Korg Nutubes

These things appear to show promise. I heard these in the Sangaku preamp/headamp and the Vox MV50 guitar amp head.

The sound of the Sangaku was very detailed and clean, with that clean sought after tube compression (the kind that makes low level details easier to hear by pushing them up in the mix) and warmth but rolled at both ends. Sangaku had microphonics and clipping issues though making it not worth purchasing.

The MV50 mini heads sounded very good, better than dsp modeling amps at getting their intended sound, but had glassy microphonics whenever I bumped the cab it was in with my foot. Again, not a great product.

Has anyone tried to build any of the Korg diy kits or played on the new Vox MVX150 or nutube based Ibanez Tubescreamer pedal? These have potential for clean tube sound if the microphonics can be minimized.

 

I had a look at the spec sheets. Between the directly heated cathodes and the requirement for positive grid voltage (!), I thought they'd be hard to design with. If you want an open-loop triode sound, great, but anything other than a distortion generating device is going to be difficult.

I'd like to try that Ibanez distortion pedal, but as I already have 2 tube guitar amps with overdrive channels, I don't really have the need for another tube distortion effect.

 

IIRC, the reception for Sangaku was lukewarm at best, nothing revelatory by any means. As far as I'm aware of, the only other hi-fi gears that utilize Nutube are Cayin N8 and a variant of First Watt B1. I thought the N8 was interesting until I saw its absurd, deal-breaking price tag of $3K+ for a DAP.

 

Lol Korg Nutubes. They're pretty much useless. Even more so than this shitpost.

Change my mind.

 

Had the nuhybrid on loan for a while
http://www.pmillett.com/nuhybrid.html

Not bad at all for a low cost amp. Maintains decent depth and overall sounds like a lesser refined/capable EHHA rev A. Paired fine with the yggdrasil. Gungnir Multibit was too bloated with it.
A better PSU might scale performance. Was using a chip based wallwart

 

The Nutube implementation in the Cayin N8 seems to be done well, as a couple of my friends who own the device have confirmed there are no microphonics. Apparently Cayin designed a suspension/mounting system that isolates the tube mechanically and electrically to prevent the microphonics. The sound of the device with the nutube activated apparently is very tube-like and has a holographic soundstage. For someone like me who is always on the move and like a tube sound, Nutube seems like a promising solution, if implemented like on the N8. I am waiting for this tech to trickle down to affordable devices.

 

Does anyone have any experience with how these compare to e.g. The Trioderizer approach to "solid state tubes"? IIRC @dsavitsk uses something like this in the ECP DSST amp. I haven't managed to hear any of these so far, just curious.

 

This is what Nelson Pass had to say about his B1 with the nutube implementation:

"Listening comments: On the Tannoy speakers with the VFET amplifiers, the sound is extremely good, the kind of sound that we look for. It is detailed and lively but also pleasant and relaxed. As we say here, “It is the sound that makes you listen to your record collection all night.” As I switch between various power amplifiers, it is clear that this preamp circuit reveals clear differences between them, which makes it a special tool. In the right circumstances it's a very impressive piece."

He will be releasing this for DIY only given the need to adjust the bias for each load.

"I also experimented with the bias settings, noting the quantity of 2nd harmonic distortion. Like other Triodes, it can be adjusted for positive or negative phase second harmonic, or at the point where 2nd harmonic has been nulled out."


and a curious comment about 2nd harmonic .....

"Negative phase 2nd harmonic distortion is distinguished from positive phase by a difference perception of sound quality. It appears that listeners find a greater sense of space and depth with negative phase, and an illusion of being able to better localize location of sources in the audio. By contrast, positive phase brings a greater sense of presence. When the second harmonic is nulled, the result is sometimes described as having more dynamic quality."

I am curious enough to compare it to my unity gain tube preamp which must have a little negative phase H2 based on the abpve description.

..dB

 

I heard the above amp during the Chennai meet. It was paired to the Yggdrasil and I used the Senns (600 and 800) to listen. This was done by @uniqusrname who is pretty good at DIY.

The only thing I will add to what Abhishek said is that the low end had a pleasing grunt to it while treble to me had a bit more air than I expected. It should definitely benefit from a better PSU.

 

It makes a pretty shiny light

 

I find it extremely funny when I read stuff like this. If it pairs “fine” with Yggdrasil, it’s going to be fine with Gungnir Multibit as well. You make it sound like the two DACs are very different when the differences are quite subtle.

 

Nelson has talked about negative/positive phase of the harmonics for quite a while and was handing out little JFET-based harmonic distortion generators at Burning Amp this past year. You just needed to reverse the speaker connections to hear positive vs negative instead of adjusting the bias. The Korg thing is going to need to be used in hybrid solid state scenarios anyhow and the pure JFET-based circuit is as simple as pie, not to mention absent the serious Korg microphonics sans shock and strut mounting schemes. You could easily build one with a better regulator too. So... yeah, Korg might be fun to play with, but for practical purposes really not so much.

Edit: The "Pass H2" here.

 

While Internet says Gungnir mb is 90% of yggdrasil, that 10% diff was enough to write off the gungnir multibit
And the bass quality difference is definitely not just 10%. Different bass presentation altogether. Yggdrasil is brute , gungnir mb is rounded and mid bass heavy (read very ordinary)

 

One man's whisper is another man's thunder.

 

At your old age, it's obvious your hearing is failing.

 

Whatever. My hearing is fine.

You guys that make out DAC differences as huge, especially between quality DACs like Gungnir Multibit and Yggdrasil that use the same family of DAC chips AND virtually identical filters, are making stuff up or have expectation bias. You can "Dislike" my posts all you want, but that doesn't make you right and me wrong.

You need to stop worrying about sounding cool when you discuss the differences in DACs and get real.

 

Thanks for proving my point.

 

Wrong thread to whine about DACs. Go practice DAC nervosa denial in one of the gazillion Schiit threads instead @whineders.