Incoming! The New Equipment Thread

Jbraswell said:
Picked this Rogue RP-9 preamp up used for about 50% of new price. Insane deal with very low hours. My ears are still adjusting to the new sound. It's changed the tone of the system completely.

Extremely clean and precise with the 6H30P tubes. I've traded off a lot of the tubey goodness from the Perseus Magnum. Wasn't expecting this much change with swapping out the preamp, especially from the same manufacturer.


Not sure I am totally in love with the change yet.
It's kinda like a new Porsche vs the old V8 Camaro with a carb that could be tuned with 12V tubes, all analog and very simple signal path.


More seat time needed.


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I have been working through some issues with the change.
The RP-9 really didn't gel with my system.
After checking connections and hookups, I found some tubes in my other components were causing havoc on sound that the previous preamp didn't show.

The vintage GE 6550 tubes in the power amp sounded really weak, even after bias adjustment.
Swapped in KT120 and the strong headroom came back.

Listened for a few more days and still had some issues with splashy cymbals and distortion in the high frequency. I actually turned down the HF control on the JBLs trying to compensate. No luck.
Guitars sounded a little wiry. Not enjoyable for a very long listening sessions.

Tapes sounded good, which led me to the vinyl playback chain. So decided to swap out the secondary tubes in the phono amp. Out with the old Telefunken red tips 12AX7 and dropped in some gold lion 12AU7.


Boom!

Sounds like an entirely different system now.
The new preamp sound is really life like.
Incredible how much fidelity is coming through now.

I was second guessing the RP-9 purchase for awhile.
Totally worth the upgrade now. 6H30P tubes live up to the hype of "super tube" after all.
 
Jbraswell said:
I have been working through some issues with the change.
The RP-9 really didn't gel with my system.
After checking connections and hookups, I found some tubes in my other components were causing havoc on sound that the previous preamp didn't show.

The vintage GE 6550 tubes in the power amp sounded really weak, even after bias adjustment.
Swapped in KT120 and the strong headroom came back.

Listened for a few more days and still had some issues with splashy cymbals and distortion in the high frequency. I actually turned down the HF control on the JBLs trying to compensate. No luck.
Guitars sounded a little wiry. Not enjoyable for a very long listening sessions.

Tapes sounded good, which led me to the vinyl playback chain. So decided to swap out the secondary tubes in the phono amp. Out with the old Telefunken red tips 12AX7 and dropped in some gold lion 12AU7.


Boom!

Sounds like an entirely different system now.
The new preamp sound is really life like.
Incredible how much fidelity is coming through now.

I was second guessing the RP-9 purchase for awhile.
Totally worth the upgrade now. 6H30P tubes live up to the hype of "super tube" after all.
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Gotta love tubes, or not. Makes Sutherland gear all the more attractive.
 
OMC said:
Gotta love tubes, or not. Makes Sutherland gear all the more attractive.
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Maybe for some, sure.
But I am smiling ear to ear currently.
Albums have taken on another level of sound and the speakers are jammin.
It's like a fresh tuneup on an inline 6.

You either like tubes or you're no fun at parties 😜

We're jammin', jammin',
And I hope you like jammin', too
 
Jbraswell said:
Maybe for some, sure.
But I am smiling ear to ear currently.
Albums have taken on another level of sound and the speakers are jammin.
It's like a fresh tuneup on an inline 6.

You either like tubes or you're no fun at parties 😜

We're jammin', jammin',
And I hope you like jammin', too
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My Rhea Signature has five tubes per channel, no silicon in the amplification circuit. It’s a love/hate relationship. The only reason I wish US/Russian relationships would normalize is for the access to better valves.
 
OMC said:
My Rhea Signature has five tubes per channel, no silicon in the amplification circuit. It’s a love/hate relationship. The only reason I wish US/Russian relationships would normalize is for the access to better valves.
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The 12v tubes are fun to roll.
But a different transformer added more SQ value than swapping tubes in the end for me.

I still love the bi-amp SS with tubes amp setup.
So hybrid amps seem to be the ticket here for the foreseeable future.

The RP-9 is heavenly now. So much dimension around the instruments.
I've been spinning records all day. Kind of addicting.

I had no idea a preamp could be this transformative to the system.
 
Jbraswell said:
The 12v tubes are fun to roll.
But a different transformer added more SQ value than swapping tubes in the end for me.

I still love the bi-amp SS with tubes amp setup.
So hybrid amps seem to be the ticket here for the foreseeable future.

The RP-9 is heavenly now. So much dimension around the instruments.
I've been spinning records all day. Kind of addicting.

I had no idea a preamp could be this transformative to the system.
Click to expand...
A big part of what makes the hardware side of our hobby so much fun. And maddening at the same time. Sutherland’s approach takes the hardware foibles out of the equation. If you love it, you are good indefinitely. I miss the consistency of my Duos. The Rhea, when it’s filled with good tubes is sublime. I just had to wait for a week while Aesthetix replaced, no charge, a V1 tube, the first tube in the signal path, that went noisy in the first two hours of operation. Really good tubes are so hard to come by now.
 
Mather said:
View attachment 230523
Look. I'm just gunna say... spinning that volume knob is like... orgasmic. I don't know what sort of diamond coated ruby bearings they have in there or something, but it's the smoothest thing ever.

And no I'm not going to leave it on top of my stage. I just needed to put it somewhere for setup...
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So, how did setup go?
 
