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Show us your Pre Amps....


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Since I have been spending so much time playing around with it, I decided I'd post the latest incarnation of my "Experimenter's preamp" as I am calling it.  All the tweaking with design, valves (particularly the Psvane 12AX7s), ALPs pot, even coupling caps, even some small cosmetic improvements, must be doing something right, as I find I can't stop listening to it lately.  Really sounding nice...

 

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On 21/10/2019 at 10:08 AM, aussievintage said:

NEVER :)

what I have?   I think you mean someone else

 

Well if you want to  be picky, it's a preamp with inbuilt phono stage.  The preamp part may be "passive" or active, it probably has a buffer after the control.   A phono stage with a level control is another new thing.  Never used to see that when we started out.:thumbsup:

Why do a lot of pre amps have no bass and treble controls?  if you what to increase that you need a graphic eq 

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9 hours ago, JOEMT said:

Why do a lot of pre amps have no bass and treble controls?  if you what to increase that you need a graphic eq 

Both controls introduce distortion. Some more recent commercial preamps are bringing back bass, treble and balance controls. 

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54 minutes ago, mwhouston said:

Both controls introduce distortion. Some more recent commercial preamps are bringing back bass, treble and balance controls. 

 

I don't mind having tone controls, especially when they have a defeat switch, then you can eliminate them completely.  At times they are useful.

 

I only removed them from my preamp as I wanted to repurpose the final gain stage.  I may put them back at some future point, or maybe just a set of switchable prebuilt filters (like the favourite setups you save for your digital equaliser).

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Hi guys , 

 

I finally got my dream preamp/ linestage after selling my ARC REF 5SE . My new preamp is the 2 chassis ARC REF Anniversary 40 . It was a jaw dropping experience when I first auditioned it in my system . Fellow audiophiles ask me “ w/ the amount of cash I added why I did not  get the ARC REF 6 instead “ . I said that I’m confident that the REF Anniversary might be equal or might exceed the performance of the REF 6 . By the way I’m using a ARC REF Phono 2SE as my phonostage . It’s the one right under the control unit of the Anniversary 40 and the one in the lower most shelf is the separate power supply of the REF Anniversary 40 . 
 

930 

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56 minutes ago, 930turbo said:

I finally got my dream preamp/ linestage after selling my ARC REF 5SE . My new preamp is the 2 chassis ARC REF Anniversary 40 . It was a jaw dropping experience when I first auditioned it in my system . Fellow audiophiles ask me “ w/ the amount of cash I added why I did not  get the ARC REF 6 instead “ . I said that I’m confident that the REF Anniversary might be equal or might exceed the performance of the REF 6 . By the way I’m using a ARC REF Phono 2SE as my phonostage . It’s the one right under the control unit of the Anniversary 40 and the one in the lower most shelf is the separate power supply of the REF Anniversary 40 .

Amazing. I was tempted to get an Anniversary 40 or a Ref 10 which it evolved into from the international market and they're clearly gotta be better than the 6, but I contacted ARC and they said neither of them were ever made for Australian voltage and not suited for use here. Given the stories I've heard of caps exploding from ones designed for slightly lower voltage than our insanely high one, I didn't want to risk it.

Edited by Ittaku
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Hi Itakku thanks for the compliment. I can’t believe they don’t sell the REF 10 linestage and phonostage there in Australia ? How about the REF 750SE are these available there in your country ? What is the voltage there in Australia ? Here in the Philippines it’s 230-240V 60hz . 

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3 minutes ago, 930turbo said:

Hi Itakku thanks for the compliment. I can’t believe they don’t sell the REF 10 linestage and phonostage there in Australia ? How about the REF 750SE are these available there in your country ? What is the voltage there in Australia ? Here in the Philippines it’s 230-240V 60hz . 

Ours is 230-240V 50Hz, but it's easily often into the 250s as well. I didn't investigate whether the 750 is available here or not. Funnily enough the distributors advertise them both (Ref10 and Ref750SE) even though they've probably never sold them here - they can't have since ARC say they don't make the 10 for Australia.

