Aric Audio Systems Unlimited Preamp

Received the Unlimited preamp a couple of days ago and been playing it since. Really love the sound it makes. Its got that so called mid-range bloom and lush sound that folks have been taking about and associated with tube preamp. The detail is comparable with my other preamp - NAD C165bee, but the soundstage depth and the airiness around the vocals and instruments is noticeably more apparent. Listening to Madeleine Peyroux earlier and the presence is eerily real. The construction is fairly industrial and nothing special but reasonably well made. I guess this is as close one can get to an all tube preamp since even the power supply is tube rectified along with voltage regulator tubes. There's a knob in the back to control the output gain which is a nice touch and allows for matching the gain with the input sensitivity of the pairing amplifier. All in all very happy with the purchase and the timing since he raised the price by almost 35% just last week - $725 to $975. I've had a number of  email exchanges with Aric asking for tube recommendations and he responded within a few hours with great suggestions. I'm sure you'll be happy with your amp. He seems to be a real nice guy to work with.

Forget to add that the bass is also noticeably better. Can’t say if its tighter but its more apparent specially at lower volumes. Somewhere I read this might be attributed to the nature of the 5AR4 rectifier tube but I have no prior tube preamp experience to know one way or the other. And the preamp is truly quiet, not even the slightest noise, hiss, nothing, even with my ears right next to the tweeter.

kalali,

Very nice to read that you really like your new Aric audio preamp.
Is it sounding good with both of your pwr amps and do you feel like the preamp is a good value for the sound vs. the cost.

My gut feeling tells me you got a much better preamp than a Freya and I hope you really enjoy it.

Kenny.

Hi. I bought the Unlimited after listening to their little brother which I bought in the local Craigslist. The Unlimited is an excellent preamplifier.  In my system it replaced a EE Minimax. I agree with Kalali 100%, I think he nailed his assessment of the Unlimited. In addition, Aric is a great guy to work with. In my case he added an extra set of input jacks for a modest price. I've owned a series of high end preamps and sound wise the Unlimited beat them all. One thing I noticed is that the new Unlimited only has two 12ax7 while mine has three. I'm not sure why that is but i'm very happy with my purchase. It would cost two to three times what I paid to get better sound. This is a highly recommended piece of equipment if you are in a budget.