Good luck, it could help or do absolutely nothing. I have tubes that never hummed to begin with, some that stopped humming and some that never stopped. I also had one tube that was weirdly broken and it distorted so crazy that the music was all messed up. The replacement was fine and showed none of these problems.

Tubes are weird lol.

ah well.. in my experience noise is low after having tubes run for like 48h. Distortion however is the feature desired for tubes (that makes my amp even weirder as the distortion is so low), but it always depends how strong it is.. like it's not like the music sounds all broken in my case, just a little more dynamic (but that's highly debatable)

Sounds very nice, my TA-26 doesn't distort too much, at least it's not that noticeable imo.. Sounds like a cool device you have, especially the bass and treble adjustments that are possible make it seem like a great thing.

How it the tube t1? Saw something similar for like 50 bucks on Amazon and it looks interesting. I have a Xduoo TA-26 and I'm wondering how this would compare (and if it even has enough power to drive things like the 6XX).

Lmao I am not surprised at all but it's also pretty hilarious. My gf's dad own some very specifically made cable and well, it changes nothing and we tested that. We also tested his dac and amp against the FiiO K5 pro and I think his dac alone goes for 1k.. No difference either.

6XX are great stock, every mod or pad swap is optional and I've done both of these things and can savely say that the og experience is great. Laid back sound, very clear, no veil imo and just well rounded for almost any genre. Also super light, non fatiguing and sturdy.

But is the difference to solid state big? I have the TA-26, rolled tubes and all and I'm wondering what other people experience since I wouldn't day that sound changed by much.

Yeah probably, but I think I will pass on getting more for now. Maybe something higher end one day, but only out of curiosity because I think I'm more of a headphone person :)

Amazon prime lol.. I used spring tips and also tried everything that fit that came with them.. The subwoofer was always too strong for me, but only with music where I didn't need it.

But take that with a grain of salt, I have the HD6XX, their bass is fairly light so I'm used to that. Like some songs slapped just too hard. An example would be the acoustic version of Hotel California from the album hell freezes over, there is a drum in the beginning and with the zeros it slaps way above how it should be.

The zeros shine a lot when they can play out their strengths but when they are not needed then it's not enjoyable for me, that's why I will return them.

Little update: tested them with all well fitting tips and I gotta say they are not for me.. And I like Harman. The subwoofer ruins songs where it doesn't belong imo. Like listen to electronic music with them, great, the subwoofer slaps, but do it with acoustic music or songs where realistic bass is required and it's terribly overexaggerated.

So idk, a one trick pony is what these are I would say. I will return them because I own more neutral galaxy buds pro, but it was fun trying them out.

It's definitely super confusing. I crawled out of a different rabbit hole just to fall into this audio trap. But I'm done for now, the next thing would be speakers or a pair of ZMF after I'm done with uni and that is in the distant future.

I'm not into soundstage all that much, I adore my HD6XX and dislike HD800's lol. So I'm pretty open minded to experience what they have to offer.

I agree on the TA-26 being fine, but not more. It's comfortable to use, it looks super cool, it maybe changes sound by a tiny amount, most notably dynamics and sub-bass, but not by much. My 6XX can also sing when hooked up to my FiiO K5 pro.

The TA-26 is definitely entry, I know, it's ridiculous, but some headphone amps cost more than a thousand dollars.

However and thank God we have audio demos on YouTube: between a few tube amps, cheap and expensive, I could mostly not hear any difference and if there was one, then it was so subtle that it makes no sense at all to spend hundreds more for a slightly different sound (different, not better, very important). So that's why I will continue being a sceptic and stay away from chasing minimal improvements. It's really not worth it.

What I'm curious to experience is to hear how my tubes will change once a lot of time has passed. I don't believe in any burn in stuff, but tubes definitely change, some even stopped humming after I let them run for a few hours and I'm pretty sure some infamous vintage tubes are only desperately searched for because some people heard tubes close to the end of their lifespan, adoring how soft they sounded.

