Ohm Walsh Micro Talls: who's actually heard 'em?

Yikes, I'm thinking maybe I made a mistake getting the Bel Canto!

It hasn't arrived yet, and I'm still looking for a tube preamp. But here's the rub: now I see that the Bel Canto S300 has an input impedance of "only" 10K ohms, and everybody seems to say that you'd want the output impedance of the preamp to be "much smaller" (whatever that means) than the input impedance of the power amp. I don't really understand any of this, but can somebody help me, here? Did I blow this purchase? (The folks over in the Amp forum haven't been all that much help, so I turn to you, my Ohm buddies...)

Rebbi,

On paper, that is true, but specs are only guidelines I think in any particular case you have to try it and see (or actually hear) how it compares to what you had.

Once you have good stuff to start with, upgrading becomes more of an experiment almost at first, and your Unico was a pretty nice piece from what I have read (I've considered buying one myself for my second system on occasion, same true of teh Bel Canto gear).

Rebbi,

Don't sweat it. There are lots of tube pre-amps with lowish OI. If you're nervous, compile a list and shop from it. (You might want to start with Quicksilver, they will drive anything.) Tube pre-amps with buffered output stages are sometimes designed with just this issue in mind, you can always look there. Finally, even though tubes may well be appealling, they are hardly a requirement. Why dismiss a good ss preamp? The Bel Canto instantly comes to mind!

Marty

Marty

Yeah... I saw on Audio Asylum a thread on "good preamps for the Bel Canto S300," which seemed to include some tube preamp suggestions, so I'll try and calm down, now.

The Unico sold in just over a day, so that bridge is burned... but it will fund the preamp, so I'm okay with it! :-)

Marty,

Thanks a lot for the reassurance! :-)

Somebody has a Blue Circle BC21 on 'gon right now at a good price. I called BC and got Gilbert, the designer! (Gotta love small audio companies!) He told me that the impedance matching thing was often "bullsh*t" and that the BC21, with an output impedance of 2.2K ohms, would drive the Bel Canto and anything else I could throw at it.

BTW, it occurred to me later that Blue Circle markets the Penny, an Ohm CLS-based speaker.... so maybe that's a good omen. ;-)
So, there you go.