I´m so glad for you Clint. At long last you got it, and I know how anxious you were to get it.

As to how you got it, the other members seem to forget the other amp you won and are passing on to me, and that was the reason for this thread:

http://www.sound-thinking.org/index.php?showtopic=2223

You see, guys, Clint has found a way of getting a lot of these, but he won´t even let me know how he does it.

Now, i'm in heaven.

Good for you Clint. Enjoy and let us know what you think.

cubdog

Congrats Clint - hope it sounds as good as it looks!

Well, since no one from the forum administration showing 'till now some apreciation for my offer, i remove it !!!

The Aria - Mini Tube Amp Review

Introduction :

Till now i only had the chance to listen to a few tube amps. A couple in a friend's house and a few others in some audio show-rooms. I have my opinion about them, a positive opinion btw, but they were expensive equipment and i have to move on to solid state.
A few yeras back i came across the X-10D from Musical Fidelity, a kind of passive preamp - buffer - with two ECC88 tubes on it. By putting it between my cdp and the amp i have an incredible upgrade in what i was listen...Smoother sound, more depth and harmonics than before. Later i've made some mods in my X-Can witch improved even more those fantastic qualities of this small MF can.

Mini - Review

Recently i have the chance to buy my first tube amp, the Aria - Mini, hand-made and directly from Hong-Kong.
I'd made some net search and all the info i get were very positive concerning this kind of tube amp - parallel push & pull - with four nine pins valves 6P1. A small but i think important difference compared with the kinds of EL 84 with seven pins. The preamp stage have two 6N3P valves with blue lights reflections on the valve base, very nice looking tubes in the dark.
IMHO, Sophia baby tube amp are the clone of this amp and i can prove it if you want...Anyway, i'm really stunned with the sonic performance of this small tube amp.

If the sound were a little harsh in the mid-highs when i turn it on in the first couple of hours, now after almost 50 hours of burn-in ( they recomend 100h ) the sound is simply gorgeous. The mi-bass comes up, same with the low bottom, and all comes into place.
The soudstage with this amp is remarkably expanded in width and depth, yet focus and detail is still more solid and accurate.
Subtleties witch were previously just hinted at, are now firmly and expressively delineated. Musical notes appear to hang there in time and space, of a near perfect entity and with breathtakingly natural instrumental and reverberant decay.
Sometimes some instruments or voices are almost one meter up-front the speakers, other times drums and percussions are a meter behind them...

You feel a rollercoaster of sonic emotions and you may find yourself standing still with your mouth wide open try to understand how come such a small tube amp can do all this...

Which of your speakers were you using? The Rogers LS-55´s?

Yes Cart.
The Rogers LS55-St.

I know nothing about tubes.

You're probably better off because of it.

Maybe someday.

Looks like a sweet setup, though, Alvaro!

i am very close to doing the same. i have Todd's Sansui 1000a receiver back, driving the high end on the AR-9's and am loving the sound.

Well, imo it's kind of a point of no return kind of thing.

Many years ago i bought a Dynaco Stereo 70 for an interim amp while my Cryus II was in the shop. Fell in love with tubes, and havent owned a solid state amp since then.

Then one day I discovered Single Ended Triodes. A true paradigm shift. High efficiency speakers...low powered triodes......it makes music in a way that nothing else can.

However, EL 84's are the closest thing I have heard to SET. They can be beautiful sounding. Enjoy your new amp. And welcome to the Brotherhood of the Thermonic Glow.

Regards,
Mister Pig

Well, thank you Sir.

Clint,

Very nice review. Short and concise, just the way I like them.

I only wish you had posted specifications, for although Charivari risked a guess your beauty could push 15 watts / channel, we are left wondering. I would venture 10 / 12 watts.

I won´t say anything about the build and finish. The pics, although you were all nervous and shaking when you took them, speak for themselves.

It seems to me that like Mr. Pig and myself, you too, are a tube convert.

You see, I don´t want to add any fuel to the SS vs. Tube debate here, but it appears there are some of us who will just never go back after being treated to something close to audio nirvana with the sound of tubes.

Your modified Rogers LS-55 CE speakers ( CE standing for Clint E. to me ) seem to be just the ideal partners for your new amp. The increased volume of the box might have increased the nominal efficiency of 90 DB / watt, even if only a little bit, but, more importantly, your removing the port, and turning these speakers into Infinite Baffles , might have made it easier for a small tube amp to control those double woofers. Compared to SS amps, the Damping Factor of a tube amp is always lower, and Acoustic Suspension ( or Infinite Baffle ) helps in controlling the woofers, though usually the cut-off frequency won´t be as low.

The all important mid-range is where, for tube lovers, tubes are unbeatable. All instruments come alive and more tri-dimensional, in a way even the best SS amps can only hint at. Notes hang in the air with far more natural decay charachteristics.
I saw you felt that at the Lisbon Audio-Show last year when listening to the Prima Luna amp with those Sonus Faber speakers that really excelled in the mid-range.
The big Krell / Wilson Audio system next room didn´t impress either of us much.
Rogers speakers always excelled in the mid-range, in the true BBC tradition. Bextrene or polypropylene woofers can sound a little sluggish if pushed too hard, but sound just gorgeous when driven within their limits.

I believe you got system synergy. A stroke of luck? Maybe, but thank God for that.

Now, with your 2 / 3 way 24 DB electronic crossover and another more powerful tube amp, I can see you going the active way.

Mr. Pig is absolutely right IMHO too, when he says SET is a whole different cup of tea, but let´s leave that for another time in the future, shall we? Just enjoy what you have now, and keep us posted on your impressions.

Tanx, amigo.