But I'm done for now. Enough headfi snake oil reviews, enough overexaggerations on YouTube. I listen to music and not to my headphones.

I hope they work for me, we will see :) definitely curious if a 50€ IEM can change my mind about IEMs because I'm more of a headphone person.

I have some Moondrop springtips and will just pray that they fit lol.. If not then I will have to get different ones.

Well, you can basically read all over the internet that the TA-26 is a better Darkvoice and that it has tube sound, according to some people.. I mean it does sound different, but not much different. Like max. 5% as I wrote in one of my previous comments.

Thanks for baiting me into buying them.. I hope they won't suck.. But hey, it's Amazon, I can always return them

Overexaggeration is the audiophiles biggest strength. I will maybe try a higher end tube amp in some hi-fi store one day, but not without bringing my Xduoo for some A and B testing because I really don't feel like getting baited by snake oil.

>does it change the sound maybe, is it placebo probably, do I care NO

I own the Xduoo TA-26 and after a long tube rolling journey (mostly non vintage, some budget nos stuff from the 60s too though) and for budget amps I can safely say: it's more about the ritual than about the sound. Maybe, like just maybe I get like 5% better dynamics and sub-bass, but that's very, very difficult to say.

I tested it against a FiiO K5 pro ESS, both devices using the DAC of the FiiO. Sadly I do not own a source flip switch, that would've made things easier but I really tried to match the volume while comparing.

Tubes seem to go more up and down in some songs, but it's so subtle that I might be imagining things. One thing is for sure: I won't hunt for weird vintage tubes. I would love to try a vintage tube, but heck, there's no way I am paying that amount of money for something that can simply break after a uncertain amount of runtime, that then forces me to go on the same hunt once again, that is if these vintage tubes really make a difference. Sadly there is no audio store or person I know that owns some, I would love to test this, but I don't see myself spending 200ish € just to try some stuff out.

Maybe I will get a Bottlehead Crack one day but customs fees absolutely suck and I have two left hands so I am probably too stupid to build one + I would most likely shock myself to death during the building procedure. Also, buying one off of someone is usually more expensive because people wanna see some money for their efforts (which is understandable).

Well, it is! Look at the video game Cyberpunk 2077, they released an anime and boom, player count skyrocketed but the game is still anything but perfect if you look at all aspects that aren't story telling. Same goes for new IEMs.

Like slap anime onto anything and the weebs will come and eat it up, even if it moves in the garbage territory in terms of quality.

Some weeb things are nice, but most are a cash grab, a few are both. Anime is ridiculously popular, so might as well cash in on this form of media by targeting the ones that are deep into it by providing questionable waifu material.

I personally like it when my products are clean and without these designs. Like the packaging alone makes me not wanna buy some IEMs.

Nice! Always great to see great Switch ports for people to enjoy. Some games run so atrocious, glad this one doesn't.

Hold on.. Nier on switch? Does this game exist or are you streaming it on a hacked switch?

Edit: wow it exists, totally missed it, have fun! Also, how does it run on the switch?

Ah well, always exceptions to the rule :)

Yep, but going to a store or getting a small tester is more than enough, a huge tester is just sooo expensive. Like the 72 switch one costs what, 50 something $ ?
To me that's just money wasting, I would even dare to say (oh boy I will get butchered but who cares about reddit points) that testing all the basic cherry mx variants is more than enough to get a general idea of what you could like, with a bit of imagination that is (cherry mx blues could be compared to stronger tactiles minus the click as an example).

I don't get it either, it's such a waste of money.. in the end researching properly and adapting is the most important part. It's not like every switch is a 10/10 right from the start. Going from linear to tactile as an example takes time, but after a while almost every switch becomes super pleasant to use.

Sound is another topic but switches contribute such a tiny amount to that, so it's almost unnecessary to pick switches by how they sound.