Warm, yet detailed tube preamp

@audiojan Did you ever wonder why tweeters are small and woofers are large?  It's because of the different wavelengths of those sounds.  When a full range driver tries to create high and low frequencies at the same time, those differences in vibration adds distortion as the volume climbs.  That's the hard edge you are hearing (lack of warmth/depth etc.).  You can limit that distortion with clever design work, but most of that engineering either pushes out the limit of distortion, or tries to minimize the distortion itself so that its less noticeable, but I've never heard any single driver system do justice to rock and other complex music genre's at decent volumes.  The Def's might be a bit better then the Omen's, but the physical issues will remain.  Keep the music simple and polite, and they can sound extremely natural.  Rock out and you'll be running for the hills. That's why crossovers, dual concentric designs etc. exist.  I'm glad that you are happy with the new preamp, but you did nothing to solve the fundamental issue. 

Just wanted to thank @mwood for the kind words and let the audiogon community know who this humble member is, namely Marshall Wood, bass player for Tony Bennett for over a decade and for many other artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Phil Woods, Joe Pass, and Monty Alexander.

Although we should have done so, we did not seek him out. And he did not come to us proposing any kind of deal or endorsement. He simply called us one day and bought a Rhumba Extreme, paying full price. We believe he has been a satisfied customer since, as he later upgraded to a Rhythm. OK, back to your regularly scheduled preamp programming....