Audiogon purchase-Dehavilland Verve preamp finally up & running

[LonestarBlues]

Well the Verve preamp is up & running fully operational. My initial response is a big 2 thumbs up. I like the Verve's sonics mated with my Llano Phoenix mosfet/tube hybrid amp. Fedex Air delivered the Verve preamp Monday of last week with 5 out of 8 tubes destroyed in my opinion due to inadequate crappy packing of the tubes. Ted the seller did a great job of packing the preamp, he just made a mistake in packing the tubes. We had a difference of opinion in his packing of the tubes & he will still not entertain the thought that his packing was the major contributing

factor of the tubes being destroyed. He is convinced that it was rough handling or the double boxed preamp took a fall from a great height & that is what destroyed the tubes. Ted is a decent honest guy & stepped up to the plate to rectify the situation. He refunded my $22. We had an agreement for actual shipping charges. Ted's estimate was high & I over paid $22. Ted sent me spare tubes of questionabe life expectancy-his own words in exchange for the $22 without asking me if this was ok. Neither one of us own tube testers & he was aware that I did not own one. I nicely pointed out the error of his ways with the analogy-would you be happy if I was the seller & made that decision for you. I got the Postal Money Order in the mail Saturday afternoon. I told Ted that all I needed was a pair of 6AH4 tubes to get the preamp up & running. Ted had stated in a previous email that he would replace any of the current tubes- free of charge if they broke. The Current tubes were the new set of

tubes with low hours that Ted bought in Jan. 2004. The spare tubes he had sent me were 2 year old tubes. Ted ordered a complete new set of tubes for the preamp from ATSI in Florida. I ordered a NOS pair of 6AH4 tubes & a NOS pair of 12SX7 tubes from the Tube Store in Canada. The 12SX7 tubes are for the Llano VA2 voltage box

of my Llano Phoenix amp. U.S. Postal service delivered the tubes from ASTI today & UPS Air delivered the tubes from the Tube Store today. From ATSI I got 2-NOS General Electric 6AH4 GT tubes, 1-Sovtek 6SN7 tube & 1-Sovtek 5U3C ST coke bottle shape tube. The 5U3C is the Russian equivalent of the 5U4 tube. I got 2-NOS CBS Hytron 6AH4 GT tubes & 2 NOS RCA 12SX7 tubes from the Tube Store. I

am using the new with low hours Tung Sol 6SN7 GT that came with the preamp, new with low hours Sylvania 5U4 GB rectifier tube & the 2 NOS CBS Hytron 6AH4 GT tubes from the Tube Store. I left the pair of Raytheon 6SN7 GT tubes that I have been using for several months in the Llano VA2 voltage box. I am used to their sound with the Mcintosh C 38 solid state preamp. I wanted to get a comparison of sonics with just changing out the preamps. Tomorrow I will roll in the NOS RCA 12SX7 tubes into the Llano VA2 voltage box & see how they sound. I read about the 12SX7 tube over at Audioasylum in the tube section. Some knowedeable tube guys have used & compared the 12SX7 to their expensive 6SN7 tubes. The 12SX7

was equal to or better than the high dollar 6SN7 tubes in their subjective opinion. The 12SX7 tube is a WW II tube used for aircraft

purposes. It was a hand selected 12SN7 GT tube that operated at a different voltage than regular 12SN7 tubes if I recall correctly from what I read a while back. The 12SX7 tubes were $29.95 a tube-considerably cheaper than the high prices that some NOS 6SN7 tubes run. I do own a pair of RCA 5692 redbase 6SN7 & Sylvania 5692 chrome domes 6SN7 tubes I can compare the 12SX7 tubes with. Craig-NOSValves used a pair of 12SX7 tubes in his Mapletree preamp. I am a happy camper right now listening to tunes.

Regards, Mike

Edit-Sorry about the double post. Hit the submit key & got the Klipsch website is too busy to use. I resubmitted & got the double post.

[Randy Taylor]

Cool it sounds like your having a gooood time !!

[ben.]

