ECP Torpedo III [indexed in first post]

Sony MA 900 is a great match with the Torpedo III I am digging it right now. The MA 900 isn't as detailed as an HD 800 or HD 650 but it has a good tone and softens the overall sound signature, exactly what I am looking for.

The guy who sold me the MA 900, modded and removed the resistors though.

 

I'm going to spend some more time reading through this later in the evening but thought i might as well toss out the question as well and see what comes back. I've been wanting to upgrade my tube amp lately and am interested in the T3...There is one available, the guy says it was beezar-built and he got it in Dec 2015... it is one of the earlier versions so he lowered the price a little bit... What would be the differences from one of the latest versions if someone had to take a stab in the dark with that info? Thanks!

 

yeah @e.schell is it the one on head-fi? looks good to me. it includes the cinemag transformers, which is a solid upgrade on the amp. the other common upgrade path for the amp is mundorf caps in place of the solens (i think that's what that one has), and ccs boards. also the one you're looking at comes with the stock EH 12AY7 tubes, and most folks move from those to a 12AZ7 (amperex) or 12AT7 (e.g., brimar, mullard, valvo telefunken etc) tube family. you could check with @TomB about sending it in to install some upgrades if you're not handy with soldering irons (like me!)

 

Didn't think there has been any revisions yet?? The output caps have changed from epcos film caps to solens and for beezar supplied upgrades you can go Mundorf Evo Alu/Oil and there are now CCS boards available (and a different CCS set any day now). I personally loved the sound with the epcos caps and had no complaints about them, I'm not a huge solen fan myself but have not a/b'd in the t3.

Buy that T3, Skullguise is a great guy to deal with and the amp would probably destroy most other amps around its price range.

Also FYI the pics he has up are from the beezar site; I am pretty sure the RCA jacks are oriented Right/Red on top in the production amps with screen printing for L incorrectly on top.

 

Yeah it is that one from Skullguise...He seems like a great guy from the few times i have talked to him even before discussing the T3 he is selling. My only other question would be is if anyone has tried out Beyer T1's on a T3...asking because i see mentions of a lot of 300ohm or less headphones being used and was curious if the 600ohm beyers will be driven well...
And thanks for getting back with me so quick!!
I think doing a little tube rolling with a T3 in combo with my dac-19 sounds like a terrific upgrade from my little dot mk iv.

 

Sell the T1's and snag some Hd600 or HD650 or even better yet hd800/s

 

I Just got the T1's and i love them! haha. I have a pair of HD650's that i really like but i was primarily looking for a tube amp to pair with the T1's. You dislike the T1's in general or just dont think they would pair well with a T3?

 

They were never my cup of tea, to be fair I had them for a week or two and that was years ago, in fact I bought them at release.

 

T3 - 650 is a killer combo, so hold onto them!

 

Fwiw, I liked the T1's with the L2, and the T3 is similar enough to the L2 that it should be a decent combination. You may want to put a 600R resistor in parallel with the phones, however, to give the output transformers the proper load.

There have been no revisions, but we have offered various upgrades which are all available to be added to that amp. However, it will sound good right out of the box.

 

My torpedo 3 is stock and along with modded hd650s still knocks my socks off.

@dsavitsk, we had a mini meet in nyc last weekend and many people, myself included, felt that the Yggdrasil/torpedo 3(ccs and ge 6072)/ modded hd650s,hd800 was best in show. This beat out a lampi7/ec2a3/hd800 as well as Yggdrasil/electrostatic kgsshv carbon/007.

I cannot wait to hear the amps you release in the future.

 

Did you try moving the DAC/amp combos to see how Yggdrasil/ec2a3 compared? Anyways, see here for a few SBAFers' findings on how to get the most out of your T3 if you want to take it even further...

 

Hi everybody here, I am a new guy in here and very interested in the T3, would somebody please describe more specific about the tonality and characteristic about the T3? I am using Audeze LCD-2 Fazor and AKG K712 pro, does it capable to drive these two headphones with enough loudness?

Thanks for all your help in advance!

 

I can't speak for the Audezes, but the T3 has no issue at all with the AKG K712 Pro. I had a pair for awhile, but sold them. I liked the look, but not so much the sound. I still have my early-serial-number original K701's, though, and a T3 has no problem driving them at all. The 62 ohm impedance is a bit misleading with a Torpedo. You would think that 62 ohms is so much closer to 32 than 300 that you would use the Low Z switch setting. However, I found the AKGs did better on the High Z setting.

 

Is the secondary's dynamic impedance (for best power transfer) 32 ohms or is it's dc resistance 32 ohms ?
The EC I have has roughly 2 ohms for DC, but 4.8 ohms at 30 Hz, pretty constant over to 1kHz.

edit: had to check my notes

 

No, and honestly I think it was the lampi holding back that setup. The setup did have wonderful staging but was also quite bright and tonally imbalanced. The electrostatic rig and torpedo rig were plugged into the same Yggdrasil and theta transport. We really should have moved the ec2a3 to that setup for an even comparison.

 

I have try my LCD-2 on some OTL tube amp like BH Crack and some other China tube amps, but definitely uncontrollable on low frequency, I have tried to add a Hammond 119DA to convert from 600 ohm to 2 & 4 ohm output, that was much better but not loud enough, that's why I asked a question about my concern.

I mainly use the LCD-2 as I like it more than my HD650 and K712 Pro, I am looking for a tube amp which is suitable to drive the LCD-2 as I like tube tonality much more than SS, I am now using my built 3 channel Beta 22 with all Riken resisters and some Jensen caps, although the sound is good, but still like tube tonality more, hopefully someone can give me some advise for T3 to drive LCD-2

Sorry for my poor English xd

 

That was not the right thing to do.

I have no idea if the LCD-2 works well with the T3, but the 650 is excellent with the T3. I think you might end up liking your 650 more than your LCD-2 after matching it with a T3. Just a thought.

 

Seems like a fine thing to do, other than the lack of voltage swing. And the fact that 119DA's are, compared to the OPTs in the T3, crappy.

The LCD2 is rated at 101dB@1mW of power. 101dB is very loud. 1mW of power is tiny. It should be fine.

 

Hehe... sure.