My new amp

etocynned

Active Member
So I'm gonna get my new I-12 tommorow. Well pay for it nehow, so I'm starting this thread to chart my experience.

I used to sell audio, like 15 or so years ago, when DVD and satellite were new.

We sold Yamaha, B&W, Arcam.

This will be my first major hi-fi purchase.

I've always liked tube amps but they were high priced stuff, I recall reading about and falling in love with the Cary 2 storey monoblocs. Ridiculous wonderful amps.

I sold a Sunfire tube preamp and signature amp to someone to run some ML Monoliths. The tube preamp was Awesome!

I'm excited to get this thing running in my room.

More tommorow...
 
Payment Day

My system so far:

As I had mentioned I'm just now making hi-fi purchases.

I traded for a second hand Hitachi turntable with an Ortofon ccartridge and a Radio Shack phono preamp. I'm using dollar store quality interconnects and speaker wire.

As mentioned above or in other posts, DM302 speakers.

My previous amp was a Samsung 5 disc DVD system I bought at Value Village for $25.

Current impressions have been positive, but the whole system definitely needed better amplification.

Being my first turntable I noticed the flow of the music was incredible on everything from Ella Fitzgerald to Pink Floyd. I had some digital Ella that I compared to the vinyl and this feeling was confirmed. My next test will be FLAC rips of Floyd vs straight vinyl. An easy flip of a switch with this amp.

The low quality digital amp destroys high frequency sound quality and the zero quality interconnects and speaker wire assist nothing.

If I can rely on my memory at all I can't wait to reexperience the liquidity of a tube based system. I can't say it will be as good as the sunfire and Monolith system, at 1/10 the price I'd be astounded if it did, but the anticipation on my end is as high as I ever remember.

It will be a bedroom system for now with the speakers flanking a small LCD TV on a lowboy stand, pictures to follow.

I'm going to surf local retailer clearance racks and demo bins for good interconnects and speaker cables on the cheap. I remember we had a box of demo cables stuffed with everything from the junk freebies to Tara Labs RSC Primes.

Enough for now, my thumbs are cramping as I type this on my ATRIX XT860.
 
Paid for it

Paypal rules!

Kinda had some quirkiness due to it being an account i set up through another location and weirdness logging into my GF account.

All straightened out in short order.

So i called GF and wanted to confirm my shipping address and the man who answered said he was benching "MY" amp to make sure it worked as it should.

Cool!

Holy cow im Excited!!!!!!!!!

Gonna clean my room when i get home and take some pics of it to post so you can see where everythings gonna go.

Oh ya, if you've anything to say, please feel free.
 
"Oh ya, if you've anything to say, please feel free."

Enjoy your new amp! (That's the best part.) :music:

Wb
 
Testing your I-12 driving the ShengYa V-518 Horns in the corners, almost dead quiet with ear to the horn at full volume !, this amps plays much louder than it's 12 watts, too loud for the room which is 27 x 19 x 8 with the 95db horns, the 1-12 holds it's own up against the much more expensive tube amplification that is normally running on the main system, I think it is the EL84 tubes that have a character of their own that I enjoy. Very nice headphone amp too, my HD540 Sennheizers sure like this amp too.

Enjoy some pics and have fun in Chilliwack, a fun town in BC.

Cheers,
Ian

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Your excitement reminds me of the excitement I felt ordering the I-12. Just be prepared that the burn in process may be lengthy and non-linear. There were times when I questioned the wisdom of my decision. But eventually things sorted out very nicely. A great value. Have fun!
 
oh yeah!

Cool got my email cofirming completion of my order.

I forgot to add ive got some Sennheiser HD-201's as well.

I think that purolator truck should just drive straight thru the night and it'll get here at like 5:30 am and drop my amp off, ill wait up!

I saw in another thread that someones spouse liked the I-12 because it looked like Wall-e, looking at the pics i can see the resemblance.

Thats one of my fave movies of all time.
 
