Ayon Audio Forum- all questions and suggestion

Soniqmike,
I can't comment on the 430mv vs 450mv question. However, I've been running a variety of 6550s in my Spirit II for some time now. Bias them to 450mv as well and have encountered no problems from this. In fact, I am very pleased with the sonic attributes of the 6550s paired with the Spirit.

Thanks

Does anyone have suggestions for tube rolling on the Spirit II amp? I have harshness on piano transients and some clarinet passages that is just grating. I replaced the original RCA 12AU7's with a different set of RCA's that were supposed to be smoother... and it helped some... but not enough. The Gold Lion KT88's --- perhaps some of you have replaced them with different KT88's or perhaps 6550's or KT120's --- if so how sonically do things change?

Has anyone else had this harshness and if so, how did you get rid of it?

Robsker,
What RCAs are you currently using? My experience with the RCA clear tops in my Spirit has been a poor one. I've tried them in both the signal and driver stages and I've tried them paired with a variety of other tubes all to the same result.....bad. By bad I mean the highs were to exaggerated,to harsh, and unrefined. I thought the same of the reissue Gold Lion KT88s. In my room with my system I've had good results with the following. CBS HYTRON 5814s paired with GE pinched gray plate triple mica 5814s, or Seimens chrome plates, or Mullard long plates, or even another pair of CBS 5814s. As for as the power tubes go, I've gone to 6550s exclusively. Right now it's the GE welded plates. It's a little difficult to recommend tubes (tone controls) not knowing your system and your sonic likes and dislikes. Look up Brent Jessie online. He has a fairly detailed sonic description of the various flavors of 12au7s.

Hi, My CD5s have problems. 1) ping noise 2) "thundering" / " rumbling" noise
I use the CD5s in pre and xlr mode connect direct to my Passlabs Xa100.5 mono blocks. At first the "thundering" / " rumbling" noise started on left channel. Stop playing after that, a few days later try to play again and the "thundering" / " rumbling" noise came intermittedly. A few days later try to play again, given sufficient time to warm up and the "thundering" / " rumbling" noise was gone.
I enjoyed (atlast) and returned back to "state of trance"..... Only for few days..then the "thundering" / " rumbling" noise came back and now on the right channel. Tried using RCA still same problem and add on to another problem loud "thud" when power up.
I also had connected the CD5s to headphone amp. The problem happen again on right side of headphone and after that totally no sound on the right side of headphone.
I accidently pressed the fixed volume. After that no more "thundering" / " rumbling" noise ( on headphone). Now, no more playing... worried that the problems could damage my speakers.
The "thundering" / " rumbling" noise also present on line 1&2. I had already informed my local Ayon distrubutor and now waiting ....hope not a loooong wait :(

May be I will looking at other CDP...

Jmohd

What's the input impedance on your passlabs?

The Ayon doesn't have negative feedback so in the manual, it states that partnering with lower input impedance power amps CAN cause such distortions. I had the same problem with a pair of Focal Solo 6 Be active speakers.

Ayon recommends using amps with an input impedance of > 47kOhms

https://passlabs.com/products/amplifiers/xa.5/xa100.5

The PassLabs only has 30? I think.