RWA amp with DODD preamp both battery powered

Cruz123,
Good news bad news.
Bad news first:
JJs suck and should be replace as soon as possible.
Good news:
Dodd is very responsive to tube rolling and it's the tube roller's delight.
I have visited another audiophile today and took my Dodd for a ride. Since he is obviously more experience in this and has small stash of variety of different nos tubes we decided to give it a shot. Amperex Bugle Boy Orange Label was a lot more relaxed and with better middle range and not as analytical and sorry to say this - SS sounding as JJ 6922 that came with Dodd.
Since there are only two tubes to worry about it will be easy and not to expensive to play around with some nice a
Amperex, Mullards or even Telefunkens ( which are not my favorite but if I come accross these , I might try them as well). I might get some 7308s soon but from what I am hearing from another Dodd owner is that his 7308s don't have that tubey sound if that is what you are looking for. With 7308s in , he claims Dodd sounds similar to Modwright ( I am guessing - analytical and transparent but no soul ).

I thought that you might find this interesting .

Mariusz

Mrjstark,

Thanks for the insight. As with all things audio, I'm sure the best tubes are system dependent. I'm pretty happy with the Amperex 6dj8's I'm using now and they're relatively affordble. I'll search out a couple of other pairs in the 6922/6dj8 family over time for comparison sake, but for now I'm just enjoying listening!

Shot-out coming up next weekend

Modwright vs Dodd

( only 50hrs on Dodd. Hope to get at least 100hrs by the time of the showdown )
( the downside....is that those Sonicaps need a couple hundreds hrs to fully break-in .....but who cares when it sounds quite good out of the box. Will try some 7308 white label PQ Amperex as well as SQ mini-watts and Bugle-Boy orange label. )

Stay tune for the results

Cheers

Mrjstark, I have some Amperex 7308 white label PQ's cooking in my Dodd right now and they are fantastic. Smooth as a baby's bottom without any hint of glare that I can detect. In an already warm system I could see how how the PQ's could be perceived as slightly laid back or too much of a good thing if you will, but they are perfect in my set up. Very natural sounding to my ears. I only have a few hours on them now and my Dodd is still not fully broken in, but I believe the PQ's may be THE tube for this pre. I will be interested in your comparison.

Modwright vs Dodd results are in.
( For independent opinions go to Audio Circle and see 2008 mini Rave thread. )

System used at the Rave:
RWA Sig.30 amp - T-amp 30wpc
Dodd preamp
Modwright preamp
Portable cdp - Sony and some Sony DVD player.
Cables - plain Monster IC and bran X .
Butler hybrid amp - I think it was 2550 , 250wpc .
Speakers - AAD 2001 monitors.

Dodd with RWA won for the best tone and musicality as long as the amps were not pushed to the point of cliping. Replacing RWA with Butler gave the system more control and eliminated the stress that RWA amp had when pushed too hard. Better authority, punch and limitless power. However, if quality/musicality/tone is on top of your list and you listen to music at average levels , RWA won in that department.
Dodd and two sets of tubes. First set, Mulards NOS. The secend set Amperex 7308 German made with red label.
It was clear and agreed on by all that Mullards were superior to Amperex 7308s. Mullards better Apx. at every department and most of all middle range and especialy vocals. Great tube.
Amperex were soul-less, dry and SS-ish.......Those were not white label PQs but some said it would not change the sound that much......that I don't know.

Dodd vs Modwright
Well, IMO Modwright is a very good preamp that is very detailed, transparent, fast with very little coloration.
I would go as far as to say that it almost sounds like the SS preamp. Its middle range is its weakest point IMO. Vocals were overpowered by crisp hights and dominated bass. It seemed like the vocals were pushed back at least few feet. Also there is the problem that I am very sensetive to - edgy, hard, crisp hights. I don't see myself buying Modwright for that reason alone. Secend, backgrounds with Dodd were so much cleaner, fluid and easily heard.Very subtle inner information, ambient noise, acoustic space were all there with scary clarity. Not so with Modwright - too chaotic if you must ask.....very difficult to concetrat and just imposible to loose yourself in music at the times. And last but not least , middle range is where Dodd just crashed Modwright. IMO , Dodd was a clear winner. Modwright held its own and I would recommended to someone that wants to try tube preamp but fears over tubeee sound and lost of resolution.
Dodd is for music lovers with a bit warm, liquid character. But it was the Mullards and not the Dodd that we were listening to. With Amx the magic was lost. I think my tube of choice is Mullard as long as someone can recommend something better.

Dodd rules!!!!! at least in my book.

Cheers

Mariusz