SnowmaNick said:
So, how did setup go?
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So far? Slow, very slow haha... This thing has a zillion different settings along with the whole room perfect correction readings and whatnot. Also my dealer said I'm supposed to leave it on and running with music playing for two straight days before it sounds good. People online say 200 hours.

All audio people are insane.

But anyhow, first impressions after a REAL QUICK and dirty RoomPerfect setup... this thing is like having an entire pro audio suite in your livingroom, every single setting is accessible from your phone or tablet. Like it's nuts, I can sit here and adjust anything I want on the fly. Right down to the smallest of details. Which is very very cool because I like to tinker. Sound wise I spent 10 years dialing the DIRAC in to exactly how I want it to sound, so right out of the box with no burn in (if you believe in that with solid state) this sounds huge and wide but tone wise it's too warm and the bass isn't tight enough, detail is too muddy, but these are things that will change as it burns in and as I adjust settings. It's got pretty effortless power. Very clean sound and right out of the box with minimal adjustments the streamed music sounds incredible. Even standard res stuff is off the chart. Playing the National Live in Rome was unreal. I haven't yet installed the "audiophile analog module" that's specifically meant for vinyl, so while I did play a couple of tracks from my table, it really wasn't great through the standard inputs. I'm not really concerned as this will change when that module goes in I'm sure. And as everything settles in and I get the tone controls and room correction down. But first impressions are I think this is going to work very well once I figure the whole thing out, and get that module in. But I will say, I think I am getting the absolute most out of my Arcam and DIRAC. Right out of the box the Lyngdorf is not making a meal of the Arcam by any stretch, gives me a greater appreciation for what a great job they did on this Arcam unit, and what a great job DIRAC can do in conjunction with it, if you take the time to figure it out.
 
Aaaand after a few months if I decide I don't like it I'll just trade it in straight up for a pair of Forte IVs and throw my Arcam in the basement with the system and just keep looking for another amp that works for me. I'm confident this will be very good once I've got it all settled in, but that's my backup plan.
 
Mather said:
Aaaand after a few months if I decide I don't like it I'll just trade it in straight up for a pair of Forte IVs and throw my Arcam in the basement with the system and just keep looking for another amp that works for me. I'm confident this will be very good once I've got it all settled in, but that's my backup plan.
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Very cool. I imagine the learning curve is huge. Also, I wonder if that analog board has any McIntosh DNA in it? Mac’s MX180 is using Lygndorf as a base, maybe it’s reciprocal? Here’s to hoping anyway.

On a side note, I did something this morning. But it will take 4-8 weeks to get built and shipped.

My alter ego is Impatient Man, so this next month or two is gonna suck. To tide me over I am cleaning and reorganizing all my records and finally adding them to Discogs. Did I mention these next months are gonna suck?
 
SnowmaNick said:
Very cool. I imagine the learning curve is huge. Also, I wonder if that analog board has any McIntosh DNA in it? Mac’s MX180 is using Lygndorf as a base, maybe it’s reciprocal? Here’s to hoping anyway.
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It certainly might. I think the main thing in there is a upgraded A to D converter and then the XLRs and some different relays.... I'll definitely be curious to hear the difference. But I've spent almost no time on the vinyl side of things at all during setup. I kinda want to work my way through how this thing works on the digital side first, then apply that knowledge to the vinyl side. But from the size of the stage and the punch on even lo res Tidal stuff I can see what this hopefully will do once the vinyl gets going. I played Buckley Sine E earlier and that's not even a high res recording and honestly I'm not sure I've ever heard it sound like that. And that was digital, if this thing can work that same magic on the analogue side then I'm laughing. We'll see...
 
SnowmaNick said:
And I remember why I haven’t replaced my AV40 yet. I’m old. I only got 64k of RAM, that’s all you needed back in the day. Those look overwhelming.
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Its a lot, however, it kinda does everything for you. Like I've left almost everything at the same settings Room Perfect input. I've tinkered a bit but it really did most of the work. It's a lot easier than the older units. Also, that AV40 is only like 4 years old! Up until this Lyngdorf I've been running my whole system through a Arcam 550 that's like a decade old! And I'm still keeping it because it does a great job with my 5.1 tv/movies.
 
Mather said:
Its a lot, however, it kinda does everything for you. Like I've left almost everything at the same settings Room Perfect input. I've tinkered a bit but it really did most of the work. It's a lot easier than the older units. Also, that AV40 is only like 4 years old! Up until this Lyngdorf I've been running my whole system through a Arcam 550 that's like a decade old! And I'm still keeping it because it does a great job with my 5.1 tv/movies.
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My AV40 is about 6 years old, nothing age wise for 2-ch, but I kinda would like HDMI 2.0/2.1. It sounds great though, I went to it after 20 years with Denon, it opened my eyes to what a better processor could do for sound.
 
SnowmaNick said:
My AV40 is about 6 years old, nothing age wise for 2-ch, but I kinda would like HDMI 2.0/2.1. It sounds great though, I went to it after 20 years with Denon, it opened my eyes to what a better processor could do for sound.
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I'm telling you, these Arcams deserve more credit. For an AVR they absolutely put out "audiophile" 2 channel sound.

Oh and also... I just realized I did the room correction readings wrong. With Dirac you aim the mic at the ceiling, but with RoomPerfect you're supposed to aim the first listening spot reading at the system. I.... did not do this. So the room correction thinks my speakers are on my ceiling. This could explain some of the measurement weirdness. That being said, it still sounds great so haha uh... looking forward to re doing that again...
 
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