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.)

Rackon:

It's possible that the FS and the Valhalla aren't the best of friends, but in this system, it does show up regardless of the interconnects.
Trust me, Artg, I'd love nothing better than for the system to NOT sound a bit hard on brass crescendos. I just don't know what else I could change as every single components, tubes included, has been substituted into the system. It's a bit of a puzzle to me. I wondered if the OA 2 tubes could be going bad, as they're the only tubes I HAVEN'T changed in the preamp!
And, for those considering the First Sound, it is entirely possible that this may be an issue endemic only to MY particular preamp. Not this model, just, literally, the First Sound Presence that I own. And I've read the reviews and I've never noticed anyone mentioning this. Unfortunately, my First Sound hasn't read the reviews, and it seems not to know it shouldn't sound edgy on Forte-level brass!