I leave both chokes on pretty much all the time now. Opens things up in a way you miss if you turn it off, imo.

Exactly. Surprisingly, I tend to leave it off for old, live jazz recordings. Those recordings don't benefit much from a softer approach.

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That's awesome Tony! A STR+tubes is a lot of money for a "tweak" so I'm pleased that you found the recommendation worthwhile.

I continue to be intrigued by the mercury vapor tubes. But I continue to have cats too so I still won't do it. At least not today.

Congrats Tony!

Congratulations Tony, enjoy your new STR. I had to slog through some home related major expenses over the last few months, delaying an STR order. Needless to say just got approval from my wife to move forward with ordering an STR-1002-Super later this month to use with my CSP3. I'm getting a narrow width version in black oak. It'll match the dimensions of my CSP3 preamp and there's room on my rack to set it right beside the preamp.

So if all goes well I should have it sometime next month. Very excited.

HK

Thanks, guys, for your well wishes on the STR unit. It continues to perform very well as I explore different tube combinations. Last night, I returned to the 866 A, the pair that Hearafter mentioned, and they sounded great. Tonight, I want to revisit the 845 / 211 combo.

HK, congratulations on your order! I'm sure you will be impressed and keep us posted. What tubes do you have in mind for starting?

Tony

Congrats Roger! Feels like Lon and I are the last men standing without an STR!

Btw, can you expand on the power supply upgrade—I don’t recall learning about that option before?

Kamran

Kamran,

It's an option listed on the STR webpage. A larger 200W PS vs. the standard 120W PS. Al indicated that the larger power supply gave a more relaxed feeling for music playback. I figured what the heck, my Palantir stock has done very well.

HK

A nice pair of Linlai 805-TA tubes have arrived from Hong Kong.Purchased from hifi-amplifiers.com,  these BIG tubes were extremely well packed. They await my STR-1002-Super from Al which should be shipped next month.

HK

Will order 845's next month before the Trump tariffs kick in.

HK

Beautiful. Those look like they could be the 845 tubes. I like the base color, almost went with that choice myself. Enjoy, and let us know how the STR works out for you. I know you will

Al completed the build in just under two weeks, really excellent service. Also he'll be able to ship Canadian Post as the strike will end next week, saving me $$ over UPS rates. Timing is everything sometimes.

HK

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FWIW if you want to buy American I really like these NOS 211s for $275:

https://www.surplussales.com/Tubes-Sock-Acc/100/TubesListed_100up_1.html

For me they are better than the stock PSVane 805s or (inexpensive) Linlai 845s and 211s. But I haven't heard any high end Chinese tubes and of course JMO/YMMV and all that.

HK, That is exciting! I found mine sounded great cold out of the box and like almost everything else became better in all aspects over time.

I really enjoy the Linlai 845DGs.

Al told me the unit and tubes have 50 hours of burn in. Will be at 80-90% with another 50 hours, then fully burned in around 200 hours total. Should be able to get to 100 hours by next Sunday or Monday.

Sounds very good just out of the box, maybe a little forward which my guess is due to the Decware power cord.

HK

Congrats HK, I am sure that it will sound even better after burn in, but I have to agree with some of the others that right out of the box I was very pleased with the sound. Keep us in the loop and enjoy!

While the STL supplied Linlai Global 805 tubes only have a total of 65 hours on them, I couldn't resist trying out the 845DG tubes which arrived from Hong Kong yesterday. So begins plans to burn these in for about 150 hours.

I figure about 4 weeks of listening until they reach that mark. BTW they sound very good right out of the box and I can't wait for them to start blooming. More later but I am simply gobsmacked by this Super Tube Rectifier used with the Decware CSP3 - simply eargasmic.

HK

Early morning tube glow. Linlai 855DG in STL STR-1002 and CSP3 preamp. ModWright modified CXNV2 on the middle rack.


find duplicates in csv online

Looking good! I'm sure it is sounding good too. Have you experimented with the choke yet?

That is a perfectly reasonable plan. FWIW my experience is this: I switched on the choke fairly early in my STR journey and it was horrible, I literally couldn't turn it off fast enough and didn't think I would ever turn it back on. But after some time and other posters being pro-choke to various degrees I decided to give it another try. This time I let it run overnight and the next morning it sounded 1000% better. I don't necessarily use it all the time, but I'm glad it is an option that I can use to fine tune the sound based on the other tubes in my system.

