I'm getting quite a few emails asking for updates on the Tram2:

We're pretty well there. The current design will grow one more tube, a 6AS7. This will allow us to expand the range of DHT that can be used without major circuit changes. As seen here we can change 2A3 and 45 on the fly.

24bit 192khz Digital
Finally after 30 years chained to the 16bit 44khz standard we now have the possibility of music playback at 24 bit 192 khz.
This allows:

• - Much finer musical textures (banishing forever the aggressive sounds we associate with digital)
• - much greater dynamic range (typically a 24/192 file is 10x the size of 16/44 files (CD standard)
• - music playback from computer
• - potentially better playback than even the best CD transports when properly setup and configured.
• - music storage on an external hard drive (ie 1 terabyte hard disk can hold 1000 CD's of music in lossless format
• - the added convenience of purchasing music online

What do DHT (direct heated triodes) REALLY sound like? Yes we've heard VT25, 45, 2A3, 205d, 300B etc in many an amplifier, enshrouded by driver tubes and output transformers. And we can plainly hear the differences between DHT types in that context, tainted though the sound must be with so many extraneous elements.
The only way to really hear the sound though is to go spud. And what better place to do that than right at the beginning - the linestage. Many will say that the linestage contributes more than the amplifier, so...

OK an on-the-ground tech report:

"I had an unmodified Musiland for use as simple SPDIF generator and found my receiver had problems locking consistently (I was debugging the software control for this receiver). Putting a 'scope on the signal out of the Musiland showed as per attached, left. 

The actual signal level is around 200mV peak-peak and there is a huge 100mV spike on each transition. 

First, this is WAY below the IEC 60958 type II specification of 0.5 - 1V peak-peak (and low enough that some receivers designed to this standard will not trigger reliably). Secondly the waveshape is UGLY. And NOISY. Brrrr... No wonder the poor receiver was constantly complaining about unlocking.

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