Modwright SWL 9.0SE Preamplifier

I'd hate for people to believe that the MW preamp is like a SS preamp. It absolutely is not. Sure, I agree it does not impart a large tube "bloom" like some, and, it is closer to a SS preamp than some, but make no mistake, you are getting accuracy with the virtue of tube smooth with this unit. I won't speculate why some have sold, but with various tube rolling I have experienced everything from too much tube bloom (Raytheon tubes) to accuracy and softness (Amperex 7119) for my taste.

I agreed with Mijknarf. In fact, The SW9SE is sounded very 3D with very smooth mid range which SS preamps cannot provide. Even my wife(she is not a audiophile) can pick up the difference after I change from SS preamp to SW9SE tube pre (retubed to RCA Bronze plate). She said, what did you do to your system ? I can hear more 3D and a lot more depth in the music. She was asking "how many thousands of $ did you spent on this change?". Of course, I said, I just cleaned up all the cable contacts inside and outside of my old preamp. Hehe... Yeah right ! haha...

Ted_B, you mentioned that the SWL 9.0SE inverts phase normally. Some other pre-amplifiers do this as well, but isn't it a rather serious limitation? Personally I only notice inverted phase on a subconscious level, and an inverting component in the signal chain would leave me with the nagging feeling that 'something isn't quite right'.

Holker, there is an easy fix. If there is an odd # of pieces in a system that inverts phase (usually this only happens with pre's so that odd # is usually 1) then just reverse the the speaker cables at one end to return to absolute phase. Or is some cases one can use the phase reversal switch found on some gear. If the source or amp also (unusual) also inverts phase, then all will return to normal.