Edited by Ittaku
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I’m surprised ARC does not make these top of the line models available there in your country , I’m sure there are a lot of potential buyers there . Maybe you can email them and inquire if they can custom made a power transformer that can accommodate the  voltage requirement of your country . 
By the way last night after my listening session I notice the reading from my 10 KVA Automatic Voltage Regulator Transformer ( used exclusively for my ARC REF 610T’s monoblocks ) that the incoming voltage was 246 Volts but the outgoing voltage was still at 230V . 
Maybe an AVR Transformer would work for you , in my case if it causes a little sonic degradation, it’s a safe insurance for voltage fluctuation w/c in the Philippines could range from a low off 225V to a high of 246V . I also have a separate  AVR transformer a 1 kva for the linestage , phonostage , turntables and the CD player. 
These transformers are usually adjustable internally ( output) and you can have them adjusted by your tech so it will suit the operating voltage of your equipment. 
Furmann makes them , but for me the brand Matsunaga (Stavol ) from Japan is an excellent choice . But there are Stavol Chinese knock off’s . Make sure it’s made in Japan . 

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57 minutes ago, 930turbo said:

I’m surprised ARC does not make these top of the line models available there in your country , I’m sure there are a lot of potential buyers there . Maybe you can email them and inquire if they can custom made a power transformer that can accommodate the  voltage requirement of your country . 
By the way last night after my listening session I notice the reading from my 10 KVA Automatic Voltage Regulator Transformer ( used exclusively for my ARC REF 610T’s monoblocks ) that the incoming voltage was 246 Volts but the outgoing voltage was still at 230V . 
Maybe an AVR Transformer would work for you , in my case if it causes a little sonic degradation, it’s a safe insurance for voltage fluctuation w/c in the Philippines could range from a low off 225V to a high of 246V . I also have a separate  AVR transformer a 1 kva for the linestage , phonostage , turntables and the CD player. 
These transformers are usually adjustable internally ( output) and you can have them adjusted by your tech so it will suit the operating voltage of your equipment. 
Furmann makes them , but for me the brand Matsunaga (Stavol ) from Japan is an excellent choice . But there are Stavol Chinese knock off’s . Make sure it’s made in Japan . 

As I've said elsewhere: I have no intention of using a transformer upstream of a $50k piece of equipment. I think you overestimate how many people would be able to afford and are interested in such equipment here.

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There's some lovely pre-amps here. I'd previously shortlisted the AM shown previously until I went Theta to drive my Dragon ESLs.

 

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My home theatre system had a Lexicon MC-12.

 

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Then I decided to consolidate my 2 channel and home theatre systems and went Cyrus.

 

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Very soon, I will be adding a Cyrus DAC XP+ to run in HTBP mode with the AVM8 above.

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A dual mono pre-amp when you don’t want a preamp!?

 

Being used with Leak St 20 and Quad ESL 57s. Has Dave Slagle autoformers, Elma switch and WBT Nextgen sockets. It works really well with Quad 11s as well.

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Edited by vivianbl
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On 23/01/2020 at 10:33 AM, Ittaku said:

As I've said elsewhere: I have no intention of using a transformer upstream of a $50k piece of equipment. I think you overestimate how many people would be able to afford and are interested in such equipment here.

What's the objection to using a transformer? Our entire AC power infrastructure is based on transformers stepping down from 250kV to a nominal 230V. Electrically speaking there's absolutely nothing wrong with adding another step to 110V, regardless of how expensive are the items you'll be powering.

 

OT... my first ever pre-amp is the one I bought from the classifieds here: 

 

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5 minutes ago, kdoot said:

What's the objection to using a transformer? Our entire AC power infrastructure is based on transformers stepping down from 250kV to a nominal 230V. Electrically speaking there's absolutely nothing wrong with adding another step to 110V, regardless of how expensive are the items you'll be powering.

I'd rather a 50k piece of equipment had a warranty.

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  • 11 months later...

Lots of beautiful pre's here to admire  .... 

These are my valve pre's which are on different systems.

Ayon auris, AR ls15, McC22, and like a lot of others here , yeh boring ? a Supratek which is currently running 2a3's.

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