Good day all, and with all apologies to grannyring.
During the last couple of weeks as I have been thoroughly enjoying the break-in process of Aric Audio's, The Motherlode, I have had many private inquiries about the piece. I have tried to reply to all of them, but in the interest of efficiency, I have cut and paste my latest response.
Now again, I am far from a reviewer, so you will have to excuse my lack of use of audio superlatives. First and foremost, Aric is fantastic to work with! He could have easily said, "look, I have several preamps in my lineup to select from that I know punch well above their weight", but he didn't. He was happy to work with me and take his background and knowledge in what works and apply that, coupled with a grade of components that Bill(grannyring) had suggested that would rival that of The Dude. I have never even heard The Dude, but I knew that my Pass preamp was not doing it for me. So I have a bout 150 hours on the tubes, Dueland and Jupiter caps, and it sounds nothing short of amazing! Big, expressive, detailed yet rich, huge 3 dimensional soundstage with great separation between instruments, dead silent in all line levels and phono stage. It is by far the best preamp that I have had in my system and listening room, and I have had and borrowed a lot of high end, expensive gear...it just sounds Natural and LIVE! Here is what I would say that best describes my thoughts on what I am hearing from this piece to date(and it is not even close to being broken in yet), if this piece had a $15K price tag on it, I would consider it an audio bargain... And I only paid $4800! I am not a paid spokesperson for Aric Audio, but what he is putting out in terms of tube gear, should have the likes of Audio Research, Ayre, Atma-sphere, and the like, rethinking their approach to the business. I will never again buy from a mass produced company!
Later this year I am going to have Aric build me a completely spec'd out SET amp.
I hope this helps.
Cheers!
During the last couple of weeks as I have been thoroughly enjoying the break-in process of Aric Audio's, The Motherlode, I have had many private inquiries about the piece. I have tried to reply to all of them, but in the interest of efficiency, I have cut and paste my latest response.
Now again, I am far from a reviewer, so you will have to excuse my lack of use of audio superlatives. First and foremost, Aric is fantastic to work with! He could have easily said, "look, I have several preamps in my lineup to select from that I know punch well above their weight", but he didn't. He was happy to work with me and take his background and knowledge in what works and apply that, coupled with a grade of components that Bill(grannyring) had suggested that would rival that of The Dude. I have never even heard The Dude, but I knew that my Pass preamp was not doing it for me. So I have a bout 150 hours on the tubes, Dueland and Jupiter caps, and it sounds nothing short of amazing! Big, expressive, detailed yet rich, huge 3 dimensional soundstage with great separation between instruments, dead silent in all line levels and phono stage. It is by far the best preamp that I have had in my system and listening room, and I have had and borrowed a lot of high end, expensive gear...it just sounds Natural and LIVE! Here is what I would say that best describes my thoughts on what I am hearing from this piece to date(and it is not even close to being broken in yet), if this piece had a $15K price tag on it, I would consider it an audio bargain... And I only paid $4800! I am not a paid spokesperson for Aric Audio, but what he is putting out in terms of tube gear, should have the likes of Audio Research, Ayre, Atma-sphere, and the like, rethinking their approach to the business. I will never again buy from a mass produced company!
Later this year I am going to have Aric build me a completely spec'd out SET amp.
I hope this helps.
Cheers!