The amplifier does run fairly hot and the whole casing serves as a heat sink. Out of experience I can confirm that using more powerful power tubes like the famous and nowadays expensive Tung-Sol 5998 do up the output power (Jack Woo from Woo Audio stated his WA2 gets 10% more power when using these tubes).
#Darkvoice 336se vs bottlehead crack trial#
It’s a bit of trial and error really, the pleasures of tube rolling.įor some reason LaFigaro has never been very open about the metrics/power of this amp, they just keep stating the 339 will deliver around 800mw – 1w per channel throughout 25Ohm – 600Ohm. The 6AS7(G) power type tubes are known to be noisy but that really depends on your tubes: some hum only in the beginning of their life cycle, some only when you start to use them, others will always hum and some never do.
You can also get supplementary adapters from La Figaro so you can use EF80, EF800 or EF86 type input tubes. The accepted power tubes are 6N5P, 6N13P, 6080 and 6AS7 (+ all equivalents). The input tubes can be 6J4P, 6Ж4С, CV8 (+ all equivalents). The LF339, because of this dual mono configuration, uses two input tubes and two power tubes. It measured absolutely perfect for an amplifier he said, he didn’t have to change anything. He especially liked it because it is much easier to work on in case of problems as you can easily find and replace the malfunctioning component. On the inside of the amp you can find some very impressive point to point wiring that even impressed my amp doctor when I paid him a visit. The 339 has only one set of inputs and one single ended headphone out (plug by Neutrik). That means two power cords (the voltage is set in the lab) and two separate volume controls which I will come back to later. The left and right channel are built in parallel and both have their own power supply unit (PSU). The dual mono part basically means the amplifier has two of everything. OTL amps are mostly made to power higher impedance headphones and speakers and the prices can be rather high as the assembly is manual. The output transformer is said to be a major source of distortion and amplifiers without the output transformer therefore produce cleaner, less distorted sound. The result, according to the designers using this principle, is an unbelievable clarity and realism that no other configuration can achieve. It has no Output Transformers and the vacuum tubes directly drive the headphone with no intervening transformer. The 339 explainedįirst let me get into some more details about the more or less 10kg! heavy 339. 339 has better components, tubes: RCA socket by CMC and Headphone socket by Neutrik both make reliability better”. Especially with low impedance, the headphones can be very clear, 337 has a mild hum when it running low impedance headphones.
#Darkvoice 336se vs bottlehead crack series#
Here’s what LF had to say: “The output capacitors of 337 series machines is only 50μF but 339 is 130μF, so 339 have more strength in the bass, the structure of 339 is more reasonable, the pipe is on the front far from the the transformer avoiding interference. The 339 is the La Figaro version of the DarkVoice 337, but upgraded. Yuking’s statement is that he improved the Darkvoice designs even more giving an even better listening experience to the customer. You can clearly see the similarities of the amps when looking at pictures of all the models on Google. It was founded in 2009 after he had left the maybe more famous Darkvoice because of (to us) unknown reasons. So here is a long overdue write-up of the LaFigaro 339 OTL tube amp after having owned it for a little over 1 year.įor those of you who don’t know, La Figaro is a Chinese based company run by a guy named Liu Yi also known as “Yuking09”. Our more frequent readers might have noticed me talking about or comparing amps to the La Figaro 339 and some have even asked for a review about it.
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