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Tubecube 7


steelgtr

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35 minutes ago, AndreG. said:

Oh, i´m sure Your Leben sounds better, but then it also cost more – a lot. On the plus side, some "tuning " can be done by buying other tubes, wich con conviniently be bought on the same site. I always thought about pairing my Heresys to a small tube-amp and i´ve seen this one mentioned somewhere before. Good to read that it´s usable, even though it doesn´t cost a fortune. So Cube 7 reallly might be a good way to start with tubes.

By the way, what height is the amp?

It is the size of a crystal CD box, squared. 

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6 hours ago, MeloManiac said:

Nor does my simple Yamaha subwoofer... If anyone knows how to connect this woofer to the Tubecube, please let me know...

I think that you have a hopeless situation there with the specialized connectors that you have. I looked at the manual. What are you using to connect to the sub? Is it Yamaha also?

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18 hours ago, MeloManiac said:

How do you connect a sub to the Tubecube? 

My sub is a KSW15 and has low level RCA ins and outs. The RCA outs are filterable at 50 or 80Hz. So nothing below 80Hz going to Tubecube 7

 

Tidal —> iPhone —> DAC —> Sub —>TC7 —> Heresy

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1 hour ago, Ole Dollar said:

So nothing below 80Hz going to Tubecube 7

That's the way to do it, it un-burdens the Tubecube. 

 

I only can use my Yamaha sub with my Denon microsystems in my bedroom. It does have a subwoofer out, that one. 

However, I don't use it in combination with Klipsch speakers because the woofers of my Heresies and RP160M sound so much better than this Yamaha... 

 

As for the Tubecube, be warned that it gets pretty warm so it needs some ventilation space as well. 

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On 4/16/2021 at 11:08 PM, Ole Dollar said:

I have a Tubecube 7 that has NOS Mullard EL84s and 12AX7. Playing through a pair of Heresy speakers and a subwoofer it sounds pretty amazing. Has a great 3D sound stage and good cymbal coverage. The sub picks up the lower frequencies  as the Tubecube is 3.5 watts per channel. Using a iFi DAC and iPhone for tunes. Have taken this setup on vacation with RB51ii bookshelf speakers, fits in a medium size bin. Really is a nice sounding amp and not a fan of the SINO tubes that come with it, amp really came alive when NOS Mullards installed.

 

The 12ax7 is a Mullard too? Which affects the tone the most the 12ax7 or the EL84?

 

bob

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19 hours ago, steelgtr said:

 

The 12ax7 is a Mullard too? Which affects the tone the most the 12ax7 or the EL84?

 

bob

 

I've read elswhere that it is the 12ax7 tube (the preamp tube) that affects the tone of the amp the most. It is kind of counter-intutitive, as they are smaller and fewer in numbers than the power tubes, but it does make sense: the preamp tubes do the first amplification of the signal, so if anything goes wrong in this stage, it will be amplified further down and difficult to correct.

When I bought my CS300 tube amp with its original set of nos tubes, I also got a complete set of Golden Lion tubes for it. The first owner had bought them and replaced the original nos tubes with them, because there was a problem with volume in one of the channels. Because I was curious, I put in the original nos tubes. I was able to listen to them for about a month, and then the cracking started in the left channel, so I took them out immediately and put the Golden Lions back in. To my ears, there was very little difference in tone and what was there is probably placebo. This is no surprise: the CS300 engineer selected the nos tubes and built the amp around them to create a musical, clean sound. 

Golden Lions, which I use in my Leben CS300, and the Sovtek 12ax7 tube that I use in the Tubecube, alos have the reputation and sound quality of producing clean, distortion free sound. For hifi/audio, this is what most people desire. Conversely, guitar players using tube amps often desire the opposite: they want a tube that gives a lot of distortion, even at low watt use: they like the grainy, liquid, mellow etc quality for their rock/blues/jazz guiter etc. Some Mullard tubes (nos) certainly have a good reputation among guitar players.

 

Still, all this is very personal: some people prefer that mellow, liquid tube quality for their hifi equipment, rather than the clean, clinical sound of new tubes. It is a matter of personal taste that can be compared to wine tasting: some like red wine, some white, some like French bordeaux, some prefer white, Californian Chardonnay.

 

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On 4/23/2021 at 10:35 AM, steelgtr said:

The 12ax7 is a Mullard too?

All tubes are NOS Mullard - I asked the guy I buy tubes from for “the most tube sounding , non-solid state” combo I could get. He recommended the Mullards from the Blackburn plant. This combo really improve the Tubecube 7 well beyond what I expected. Unfortunately the Mullards cost close to what the amp does. Worth it, YES.

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I was about to pull the trigger as well, but then thought it through once more and customs charges could be quite painful here in Germany. I will finish refurbishing my Heresies first and then maybe go down tube alley.

Had a look at the DIY kits on Cube Depot, one can get those in Europe as well, also worth pondering.

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10 minutes ago, AndreG. said:

I was about to pull the trigger as well, but then thought it through once more and customs charges could be quite painful here in Germany. I will finish refurbishing my Heresies first and then maybe go down tube alley.

Had a look at the DIY kits on Cube Depot, one can get those in Europe as well, also worth pondering.

I ordered the TUBECUBE to be delivered to Belgium... Postage and import duties/taxes added 170 euro to the price. 🥵🥵🥵🥶🥴😵

Yet for me it was the introduction to tube sound... And I 'll never regret I bit the bullet! 

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