Ampsandsound Mogwai

That is pretty interesting. For me the noise is the equivalent of someone softly saying “shhhhh” but it completely disappears when the music starts. Is it more of a roar for you?

FWIW, my wifi router is about 20 feet away and I also use this Furman power strip with two dedicated power banks to help isolate analog and digital devices from impacting one another.

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I get a soft “shhh” or slight hum (likely transformer related, not ground loop which has been dealt with separately). It’s less/not audible with the HD800, HD6XX, Empyrean.

The issue is rectified with all cans when I switch to 32 or 8.

I’ve done a good amount of troubleshooting regarding interference, electrical, ground loops, tubes. Even if the noise went away, I prefer the more controlled presentation of the 32 and 8 with the VC and Senn.

The Mogwai SE is uber powerful and can drive planars and speakers. When paired with high sensitivity and high impedance dynamics, however, especially the very revealing part Beryllium VC – I’ve found that less (power, gain, impedance) can be more (sound quality, enjoyment). This is likely a consequence of the amp’s high power (among the highest for single ended tube amps) and versatility.

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the more I’m reading in this thread, the more I wonder if my hearing is going… lol

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this tube combination which, to my ears is quiet even on High Z (my preferred tap).

Tung-Sol 5AR4 / GZ34 + 6384 BENDIX + Tung-Sol 6SL7GT

The original tubes were quite noisy. Other combinations I’ve tried have been compromises one way or another; low noise but thin bass, high noise but good dynamics, etc… etc…

to give you an idea of how noisy my desk is: 2 monitors, 2 amps, 1 dac, an echo, a wireless phone charger, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse… desktop speakers… other stuff. the wireless phone charger does generate occasional interference if I accidentally move it too close.

so long as the music is flowing and it sounds good to me i guess :man_shrugging:

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oops meant to reply to the thread

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Hi Earmuffs, I was informed by some in r/avexchange that you may have a Mogwai Se for sale?

Sorry as I don’t know how to PM here.

-thank you!
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Still waiting for my MOGWAI SE to be completed/posted.
Justin has confirmed my MOGWAI SE will come with 6l6gcs.
I live in the UK.
From what I have read the KT88 are one of the best tubes I can get?
My local headphone/audio gear shop has some KT88 Telefunken match pair of tubes.
Should I bite the bullet and get these?
Also what does the middle tube and the rear tube do? do they also change sound?
Any recommendations for middle tube and rear tube?
New to high end tube amps. I have got a little dot mk1+ and tube rolled it but could not tell the difference.
Looking to get as different sound as possible to a solid state amps and I have a collection of these and they all sound the same to me.
Sorry guys Newbie here

Telefunken KT88-TK Vacuum Tube | SX Pro

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Hey essentials! For starters, what headphones are you going to pair with the Mogwai SE? That will guide the power needs for which tubes you should pair with the amp

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I will be running HD600, Arya, LCD XC, Radiance of it mainly.
Looking to purchase susvara maybe in the future.
Would like a zmf verite closed but the import cost is a killer. makes the zmf headphones less competitive
Maybe if I find one used in the uk
I know the kt88 will be more power that I definitely don’t need with that amp with my current headphones.
A better questions would be: What would be the best/nicest sounding tubes that would make it as different as possible to a solid state amp.
I am a bit of a bass head so looking for tubes with great slam and the warmest/thickest sounding tubes.

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I think the stock TS 6L6GC are really nice and they are apex matched too. Another great option is the RCA 6l6GC black plate. I also recommend the RCA (or JAN/GE etc) 5U4G or 5U4GB as the rectifier.

For input tube, I find the stock JJ 6SL7 a little warm, but maybe start with it and see if you like it. For me, I am running a 6SN7 as the lower gain at the input stage made the noise floor disappear on high Z for my ZMF VCs (a very sensitive headphone). A cheaper option to the 6SN7 is an RCA black plate 12AU7 with an adapter, people seem to have good luck with those.

