Probably, have Donald done these upgrades yet? I know he was planning on it, but thought it hasn’t been implemented yet for Stratus?
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I thought I’ve heard of at least 1 person buying v2 but not taking delivery yet.
I thought we were already on V2 and this would be 3? Bloody “silent” revisions. It’s cool that he keeps trying to improve things.
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I think you’re right and it’s hard to keep track, darn. Yes, it’s cool that he continues to improve.
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Interesting. Did it create a price bump?
Wonder what the improvement sounds like? SET need good transformers.
I think the Stratus bumped from $3k to $4.5k
Wow. Bigger jump than expected!
No kidding. I wouldn’t have purchased the Stratus at that price.
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Thats another reason I decided to go to Stellaris. At $4.5k for Stratus, thought might as well just make the full jump.
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Yeah, that makes it a bit more of a ponder at that price.
The days of somewhat attainable big boy tube amps is kind of fading out it seems. Toobs aint getting cheaper either.
Yes, it definitely makes the jump seem more logical.
Edit: 2K for a Starlett is an absolute bargain now!!
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I talked to Donald about the 2A3 tube and difficulty and he says he uses the PSVANE 2A3 as stock tubes. He says that they sound pretty good, and are available, and rather “cheap” compared to NOS tubes. He said while you can go NOS, that the New Prod stuff is actually not terrible and people give it a bad rap compared to NOS
I think that they will be a decent tube for the cost, and I don’t wanna fall down a NOS tube rabbit hole and just be happy with the tubes I can get. Don’t wanna go crazy on tubes.
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It’s hard to know what to do re tubes. I think the top level new productions are pretty good. ACMEs are probably the tops for new ones from what I gather. If I were in your shoes with NOS prices I would probably be going new as well for 2A3 but still might try and get a NOS rectifier.
5U4G seems to be getting a bit more scarce from a NOS buyers perspective.
I still favour NOS vs new from what Ive done on the Starlett, but as you know that was built to require cheaper tubes (outside of rectifier options).
I’m not sure of the sonic improvements, but possibly similar to what he says about jumping to the Stellaris, but less so: Greater clarity, resolution, layering, dynamics, punch, slam, and authority. Hear all of the subtle nuances of an instrument being played and inflections in a singer’s voice which makes each performance and recording special.
A&S Justin also uses larger/better transformers as you move up the line, which he says improves the resolution, clarity, accuracy and tonal balance, intimacy, realism, and density. What any of that actually means, I’m not your guy.
All of this is hypothesizing until actually hearing the differences.
So is the AN version version 4 ?
It’s probably best to contact Donald as there is no updates posted by him in the forums or his website.
I don’t mean to come off as The school principal here, out of respect for him and his work, especially where the update/revision hasn’t been formally announced/publicized.
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My Stratus is still breaking in but I’ll post some notes eventually.
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Can you guys help fill in the following based on your direct experience, research, and discussions? Distinguishing between “with maxed out tubes” versus stock can be informative.
Stellaris (standard model) maxed out tubes -
Stellaris (standard model) stock tubes - 100
Stratus maxed out tubes -
Stratus stock tubes - 72
Starlett maxed out tubes -
Starlett stock tubes - 65
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@M17XR2B might be able to assist as I know he has tried both stratus and stellaris with multiple tube types I believe.
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That’s not to mention the Stellaris Special and Stellaris Silver which I hear from those who have tried it to be a pretty big difference as well. But who knows
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True. I opted to exclude for now as highly not applicable for my purposes/wallet. It would be interesting for all though.
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