ECP Torpedo III [indexed in first post]

I can't believe i was listening to the T3 with no air this whole time. I believe that i am 1 step away (pending arrival of upgrade tube) from the fabled End Game. I think could be done with headphone amps for a while.
I guess i accepted that the T3 had no air (with the EH 12AY's) and that was what the amp lacked compared to TOTL.

 

I apologize to everyone for the delay on the heat sinks. They're all packaged up now and ready to go. Unfortunately because of the holiday, that will mean Tuesday before I can get them sent.

I had fully intended to send them out last weekend, but we had a partial flood in the basement. The clean up crew only removed their stuff yesterday.

 

Turns out the 120hz hum I reported earlier in the thread was another electrical device in my house. I'm guessing a light.

I do still get physical hum from the transformer. I actually got an Emotiva CMX-2 power strip to see if DC blocking would help, but it doesn't appear to have changed anything.

I did order another PT, so I'll probably replace that when I can find some spare time (might be a month, changing jobs) and report back.

 

All the heat sinks shipped today. If someone doesn't receive their set in a week - other than the guy in Canada - please let me know.

 

Will this pair well with a 110ohm LCD3, as far as hi/lo z?

 

LCD3 sounded okay in my experience with the T3, but cost wise you would probably be better off with a beefier solid state amp.

 

T3 is more suited for Dynamic Driver type imo. However, if you want to use LCD3 , i think Jot is pretty good choice for the money.
Try checking the Jotunheim thread , sorry for derailing a bit.

 

Okay, got my final pair RCA that everyone raves about...between these and the GE's I'm done.

Them black plates and smooth mica discs under the getters

 

Major kudos to TomB for getting those heatsinks out. Got mine in and slapped them on with the epoxy no problem.

It looks like TheloniuSnoop is putting up his super T3 for sale I want all of his upgrades but my standard one still puts a grin on my face.

Blast from the past, ATH-AD2000 do very well with the amp, moreso after CCS boards. An amp that measures very well plus a headphone that measures like poo!

 

Thank you very much Tom for the heatsinks and your support for the early adopters. They are nicely installed now. I have finally settled on these 12ay7 (6072) as my favorite tubes.

Also got the tent labs MEC500 choke installed while i was at it. Goes right after the bridge rect, replaces R2, between C1 and C2 to form the CLC circuit. Did not have to use different caps or risk using wires to mount it remotely.

 

Finished my build yesterday and it sounded great - on the one channel that was not dead. After making @TomB nervous I replaced the headphone jack (the part I damaged most) and reheated a couple of joints. Now it's playing in stereo!

Ingredients are the Cinemags, output & tube CSS and Mundorfs. I have the Rikes laying on the desk but will try the Ms first.

Immediate thought - my microZOTL is no longer needed! Great dynamics (to the point of being startling), a very punchy, highly controlled deep reaching bass. Listening to some orchestral work and the strings sound rich and detailed.

A few tiny things need to be sorted out but overall I am extremely pleased. Thanks a bunch to @dsavitsk for the design, @TomB for superb packing & documentation and everybody else in this thread for developing and testing all the tweaks and improvements.

 

@SteelCannon had a nice comparo of the T3 & ZDS from the SuperBAF meet:

"I was really looking forward to comparing the ZDS to the Torpedo 3. Thanks to @bazelio and @Jh4db536 and @RKML0007 , I was able to compare 2 torpedo 3s and two ZDSs. The torpedo 3 slams a bit harder, is a bit more aggressive but is not as focused and refined as the ZDS. The ZDS is slightly softer but equally resolving and is much more refined and layered. The zds has life size sound stage, and while warm is also quite aggressive and fast. The warmth in the zds is different than other amps, somehow cleaner and much more nuanced, like a peaty whiskey. I could get drunk on this sound. I really liked this amp. Deserves every bit of praise it gets.

Among the torpedo IIIs I have heard. I prefer mine the best. Bazelios t3 was fantastic and focused in the mids but lacked bass and was slightly smooth in the treble. Jh4db536 t3 with mundorfs and ccs boards was very cohesive with the hd650s but lacked slam and aggression compared to my t3."

 

I'm in the process of getting a T3, so I'm interested in the details of these differences...

Can anyone tell me what tubes were in these three T3? I don't use the HD650 as I found them to be a bit too laid back for my tastes. Once I get the T3 in, I may want to make adjustments to the sound after hearing it in place of the amp in my current setup (Fiios X5 ---> Metrum Musette ---> Lyr2 with Siemens CCa ---> HE-X2).

The T3 doesn't have the CCS for the tubes or the output, I don't believe, so that will be a potential improvement, Stock caps. Cinemag transformer.

It'll be fun to listen to this for a while and then make a change and see what happens.

---Michael

 

it would be helpful if @SteelCannon would elaborate on why he liked one t3 vs. another and what their build differences are. as it stands, all we know is he likes "his" more than "theirs".

 

Ok, I will try to elaborate. My amp is more aggressive and slams harder than the other two, but it is also less refined than the other two and emphasizes low level detail which could be fatiguing. @bazelio's amp was the most refined in my opinion, super clean in the bass and smooth in the treble. The mids were the best on his amp, lush and focused. But, it lacked that pedal to the metal slam and energy.

@Jh4db536's torpedo III was a balance between baz's and mine. Compared to my amp his had reduced bass but still slam pretty hard, more body in the mids, and smoother but very detailed highs.

Overall, it is a matter of preference.

 

@SteelCannon agreed about the preference thing. so now, what is your T3 build? and what tubes were in yours?

i know what's inside @bazelio T3 because we meet regularly (ccs boards, rike caps, cinemag transformers, and a few other things but that's the gist of it). and he was probably rocking valvo tubes if you're describing the sound as softer and more refined, because amperex and 12AZ7 tubes make his amp slam hella hard so it couldn't have been that. his T3 and mine are more similar than different, the only major build difference being that mine has mundorf caps instead of rike. but overall the CCS boards make the amp extremely energetic and dynamic and fast as hell. in a good way.

 

My amp has cinemags everything else is stock, including the tubes. In tom's words, cinemags are basically hand made and variations within cinemags are much much bigger than any of the mods. I think the difference in sound has more to do with our cinemags than with caps and ccs boards. The tubes obviously do make a difference and I would have like to hear both those amps with stock tubes.

 

My t3 is 'official maxed' (cinemag, 6 ccs boards, mundorf) plus mec choke. Tubes were RCA branded GE 5 Star 12ay7.

My preference is more towards neutral/analytical tonality and max details.

 

i don't think i fully agree with that. there may be differences between cinemags, but the ccs boards made a pretty huge difference pre- and post- ccs. we also had findley's t3 without ccs to compare to those with the ccs and the differences were still there. tubes seem to matter less once the ccs boards are installed.

 

I was using Valvo 6201s early, which are in the AT family. They are not soft with output CCS boards, but they are softer than the 12AZ7 Amperex I used later in the day. The latter was my preferred tube before output CCS boards, but not after. They became too aggressive with CCS, and aggressive is not a sound signature I'm looking to achieve. Many people would say "OK, enough already" after 5 minutes with the CCS, Amperex AZ combo IMO. The Valvos are now satisfactory in the attack transients department, IMO. They can certainly startle you, but were previously a touch soft for my liking until those CCS boards came along. Right now, I feel the Valvos provide the most natural sound I can achieve with a T3 (arrival of new Brimars still TBD). I suppose however, there are certain music genres that are unnatural by their very nature and other sound signature goals would make sense.