My preamp was built to order and completed on May 30, I know that because it comes with its own signed birth certificate
. Despite being a neonate, it arrived in a box large enough to be a small coffin. Germans don’t do anything by halves, not even packaging! It’s a large full sized preamp with an imposing aluminium faceplate, but it looks more like Angela Merkel than Kirsten Dunst, and won’t really win any preamp beauty contest. Despite having 4 small rotary switches and a large Alps volume pot, the amp looks strangely asymmetrical in operation with a rather haphazard arrangement of blue LEDs. It has 2 handles on the side that help with moving it around and although it’s surprisingly heavy, it isn’t that heavy, perhaps it could do without the handles? Surprisingly heavy because this is a 2 box preamp with an external power supply tethered to the preamp with a nice long umbilical cord. Power supply is one area where Octave have really put in a lot of effort. This version is a HP500se, special edition, developed with better spec’d components and an uprated power supply over the standard HP500.The preamp comes well specified with a row of shiny gold RCA inputs for 4 different sources on the back panel. There are a couple of holes where the optional MM and MC inputs can go if required, as well as a switchable rumble filter! It has 2 sets of RCA outputs but more important for me, it also has 2 transformer coupled balanced XLR outputs. This is important as the active speaker standard input impedance is only 10k Ohms and this is a difficult load for most valve amps that prefer a much higher impedance however the transformer presents a driveable load for the preamp.
OK so how does it sound? Well for the first 4 minutes it sounds of nothing as the delayed start slowly heats the valve heaters, stabilises voltages and Octave claims that this usually extends the valve life. The next step presents a small difficulty for the more visually challenged, the rotary switches are beautifully labeled in a 10 point very fine font that’s rather hard to read on a brushed silver face. Never mind, after the first week how many of us actually read the switch position labels anyway? Finally I sat down and spent a week running it in listening to music. Every pre amp gets 48 hours of factory running anyway and I haven’t noticed a large change in sound so far. Firstly this amp is very quiet. I can hear some soft valve hiss at full volume with my ear to the speaker. A Porsche 911 is an appropriate comparison, because just as a 911 is a car that defies the expectations of a rear engined difficult to drive beast, the Octave isn’t what you’d expect from the specs. It uncannily combines delicacy with power, and excels in ‘downward dynamics’ with a extremely detailed presentation that equals the excellent StereoKnight, but also has the power and slam that only come with an active preamp. This was the feature that drew me to this preamp because it seemed that preamps in particular required a compromise: slam or detail but not both unless you are prepared to pay silly money. I’d auditioned a Vincent and a Doge that certainly had the slam but no delicacy at all, and I’d been impressed enough to buy the StereoKnight that had the detail and delicacy, but especially when I changed from my RCM phono stage with it's quite remarkable gain and low noise to my Strain Gauge and its puny 1mV output, there was just not enough dynamics for me. The Octave is not cheap, but it’s far from silly money prices. Most impressive, the bass is ‘transistor amp tight’ and seemingly endlessly extended. Not just extended with a prominent one note woolly bass but detailed and delicate like an iron fist in the velvet glove. I’ve really reconsidered my need for a sub now, especially in my current room. Midrange is glare free and extremely detailed, instrument timbre is presented beautifully. Treble is very fast and things like cymbal decay are just wonderfully detailed. This amp is fast fast fast, transients are presented with power and precision.
This isn’t just a review of a preamp as of course any listening test is a review of the whole system from source hardware to listening room. Whilst the StereoKnight presented the same information, the extra energy from an active preamp presents it in 3D. I now have too much bass energy in my room re-exciting all sorts of room nodes that I’d sort of tamed. I’ve had to adjust the ADAMs to compensate. The other change in my system coincided with the arrival of the Octave. I was lucky enough to see petng’s Argento Serenity cables appear in the FS section. I’d heard these with the Octave before and they really added another dimension to the detail across the frequency spectrum. That surprised me as I’d previously tried them with the StereoKnight and they really added nothing to the excellent sound of my WSS-Kabels. It just shows how component matching and system synergy is so important. This cables are the Argento ‘poverty option’ sitting at the bottom of their line of 3 cables but that’s like saying that the Veyron is the poverty option Bugatti. They are the most detailed cables I’ve ever heard and really do allow the Octave to show at its best.
What’s not to like? Nothing really, apart from the small font on the faceplate and I'd prefer that Octave forgot about the handles. It isn’t as neutral as the totally neutral StereoKnight, but I’ve tried some valve rolling and replacing the standard NOS Mullard 12AU7 with a Psvane 12AU7-T has improved things and by most standards it’s pretty neutral, certainly a much more neutral midrange and detail than a Audio Research LS25 that I heard in my system yesterday. Again, in a different system the results may change. The supplied remote is a universal remote and only controls volume, not mute or source selection but these are things that I usually do when putting on a CD or LP anyway in which case I'm standing by the preamp. It also gives me the opportunity to programme in all my other remotes, I have 6 or them now
