You don’t usually take a blind bit of notice of what others say Bob - are you getting soft or something? 
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The tube fitted to mine is a Tesla.
When you say ‘stock’ Bob, do you know whether they’ve been serviced recently and when they were last powered up ? Also, what make/type are the output valves (they look like they could be Bentleys or Teonexes or Pinnacles) ?
The reasons I ask are:
a) if they’ve not been powered for a year or two (or more) then there is a risk of smoothing capacitor failure shortly after switch-on,
b) if there’s any leakage in the inter-stage coupling capacitors (and there often is) then there is a risk of the KT66s going into thermal runaway (it’s hard to tell from a photo but the left hand KT66 in the right hand amp looks like it’s quite darkened - keep a very close eye on all of them for red-plating, and switch off straight away if you see that) and
c) if you want to make a judgement about the sound then you’ll obviously want them to be doing what they’re meant to, and if the passive components are still the original ones then the performance will almost certainly be way out of spec.
One other thing - if you think that their headroom sounds a bit limited then new rectifiers (GZ34s or 5AR4s instead of GZ32s) can make a significant improvement.
VB
Thank you and noted. I suspect they need a service and PM sent. I am picking them up Thursday.
PM replied to Bob. Honestly I’m not touting for business. It’s just that I’ve seen a few which have gone bang at start-up and it’s tragic when that happens. I also say to customers that they should ask Quad in Huntingdon for a price too. They will put stuff right very reasonably. I suspect that they run the labour side of their service department at a loss, for their reputation’s sake, although their spare parts are not always the cheapest.
VB
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And if you need any NOS KT66s there’s some for sale. Yes, I know, a shameful plug 
Don’t give Bob any ideas for lathering up any unused KT66s.
replaced the old Anthem I sold with this for AV duties (the Anthem didn’t support 4k)
and got a pair of these for front height/Atmos channel
amp sounds pretty good, does streaming, internet radio etc now I have reasonable alternative for when it is too hot for valves
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How does it rate? I’m thinking about buying one of these now.
Ideal in a combi.
Sounds pretty good to me. I’ve kept it switched and running for over a week now. Not got anything here to directly compare it with until another pimped DDDAC turns up. My impressions are that it’s not one of those ultra detailed hifi sounding dacs, but just sounds nice and to be honest I’ve just listened to the music rather than trying to analyse the DAC.
Are you going to Jim’s BBQ? I could bring it along if you fancy a listen. (It’s the SE version (upgraded power section) and has co-ax and USB inputs).
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Can’t tell the difference eh?
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Between what? The memory of a DAC I haven’t heard in 3-4 months 
Is it flammable or edible?
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Mosquito proof??
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Hi Wayne,
I wouldn’t mind looking at that.
Yes but I’ve just bought one as I have zero patience when it comes to waiting, got the SE but with just the spdif input.
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I dunno what the back room set up for @Jim might be this time at the BBQ but I could bring the Border Patrol DAC and maybe the Aurender or just an Oppo transport and some of those ridiculous anachronistic things called Compact Discs? (And sacd/ bluray audio).
Did you order it direct from BP?
They are all mine now…
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