go , bon voyage mon amie .

Oh man, no joke. I went out and bought a second set of inexpensive tube amp to test and now have my eyes set on Dark voice MkII or Bottlehead Crack OTL.

 

[milw50717]

Oh man, no joke. I went out at bought a second set of inexpensive tube amp to test and now have my eyes set on Dark voice MkII or Bottlehead Crack OTL.

The crack is nice, particularly since you can build it yourself and upgrade it using speedball or one of the well documented mods. Their support via the forums is also excellent should you want to check something or hit a snag

 

[_thelaughingman]

Btw I'm driving my frankenphones that have 320ohm resistance drivers and the little Sabaj doesn't feel like its straining to power them. Separation and bass response is also very good.

 

[fordiebianco]

You might have one tube that's bad and making all the noise. I had that issue with E180F replacement tubes where one of the tubes kept bleeding noise when listening. Had to replace it with another set of russian made tubes.

All is well: they just needed some time to warm up. Lovely and quiet now.