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

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.)