No!!!
Dont use that, its a cleaner and polish…
Use this:
Its thick, no spray bottle …like soft butter and is sucked into the wood…and you just wipe and buff off…
its a conditioner and cleaner…I use it on lots of stuff…really easy and nice.
If you have some wood furniture thats already has a finish the stuff you point to would be appropriate etc…
:>)
Alex
TUBA owners/users.
How does it compare to a Lyr 3? Both same price for me down in Vegemiteland.
For Verite Open. Looking for some tube flavour, without sacrificing too much detail.
It’s in a spray bottle, but it’s actually thick.
I’ve used it on raw, unfinished wood and it worked great. Nice, smooth finish. Not too glossy either.
It’s the same brand, Howard. It’s just their “Natural” line, and it doesn’t have orange oil that tends to stain wood.
Here’s a photo of the original version. Nice neutral color that doesn’t stain wood.
Yeah, feed-n-wax and those type of things are usually wax blends that aren’t supposed to go on naked wood. They need a finish like shellac or varnish.
Many of the things I’ve finished are just a shellac and paste wax.
Custom furniture maker in mountains of nc made us a us a custom walnut table 2" thick and the recommended this to us to keep from drying out.
I wa thinking again this am about the “dry” moniker adjective used in describing the sound from the Tuba.
I swapped out the NOS Mullards and inserted the Russian Re-makes and the tone indeed changes and makes the amp sound on the dry side for sure, the NOS tubes in this case are nicer, less dry but still light saber accurate IMO…
One of the hardest instruments to reproduce is often stated as the “piano” and “strings”…with the Tuba this “dry characteristic makes a piano sound like a real piano…expecially with a really tonally accurate headphone like the Focal Clears…also with live performances those hand claps, and people moving around, creaking chairs, coughing in the audience are heard :more” clearly with this attribute and less so with a more mellow or soft euphonic tube amp…or all least thats what my brain is telling me via my ears! lol!!
Also a “dry” amp will expose, brutally material that is not well recorded, if its “hot” and “compressed” its going to hurt!
WIth various source material and headphones you may or may not like this type of sound, but again this amp for the price and build quality is indeed special and throw in a good set of tubes and its magical.
Alex
The nice thing about tube amps is how you can really tailor the sound to your preference (via tube rolling).
When I’m ready to jump into tube amps, this will likely be my first choice.
Yup, its a crazy pastime…chasing sonic excellence and other things!!
Its only $$$$
… and you can’t take it with you when you’re gone!
Here is a good song / music that can exhibit the clarity a good set of cans and the Tuba can provide:
Patricia Barber, Live a Fortnight in France, and the cut is “Whiteworld”…live, hand claps, awesome percussion etc…
This is kind of my standard for a total system, it has to reproduce this very, very well if it does IMO then all the other source material I listen to, will come across as well recorded or not…brutally honest but when it comes together, we get that toe tapping feeling !!!
Crank it up but be careful!
Actually this product can be used on both finished and unfinished wood…
"Feed-N-Wax Wood Polish & Conditioner is ideal for enhancing the natural depth of grain while providing added protection and luster to furniture, antiques, and cabinets. Feed-N-Wax helps introduce conditioning oils that “feed” the wood while providing a protective coating of beeswax and carnauba wax. Feed-N-Wax can be used on finished or unfinished wood to help preserve and keep the wood from drying out, fading, or even cracking. Feed-N-Wax should be used whenever wood starts to look faded or dry, usually every month or so.
Our original blend of beeswax, Brazilian carnauba wax, mineral oil, and orange oil is the perfect product to enhance the natural beauty and depth of grain in all woods, finished and unfinished. Feed-N-Wax was developed as the best follow-up to Restor-A-Finish for maintaining the newly restored finish."
I was torn on just keeping the wood in its natural state, but I tried this on a small piece and loved the way it accentuates the grain on the Pao Rosa wood…really nice IMO.
I have used shellac and minwax, Hornsby etc and the overall process takes time and the finish is often glossy or semi-matte etc…I just did not want the beauty of the wood to be lost…and this provides a really rich looking finish, like a nice flat coating.
Alex
This morning I took out the NOS Mullards and put back in the Russian new Mullards and let it warm up for 30 minutes…and started listening…Ha! To be very frank and honest these new tubes really sound great as well!! When you get really good stuff its magic as well as with the older tubes!!
Los Lobos La Bamba sound track, Linda Rondstat w Nelson Riddle…omg good!!
I have a few other EL84’s coming but as we should all know the circuit design that the tube is in is more important than the tube, unless you have a tube that is really deficient…
Life is good!
Now go wash your hands and dont touch your face!!
:>)
Alex
Note: Another thought on this amp and with the Bifrost 2 and Focal Clears, this total system pairing allows me to hear what the original recording “sounds” like…so another characteristic of a “dry” amp with other good stuff makes it like a reference tube amp on the cheap! Bright recordings like Robert Cray come across as bright brassy sounding music…light saber accuracy…not that lushy euhonic sound IMO.
Thats a great question…I was close to buying the lyr3, but have too many tube amps here!
I did have a first gen Lyr1 but the Lyr 3 is a totally different beast…
From what I read the Lyr 3 might be a little warmer than the Tuba.
I have several other Schiit products and really like their stuff…
The Tuba is very clean, revealing etc with a good dac and cans its light saber accurate IMO…call this “dry” but when vocals and piano are recorded well its magic to me!
Alex
Examining the schematic of the Tuba I noticed R12 is labeled as a 50K LOG pot.
This is nice to note, in that folks used to an amp with a audio taper pot sometimes think an amp with a LOG pot is underpowered beacuse you have to turn the vol pot more to get the same amplitude.
A LOG pot is often used to help with lower cost pots and channel tracking issues at low mechanical pot postions. Also it mimics the human ear’s log curve.
Having a pot at half way or so doenst necessairly mean its underpowerd…
FYI…
Alex
Note: How many vendors publish their scehamtics…in fear of loosing trade secrets or having a Chi-Fi version come out underselling them…Jim lays it all out…
Just got a set of RCA NOS EL84 from two vendors on Ebay. Both NIB NOS…So it was worth the low cost to try these out if they are indeed NIB…Same 6BQ5 markings…so I have a tube tester here and I compared them to other NOS tubes ($200 Mullards) and the re-issue Russia new Mullards.
The New Mullards tested at 94 each, the older NOS Mullards were 84 and 88, and the RCA 6BQ5’s tested at a solid 100!! Imagine that…
So how do these RCA work in the Tuba…they seem to make the amp sound less “dry” or thin and add a little warmth to the amp…interesting…have to do this for a few days to see if what I am really experiencing or plabebo affect…
The cost for the 2 RCA’s was approx $50…a good deal considering what the NOS tubes go for…
Alex
Note: These RCA’s make the Tuba sound like the Jotm in that direction!
Just got the EI 6Bq5/EL84’s from Upscale Audio…in the tube tester they are off the charts good…the highest rating for gain of all the EL84’s I have…
Sound 11 out of a 10…Linda Rondstadt " Nelson Riddle" …Little Boy Blue…the sax, her voice HOLOGRAPHIC good…the best I ever have heard with any amp so far, gosh I wish I had the EC T4 here…
Melt in your mouth nice…
Alex
Note: So good I just ordered a second matched pair!! They dont make these any more!!
I absolutely love that Calvin and Hobbes engraving on the Element.
That looks like a T1. Can you confirm?
The pix with the Crack, Tuba the cans are indeed the Beyer T1 R2s.
Alex
Hey man nice work, how you attached the wood to the amplifier ?
