Tekton Double Impacts

Hey guys,

Wanted to share after many hours of fun listening, that now my favorite combo driving the Dl's is the LTA Micro-ZOTL with a  SET 2A3 amplifier offering 3.5 watts at 4 ohms.
 
 Now get this! This SET 2A3 retails for only $1,200.00!  It's the Opera Consonance SET headphone/integrated amplifier.  My dear friend Mike Kay (CEO of Audio Archon) who by trade is a professional engineer performed surgery to remove totally out of the circuit the inexpensive volume control so the Micro-Zotl was directly driving the amplifier section. It was quite good before surgery, but now it kills it!  The purity/transparency and macro-dynamics have been unleashed.  I experience this combo as retaining the sheer power/dynamics, spatial qualities, and purity of the Micro-ZOTL used as an integrated amplifier, plus the color/timbres, and "meat on the bones" three-dimensional imaging that a 2A3 tube brings to the mix.  I had no problem with volume levels and dynamics with the Micro-ZOTL as a stand alone amplifier as I shared before, however you can hear what the extra 3 watts delivers when the music calls for it.

I scored this "little gem" from Quest For Sound.  If they have anymore in stock I would go for it.  Remember, to get what I'm hearing now you will have to modify it yourself or pay the small charge to remove the volume control out of the circuit.  

My final experiment will be with 10 watt 300b mono-blocks that I will be getting hopefully in the next couple of weeks.  Right now I'm in "sonic heaven" with this combo.  Just think, world class performance with a pair of 3K speakers, that you can drive with anything, and electronics that retail for less then 3k!  The NOS tubes I use actually come close to the price of one of the pieces!  By the way I'm using a pair of NOS RCA 2A3 tubes and one  NOS RCA  5751 in the Opera amplifier     

Some are against him because he gave a free pair of speakers to a man he admired, Glenn Beck .

I don't care for him either, but If I knew the hero's of every one I ever bought from I'd be nude, walking everywhere and not listening to anything not made in Scandinavia .

Options on choices for a stand alone 2ch Preamp / linestage???

This is in service of the Double Impacts in 2ch and HT mode. Plus some additional component integration.  Budget is 5.5K tops, but I very much prefer that the purchase comes to no more than 3K.  My struggle with the choice has to do with functionality vs. pure 2ch sound quality performance.

I'd love to go the LTA route, especially based on Terry's and others' experiences but for now it is too limited  in application, for my needs.

The Coincident Statement Linestage is a small step up functionally, and is the bare minimum I can accept. Another option with similar functionality is Mastersound.

The Backert Labs Preamp (the Rhumba 1.2) brings another step up in function, with XLR in/out and bypass.

On the upper end of my functional scale is the Wyred4Sound STP-SE. A tubed option, that offers a similar level of function, is Accustic Arts. Both, I believe, are fully balanced designs.

I realize that many posting in this thread lean towards tubes, which is great because having a tubed preamp is preferable... my chain is all solid state at present; However, I am open to a solid state preamp, as evidenced by the W4S.

I'm sure there are many other very good options. Hope you are able to help. Thanks in advance.