audio valve eklipse or aesthetix calypso

I've lived with the Calypso for several years now...have not heard the AV. The upside of the Calypso is that you can add a great phono stage down the road (Rhea), the price used is a bargain (my opinion) for the performance, and it can be upgraded down the road to Signature series.

Anymore I look for equipment that has an upgrade path for the sake of it being relevant for a longer period of time as other components change.

The key is to hear both if possible!

I really like my Calypso and it responds very favorably to rolling tubes. I just plugged in some Telefunken smooth plate 12AX7's and the sound is sublime.

Hi Kabaraka, I just replaced my Eklipse with a Concert Fidelity CF-080 which costs $15000.00 more then the Audio Valve piece! I had auditioned scores of preamps, including the Calypso, and found the Eklipse to be better in its sonic performance or at least as good up to $12000.00 units. For details on the Eklipse and what tubes make it "sing" take a look at my Gon review. Hope this helps.

thanks all, I might go with the eklipse since it's about 4000$ here in thailand while the calypso is about 5000$. anyway I'll go for the audition this weekend. Teejay, do you think the eklipse will blow the vtl2.5 away by a large margin? the vtl is quite good in my system which makes me think what can the eklipse do more? I'm just curious