the TVC transparency thing?

Andy I have an Allnic valve pre, perhaps I could bring that around one day and compare it, regards Keith.

 

That would be fine - Happy to listen and compare.


Andy

 

Music first have just bought out a reference pre using 6 bigger transformers. It will be launched at the Heathrow hifi show.

 

Is there kind of a consensus then that passives, be they resistor or transformer based, do share some common ground?

Currently playing with some Rogers LS7t at home and fat bass certainly isn't an issue. Rather soft bass is, as is a slight lack of attack at the top end*.

Given what's been said, the first thing to try is the Alps pot/power amp combination I use at work. It may or may not be particularly transparent - it's generally fed net radio and has Kefkit 3s on the end.

*in the context of moving on from PMC DB1s there is much less punch about the bass, on the other hand what's going on in the bass is much more complete - Mingus sounds much better while Royksopp sounds rather easy listening. Similarly vocals and strings loose some chrispness and bite but gain some breadth.

 

Can't wait to hear that!

 

^^^ Looking good !

 

It's £8000. Gulp.

(Accidentally returned to post that)

 

Ouch!

 

Ah, a "statement" product. The statement being, "We are taking the piss with our pricing".

I heard a TVC in Dev's system, thought it sounded good against a conventional passive pot in that particular setup. But I haven't used a preamp of any kind for a couple of years.

-- Ian

 

Yes they are somewhat similar - Its a little system dependent but
They both seem to be easy to listen to, tend to be transparent and are picky about partnering equipment.

Andy

 

Then it is a highway robbery ! I would really like to hear it against ARC Ref 3 or CJ Act II.2.

 

Which is why ultimately I believe that an active pre, even if all it uses is a buffer stage, is the way to go.

 

I believe an active pre is the way to go, valve and output transformer coupled, I borrowed the Ref 3 it was pretty ordinary imho.

 

Thirded.

I have always ended up preferring an active preamp in my setups - but the original point was a good one. I can't think of an active preamp that is as transparent as the passives at those low prices. I can of course at silly prices like £8K.

 

A year or so back it was a more common view (here anyway) that technically (and subjectively) a TVC was pretty much unbeatable regardless of price. At that time the S&B based designs were pretty much all you could get. Now much cheaper alternatives exist in the form of items like the Prometheus. Fortunately some sanity has returned and while these pre-amps offer one solution it is recognised by more people that they aren't the only way to do this and that they too do actually have some limitations. I'd agree that there aren't many (any?) active pre-amps at the price level of the Prometheus which would compete. In my view this is more a reflection on bad design than because it can't be done (particularly with far eastern manufacture). Certainly at higher prices there is more competition but there is still a shortage of good quality, relatively affordable line stages particularly ones offering sensible (ie low) gain combined with good performance. Achieving low output impedance and lowish gain often comes at the cost of clarity.

 

The cheapest second hand valve pre Ive prefered to a transformer one, was £250. The cheapest new one was a DIY offering - coming in about £700.

Given that a prometheus is only a couple of hundred quid, I think they are somewhat of a bargain.

 

BN - Please can you name these preamps?
What preamp do you use?

Andy

 

MJ I would like to hear your own transformer coupled pre some time, I have been listening to a few 'respected' or 'boutique' ( depending on your point of view )valve amps just lately nothing so far has made me want to swap from my current set-up, regards Keith.

 

Hi Andy

For second hand valve pre's I personally rate Audio Innovations L1 and L2 as excellent pre-amps, and the best I've heard second hand in their price range. They only cost a few hundred - and are as good as most stuff I've heard.

The DIY pre I would wish for is the Aikido Basie -

http://www.diyhifisupply.com/diyhs_basie.htm

I have an earlier version of this pre-amp.

They are kits, so often no two are the same.

 

I was looking at the spec of your power amps.
40W from 2x300B's is going some. 18-20W is more usual.
It's debateable with triodes in pushpull, with feedback how audible the switching actually is.

That phono stage looks saucy though.