Wyred 4 Sound STP

I have had my STP SE running for a while now, and it is so nice to have the HT bypass feature. What some may note as dry or harsh sound I believe is the amazing transparency of this unit. I drive a Wyred 250 watt amp with it, and the first thing I noticed was the incredible bass extension, even over and above the amps' native ability. Midrange and highs sound more tubelike to me in my system than before, and I didn't want the hassle (for me) of tubes. Whatever you put in will come out magnified. Bad recordings sound worse, good sound better. I only use CD's, not vinyl, but I can hear differences between my Arcam DV139 and my modded Oppo BD83. This is an astounding preamp for the money, compact, quiet, and it runs cool. Of course, there is always room for improvement, and they are considering a reference model soon. Listen to one for yourself and decide. I personally am very pleased. The soundstage is huge, ouside the walls of my room on some recordings, and that surround effect mentioned earlier is real. I too was looking behind me. I could honestly use this a a 3 channel HT rig and be happy.

I'm glad I am not going crazy. The ability of this pre to immerse you in a sort of surround sound effect is amazing. If you want to hear how well this thing uncovers phase information just grab Michael Jackson's Dangerous CD and play track one, its freaking amazing.

Soundstage is limited only by your source equipment. I have used a DECWARE ZCD, Monarchy DAC, Havana DAC and Stello DA220 DAC all as sources and I was easily able to hear differences in soundstage depth, width and height.

It sounds exactly like what you feed it which imo is exactly what you want from a pre.

In terms of sound quality, I wholeheartedly agree with chipperman's assessment. I absolutely love this thing.

Chipperman, you mentioned in your post that bad recordings sound worse. Why would that be a good thing? I mean, none of us have just high quality recordings only. What about the not so good recordings? What I look for in components is the ability to breath some life into them. I have ran into some components and systems that make dull, compressed and lifeless recordings improve and become enjoyable. So, does this preamp really magnify bad recordings and make it worse?

I think his point was that in the context of a preamp (or any other component) transparency usually is a good thing. Bad stereo equipment homogenizes sound and makes different recordings sound similar.

If a recording is bad, the better audio equipment will let you know that. If it doesn't then by default it also means that good recordings sound less good then they would through a more transparent piece of equipment.

Audioman58,

Regarding your comparison between Wyred STP vs Joule-Electra 150 - I am trying to decide between these two - could you elaborate a bit more on the differences?

For example:
1) how does the Wyred STP sound over extended listening sessions - does it ever get fatiguing?
2) are they both equally warm and musical?

The Wyred has a lot of conveniences, but I want to make sure its enjoyable music-wise.

Also, out of curiousity have you ever had a chance to compare these to some of the zero-feedback preamps such as Ayre or Simaudio?