What can you tell me about First Sound pre-amps?

TVAD - I ended up not getting that 4-box unit, mostly because the seller found out it did not have the upgrades (Vishay stepped attenuator, paramount upgrade) he though it had, so he's gonna keep it and upgrade it for himself.

As for those other thoughful impressions of the FS, I would add that MY Presence Deluxe MK II (fed with electraglide, cabled with Stereovox, amplified by berning, into Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage's, with 1960's Pinched waist Amperex 6922's) is as smooth as silk, no glare or hardness I can perceive - none at all, and the emotional content of music is "there" in spades.....

i think he means he wants grains (like salt) rolling off the knob onto his carpet when he turns the volume knob....

Mphnkns...maybe the Valhalla & FS together are too much of a muchness.

I tried several ICs besides my Nordost while I had my FS, including Cardas Golden Reference, FMS Gran Finale and a couple others.

Artg, interesting to note you have the Berning amp, I think Berning amps and the FS are an especially good match, at least from anecdotal evidence.

Artg & other FS fans - just curious, what kind of music do you mainly listen to? I listen to all kinds but about 70% classical, especially large scale orchestral & choral. I do listen to rock, but the majority of what I play through my system is acoustic music of some type.

I'm also aware of the limitations of my front end (Cary303/200) which is very good but not SOTA, especially in the upper frequencies - that's not however, the area where I found the FS lacking for me. If anything, the Cary is fuller in the mid-bass to midrange than is strictly neutral.

BTW, the only common denominators I see with my system and Mphnkns' system are Neuance Platforms and Lak! Never tried Billy Bags and don't want to.

It's been a couple years since I heard a Callista but it was an amazing preamp. Better than the Calypso.

I have no idea what "granularity" in the volume control means - finer increments maybe???? Wanna 'splain that Drubin? I'm fuzzled.

I do love my Herron. I forgot to add that it has the 166 upgrade. I would love to hear the VTSP-2. It adds remote and polarity switch to the VTSP-1a/166 I have, which may be my dream preamp. BTW, all Herron preamps have mono switches.

Yikes! Rackon is correct, I do mean finer increments. I always thought this was an appropriate use of granular, but I just went to the dictionary and see that I'm all wet (or liquid, if you prefer). More steps in the stepped attentuator, how's that? (Not to be confused with having a preamp that goes to 11, which is also a good thing.)