Mike, may I suggest you hit return at the end of paragraphs. It would be much easier to read. I've started to read a few of your posts, and found my eyes quickly glazing over, not due to lack of interest in what you are writing, but it's just physically difficult to read. Not trying to pick you apart, just a friendly suggestion.

Ben

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On 5/4/2004 1:13:29 AM LonestarBlues wrote:

Well the Verve preamp is up & running fully operational. My initial response is a big 2 thumbs up. I like the Verve's sonics mated with my Llano Phoenix mosfet/tube hybrid amp. Fedex Air delivered the Verve preamp Monday of last week with 5 out of 8 tubes destroyed, in my opinion due to inadequate crappy packing of the tubes. Ted the seller did a great job of packing the preamp, he just made a mistake in packing the tubes. We had a difference of opinion in his packing of the tubes & he will still not entertain the thought that his packing was the major contributing factor of the tubes being destroyed. He is convinced that it was rough handling or the double boxed preamp took a fall from a great height & that is what destroyed the tubes.

Ted is a decent honest guy & stepped up to the plate to rectify the situation. He refunded my $22. We had an agreement for actual shipping charges. Ted's estimate was high & I over paid $22. Ted sent me spare tubes of questionabe life expectancy (his own words) in exchange for the $22 without asking me if this was ok. Neither one of us own tube testers & he was aware that I did not own one. I nicely pointed out the error of his ways with the analogy-would you be happy if I was the seller & made that decision for you?

I got the Postal Money Order in the mail Saturday afternoon. I told Ted that all I needed was a pair of 6AH4 tubes to get the preamp up & running. Ted had stated in a previous email that he would replace any of the current tubes- free of charge if they broke. The Current tubes were the new set of tubes with low hours that Ted bought in Jan. 2004. The spare tubes he had sent me were 2 year old tubes.

Ted ordered a complete new set of tubes for the preamp from ATSI in Florida. I ordered a NOS pair of 6AH4 tubes & a NOS pair of 12SX7 tubes from the Tube Store in Canada. The 12SX7 tubes are for the Llano VA2 voltage box of my Llano Phoenix amp. U.S. Postal service delivered the tubes from ASTI today & UPS Air delivered the tubes from the Tube Store today.

From ATSI I got 2-NOS General Electric 6AH4 GT tubes, 1-Sovtek 6SN7 tube & 1-Sovtek 5U3C ST coke bottle shape tube. The 5U3C is the Russian equivalent of the 5U4 tube. I got 2-NOS CBS Hytron 6AH4 GT tubes & 2 NOS RCA 12SX7 tubes from the Tube Store. I am using the new with low hours Tung Sol 6SN7 GT that came with the preamp, new with low hours Sylvania 5U4 GB rectifier tube & the 2 NOS CBS Hytron 6AH4 GT tubes from the Tube Store. I left the pair of Raytheon 6SN7 GT tubes that I have been using for several months in the Llano VA2 voltage box.

I am used to their sound with the Mcintosh C 38 solid state preamp. I wanted to get a comparison of sonics with just changing out the preamps.

Tomorrow I will roll in the NOS RCA 12SX7 tubes into the Llano VA2 voltage box & see how they sound. I read about the 12SX7 tube over at Audioasylum in the tube section. Some knowedeable tube guys have used & compared the 12SX7 to their expensive 6SN7 tubes. The 12SX7 was equal to or better than the high dollar 6SN7 tubes in their subjective opinion. The 12SX7 tube is a WW II tube used for aircraft purposes. It was a hand selected 12SN7 GT tube that operated at a different voltage than regular 12SN7 tubes if I recall correctly from what I read a while back. The 12SX7 tubes were $29.95 a tube-considerably cheaper than the high prices that some NOS 6SN7 tubes run. I do own a pair of RCA 5692 redbase 6SN7 & Sylvania 5692 chrome domes 6SN7 tubes I can compare the 12SX7 tubes with. Craig-NOSValves used a pair of 12SX7 tubes in his Mapletree preamp. I am a happy camper right now listening to tunes.

Regards, Mike

Edit-Sorry about the double post. Hit the submit key & got the Klipsch website is too busy to use. I resubmitted & got the double post. ----------------