[Kirklandia]

I just told my wife I have the budget version, the Envy OG.

Meant as humor but I guess that did not convey.

My Envy is on its way back from the shop with the improved transformer, which measurably dropped the noise floor by about 20 db. I have great-sounding tubes currently so no need for any further changes with the Envy. Instead, I've turned my attention to further lowering noise artifacts from the grid; the Puritan conditioner is being replaced with a couple LessLoss firewalls this weekend.

 

[jlbrach]

I've heard a few impressions elsewhere of AE and it seems it's quite a special amp. A HUGE step up from Envy OG, I'm told.

Glad you're enjoying it!

listening to my envy with ER300's and I have to say the thought of huge step up seems hard to imagine lol

 

[Leto Dal]

Well I have only one Envy AE, which means I have to let it cool down first in order to switch tubes. Not exactly an A/B Test.

There's always at least 20 Minutes audio memory involved

I mean can you compare Envy OG vs Envy AE A/B? If so, I am very curious about your report. Since you are talking about AE being a huge step up over OG.

To be honest, I couldn't hear that step up in show environment in Munich, even preferred OG PE with Fullmusic tubes to AE with Elrogs with Immanis ^^
But yeah, a very sub optimal place to compare them.

 

[dynamic headphones]

listening to my envy with ER300's and I have to say the thought of huge step up seems hard to imagine lol

i think "huge step up" is not as big as one may think at this level of performance.

 

[jlbrach]

yes I agree,once you get to this point there are no huge step up...just incremental or subjective..I know myself a great deal of it is "psychic improvement"

 

[walterboss]

listening to my envy with ER300's and I have to say the thought of huge step up seems hard to imagine lol

Totally, but just what I've been told second-hand. I'm guessing the amps above Envy are hard to imagine *until* you hear them.

 

[Allears79]

Hi, I just got the Envy Performance Edition and have been thinking about upgrading the tubes for WE300b.

I am new to the tube rolling and don't know exactly what to buy: Feliks got 4 sockets with 2 different pairs of tubes. Should I buy a matching pair WE and keep the 2 smaller Fullmusic stock tubes? I appreciate any advice on the topic

 

[Doug2507]

From having been in the same boat as you a few weeks back...

1. Make sure to give it 100hrs+, break in is real with this one (amp and tubes).
2. Read this whole thread, then go read some of it again.
3. I've not got WE's but from what i can gather they work quite well with the PSvanes.
4. New / reissue WE's are pretty much on par with old (apparently), buying new also nets you a 5 year non transferrable warranty.
5. The tube community is very helpful, also check out the 6SN7 thread, Cayin HA300 thread is also a good read

Congrats, great amp and hope you enjoy it!

 

[Allears79]

From having been in the same boat as you a few weeks back...

1. Make sure to give it 100hrs+, break in is real with this one (amp and tubes).
2. Read this whole thread, then go read some of it again.
3. I've not got WE's but from what i can gather they work quite well with the PSvanes.
4. New / reissue WE's are pretty much on par with old (apparently), buying new also nets you a 5 year non transferrable warranty.
5. The tube community is very helpful, also check out the 6SN7 thread, Cayin HA300 thread is also a good read

Congrats, great amp and hope you enjoy it!

I appreciate your quick response and advice! I will dig a bit more and probably will get used to the stock tube sound before changing. I read that Fullmusic is supposed to be great as a start

I will be using this with my Abyss 1266 TC and try to give a new life to this HP. I am currently using my Nagra Classic preamp headphone out to drive the 1266 but I am not sure if this Nagra is the best amp to use with the Abyss honestly. This preamp is actually part of my speaker system and I find the headphone out decent but probably way inferior than Envy as a dedicated tube headphone amp.

 

[Doug2507]

I appreciate your quick response and advice! I will dig a bit more and probably will get used to the stock tube sound before changing. I read that Fullmusic is supposed to be great as a start

I will be using this with my Abyss 1266 TC and try to give a new life to this HP. I am currently using my Nagra Classic preamp headphone out to drive the 1266 but I am not sure if this Nagra is the best amp to use with the Abyss honestly. This preamp is actually part of my speaker system and I find the headphone out decent but probably way inferior than Envy as a dedicated tube headphone amp.

Yeah, tbf I thought the perf stock tube combo was pretty good tbh but you know how it goes, more more more!

 

[walterboss]

1. Make sure to give it 100hrs+, break in is real with this one (amp and tubes).

Really wish I'd paid more attention to this. My unit was used but only minor.
And I wasn't careful enough working out how many hours my tubes had on them.

Rookie error

 

[ThanatosVI]

My Envy AE is silent enough with WE300B and Apos Ray 6SN7 Reserve that I can use all 3 gain settings with Spirit Torino Valkyria.

On mid and high gain there is a very faint noise but it's only barely noticeable

I distinctly remember that this was not possible on my regular Envy.
However maybe it's also the tubes, I'll have to investigate

 

[Exekuhtor]

Hmmm, interesting. Yeah, that wasn't possible with my normal Envy, i always used low gain. It doesn't matter that much though because the Pulsar / Valkyria doesn't need a lot of juice and low gain was fine. Just don't blow my Valkyria up, hehe...
It's probably not (only) the tubes but the whole unit, so they dropped the noise floor on the AE model. It would be interesting in what use case one would actually benefit more from that, you kinda need a hard to drive but sensitive headphone, like a SJY Starry Night...

Come to think of it:
I have the very slightest noisefloor with the Susvara on high gain, i imagine it would be dead silent with the AE.
I only notice it when i switch from low to medium / high gain.
WELL, i still don't understand why they restricted it to 25 units...

 

[Leto Dal]

My PE with We300b + Brimars is dead silent no matter the gain setting.

Got Brimars with "holy grail" d-getter and grey plates last week. still burning in ( around 100h now) best driver pair I had with WE300b so far. Highly detailed, dynamic, holographic and slightly warm. I usually have buyers remorse rolling driver tubes on Envy since the differences a rather small, not this time.

 

[Exekuhtor]

My PE with We300b + Brimars is dead silent no matter the gain setting.

Check again, is there really no difference at all when you switch from low gain to high gain when not playing music?
I can only notice a very minor difference when switching back and forth.

HMMMMM...
If that's the case i might upgrade to the PE... GODDAMNIT...

Could also be the old stock 6SN7's i got, i need to get my PSVane globes out and check...