Modern Linestages

After purchasing Dr. Peppard's Mapletree 2A/SE Linestage I asked him this question. He said he did not know why they were so complicated. After all, his is simple and inexpensive, and IMO is a classic giant killer (granted, no balanced or digital inputs, but I don't care 'cause the sound is superb!). Seems to me they need not be.

and how many sources?
:D

If simplicity also meant inexpensive it would be nice. All to often something that is very simply made, almost elegant, is a work of extreme craftsmanship. A simple circuit will do but when you extend that to better/purer resistors, capacitors, etc. etc. and so forth, simplicity adds up to a lot of costs real quick.
A Swiss watch is a thing of beauty, not a lot of moving parts but try getting one for the cost of a Timex.
Sometimes paying more gets you more and sometimes it is a case of a fool and his money are soon parted.

Let's look at the cost of some of the key components in a top quality preamp - like my tube preamp.

- 45 step Shallco volume control $300 - $450
- Duelund/Vcap or like quality coupling caps can cost as much as $200-$500 each depending on size. Mine takes two of them! Two Duelund 3.3 uf caps cost $400!
- Large power supply caps (computer grade). You know the ones that look like coke cans or even bigger. They cost up to $30-$60 each and my preamp has 12 of them!
- Large transformers are also very expensive. They can cost $150 - $300.
- Mine came with 7 tubes. 4 of them are NOS RCA 6sn7's from the 40's and 50's. Tubes alone can cost $300 or more for all 7.
- In addition, my preamp has chokes, expensive solid core copper wire, ceramic tube sockets and other parts....
- What about the cost of a good, well made chassis with all needed hardware, knobs, footers and the particular finish. I bet such a chassis made from heavy stock, with a thick face, special finishing, nice knobs etc... can cost up to $1000. I am not sure, but speculate here.

I see a lot more than a $1000 in parts here folks.I see closer to $2800 in "parts" before all the labor needed to hardwire (point to point) this puppy.

I suppose some preamps have a higher mark-up then others, but once all the costs are considered, the mark-up on some is not even 100%. Costs also involve, R&D, labor, insurance, building, utilities and on ......

So how much should a preamp like the one above sell for? I mean sell for direct from the builder with no additional mark-up? How much? $5000 - $10,000?

Uru975,
Well stated post! In my experiences simple circuits with fewer parts count(but of premium quality) with a high standard built do usally sound better than than complex (multiple stages) designs with many parts crammed into a chassis.

My linestage is very simple in actual circuir(no signal path capacitor or resistors) layout but admittedly heavy(73 pounds) due to the weight of various transformers,chokes and the two separate steel chassis.