A Christmas Story.

On December 24, UPS delivered my Decware 300B—what perfect timing for the holidays! I decided to set it up downstairs first to have more control over the hours played and rested. I figured I would go with five hours on followed by five off, at least for a few days. I got a chance to listen to it right away, of course, in the downstairs setup, and "right out of the box," the sound was......I'll return to that as this post is not about that event. This story is more like the Grinch, who almost stole Christmas!

On Christmas Day, at 6:00 a.m., I turned on the 300B downstairs to cook for 5 hours and returned to the Decware UFO25 upstairs, where the STR has been playing perfectly with it for several weeks. I had been rolling tubes in the STR to determine which I liked best. I had recently purchased a "used pair" of 872A tubes and decided to put them in. I powered up the STR, and the tubes lit as expected. Then, I  waited. After the usual wait time, I turned on the UFO25, but nothing happened; it was dead silent. No tubes lit at all.
That was the first time UFO25 had never powered up, and I immediately thought about the fuse. I checked it, and it had blown. I replaced the fuse and began again. First, the STR on, wait, then the UFO25, and poof, nothing. I had blown a second fuse.

I stopped at this point and needed to collect myself, as I was starting to panic. I made coffee and emailed a message to AL at Space-Tech Labs. I didn't expect a response, as it was Christmas day, but writing helped me remember and document what had happened. Within an hour on Christmas Day, AL sent his first response. Over the next four hours, we exchanged a half-dozen emails in hopes of making an assessment. In the end, AL said to return it, which I did.

I wanted to return it to Space-Tech in Canada as soon as possible, and I found I could send it via UPS Next-Day delivery for about $500.00. OK, that's a problem.

In 2024, I discovered Pirate Ship, a low-cost shipping intermediate that uses UPS, USPS, and, I think, FedEx. Using Pirate Ship, I could send the STR to AL via the same "UPS Next Day" service for about $100. I had used Pirate Ship a few times successfully in 2024, so it was a calculated risk. I sent it out on December 26; AL received it on December 27, and he fixed it by December 28. This story, however, is not quite finished, as the Grinch is about to reappear.


AL told me there was no Pirate Ship service in Canada. He would use the Canadian Post to the US, and the USPS would then take it over, which would take a week. So that was the plan. I followed the shipping process as it unfolded online. The Canadian Post delivered it to the USPS in LA, and there, it just stopped. The fires in the LA area changed how USPS operated. OMG, what next?

The USPS online service showed me where the package was last tracked in LA. The USPS message online said they would do nothing until the package was unaccounted for 14 days; then, I could begin an investigation, but not before. Last Friday was day 14; I logged in to USPS, hoping to start the investigation that might take forever. Instead, USPS announced they had found the package and expected delivery to me that afternoon!

I was suspicious, but the STR arrived at 2:45 p.m. that afternoon. I set it up to work with the new 300B amp, and it worked perfectly.

So, what happened on Christmas Day when it blew up in the first place? It's still a bit of a mystery. AL thought it was related to tubes, "I will say the chance that the newly introduced, used 872A tubes were the problem is higher than 90%. The other 10% include insufficient burn-in time before engaging the tube or not locking tubes in place." It was not a user error, so it must have been that tube. I took those tubes to the local recycling center, and that is it for them.

Morale of the story, be careful with some of the old tubes. They might not be worth trying in the STR.

And what about the 300B and how it sounded "right out of the box"? I'll come back to that; it's another story.

Tony- Great story and Thanks for sharing.  It’s always nice to hear about what others go through in this crazy hobby. Sometimes you feel… Is it just me going through this?  Glad it all got sorted out well even though it was delayed.
Your story was a Deja Vu moment for me when my STR kept blowing my Tori Jr. 250mA rectifier fuse. I had about 30 emails (lost count) back and forth with Al just to determine it needed to be sent in for warranty work.  Cost $170 round trip shipping to Canada and 3 weeks time. My STR also got held up LA with no help of the unfortunate fires. I think my issue might have been caused by a 866a tube that failed even though issues appeared several days after the failure.  Go figure….  Al made some soft start modifications and replace some parts and it has performed flawlessly since.