Your excitement reminds me of the excitement I felt ordering the I-12. Just be prepared that the burn in process may be lengthy and non-linear. There were times when I questioned the wisdom of my decision. But eventually things sorted out very nicely. A great value. Have fun!

Didn't you get the I-25 at the same time? The I-12 and I-25 only share looks, they sound like completely different amps, which of course they are, but almost night and day different to me. I think you and I are the only two that have spent time with both on this side of the pond.

Cheers,
Ian
 
Didn't you get the I-25 at the same time? The I-12 and I-25 only share looks, they sound like completely different amps, which of course they are, but almost night and day different to me. I think you and I are the only two that have spent time with both on this side of the pond.

Cheers,
Ian

Yes, I did get both, and they do sound different - they have their own character. But they are both very musical. And I miss the I-12, even though I know my son uses it lots, and well, and too loud. But what a great reason to get kicked out of a dorm - because your 12 WPC tube amp was played too loud...:guitar:
It was a lot of fun comparing the amps, but I find that I am comparing less and enjoying music more, especially with the excellent RFS-1 speakers. There are many more things for me to explore though, I am limited only by time and money...:grumpy:
 
Our Bud, the Purolator Man, picking up your amp today, he passed on driving straight to Chilliwack, since he just did BC last month. You will have to check your tracking info to see when it arrives, hopefully early next week eh!

Cheers,
Ian

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That was at 3:45 PM!

Hooray!

My gf is not excited, I can't see why?

She loves Ella Fitzgerald tho so ill gain a convert once she hears that I'm sure.
 
Here comes!

Left Calgary distribution at like 545 local time, its about an 11 hour drive, but he will probably stop to make other drops. Maybe ill be able to pick it up tommorow!

On the side, I read the rolling stone article about how Dark Side of the Moon destroyed Pink Floyd, an awesome article.

Found 2 copies at a used gear shop in town here. $10 bucks each. Ill have to buy one when I get some more scrilla.
 
I use GF-MRCA-1 Gold Coated Copper Reference Interconnects (Golden Dragon) Cables on my I-25 and the PC-1.5 Performance Power Cord
 

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So I have crap cables.

What types of cables are other I-12 owners using?

I created an excuse to buy a complete system, so I decided to go for my best chance at easy synergy by going with a complete Grant Fidelity outfit - the power conditioner and power chords as well as the GF interconnects and speaker cables. No regrets - when I A/B tested some speakers a while ago I connected them with identical cheap speaker wires, and there was a significant haze with the cheapies that disappeared with the GF speaker wires. I did not A/B test the GF power chords or interconnects, but they are certainly very well made, and the power conditioner is butch.
Synergy is the key, and you may want to do some experimenting to hear what works for you. If I had to do things really on the cheap I would start with decent guage OFC generic speaker wire and then upgrade the rest. I have the TubeDAC-09, and it made a huge difference for my CD playback. The DAC built into cheap CDP tends to be cheap. The TubeDAC-11 upgrade will also provide you with multiple inputs - handy because your I-12 has a single stereo RCA input.
As you are upgrading your system I hope your GF won't find a need to upgrade her BF. On the positive side, you would have more time, and a quieter space to listen to your music. Every stereo upgrade has its compromises...:sadwave:
 
Its close!

As of 8:08 this morning it left the local depot for delivery to my address.

I've got school today so ill have to do the unboxing after. Maybe ill do a video or at least some pics.

no no it has to be a video, this is a momentus occasion!

Any hints or advice or requests?
 
Thank you for offering to make a video of opening the box. We would love to have a YouTube category called 'Open Box' (or something similar) to let others to see how a product looks like from when it arrives in the box until it is on the shelf to play.

Send me the video link once you have it :)

Best,
Rachel @ Grant Fidelity
 
Whooooooooooooooot!!

It HERE!

the unboxing will be Youtubized, if that becomes a word, you heard it here first!
 
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