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Thanks a lot. Will look in to these.
I will probably wait till I get the amp and see how I like the tubes that come with it and then decide if I want to replace.
Another question. Does anyone have the dimensions of the mogwai se as I cant seem to find anywhere.

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I think that’s the best course of action. There will be a few things to look out for, and then report back to the forum for advice:

  1. Do you like the sound (obviously). Is it too bright? Too much bass?
  2. Do you have too much gain? When I first got my ampsandsound Nautilus, I couldn’t use it with my Focal Stellia, because I could only move the volume control one or two “clicks” before it gets too loud. Since the Nautilus uses 12a_7 tubes, I was able to combat this by replacing the 12ax7 with a lower gain 12au7, which gave me a little more range on the volume control.
  3. Is the noise floor too loud? Similar to #2, you should be able to reduce the noise floor by moving to a lower gain input tube.

If you want to see the biggest difference with your tube rolling, and have more fun, then assuming there’s nothing you need to fix with the other stock tubes, I’d recommend buying some different input tubes, and then come back to the others later, as you’ll probably see the biggest differences with this one. This would be the 6SL7 for you, but as @gugges mentioned, if you get a 6SL7-12ax7 adapter, that opens up the available tubes you can play with, because you can try 12ax7 (high gain), 12at7 (medium gain) and 12au7 (low gain) tubes. There are a lot of 12a_7 tubes out there and you don’t need to spend a lot of money to find some good ones.

Another thing to think about is new production vs vintage tubes. I’m not going to tell you whether one is better than the other, but just be aware of what you’re buying before you click on “buy” because a lot of new tubes use the same names as the old vintage manufacturers, but are not the same. For instance, those Telefunkens you linked to are new production and are not the same as vintage Telefunkens. I’d hate for you to accidentally buy a new production “brand X” tube because someone recommended the vintage “brand X” tube, or vice versa.

Finally, I’d recommend finding a reliable mail-order tube/valve seller in the UK or Europe. Hopefully some of our members can give you some recommendations. They might be a little more expensive than ebay, but they’ll be more reliable, will hopefully be able to give you advice on what to buy and may have a good return policy if you don’t like the tube. I’ve learned a lot by talking to tube sellers in the US like Vintage Tube Services and Brent Jessee.

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In knowing the difference in potential output of the 12au7 versus 12ax7 on guitar amps, it doesn’t seem that the 12ax7 is appropriate for a (typical) playback amp.

Perhaps they work well for very low powered amps or some topologies.

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Ten weeks after I’ve placed my order for the Mogwai OG I start feeling a sense of exceed in my wait.
I’m generally a very patient guy but right now I feel my patience starts to lose some pieces.

@Roikyou .
I believe he’s now selling the Mogwai SE.

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Thanks @ktc , I do have the Mogai SE and posted in the for sale area. I sent a message to @E404. @Earmuffs and I was able to test the Mogwai SE, Bigger Ben and Nautilus together last night, see how each amp compares with Matrix X-Sabre dac, ZMF Eikon, ZMF Aeolus and ZMF Verite open. Earmuffs has the Bigger Ben now.

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Thank you for advise much appreciated
:ok_hand:

Oh no! thats a long wait! Have you contacted Justin?
I was told 6 to 8 weeks max wait before they post to the UK thats will take another week or two I hope.
Been 4 weeks and getting inpatient. Never had to wait for something this long :sweat:
Im very nervous that I will be underwheled by the amp as its very expensive and import fees is going to be around £500($705)
Got a few solid state amps and hoping this will give me wow this is diferent type of feeling
Keep us updated with your order

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:rofl:No such thing :joy:

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I did something better.
I did 3 hours of my Thai Chi training and forgot about the world.
Too much tense in this period, I need to balance.

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:ok_hand: Your absolutely right
I play football(soccer) twice a week. Its great to get rid of the world stresses
These things have to be done :+1:

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