Aric Audio Systems Unlimited Preamp

By the way, I must mention that the quality of the phono stage in the Unlimited is also pretty decent. Anyone considering using a turntable may want to opt for low(er) noise (and/or lower gain) tubes depending on the cartridge used.The linestage is dead silent regardless of the tube choices once the gain is optimized based to the amplifier input voltage sensitivity and the speakers’ efficiency.

So I've been playing a little with signal tubes,I just received a matched pair of Amperex Holland Rogers 12ax7's. These are wonderful tubes. Great tone,added 3D soundstage. They add more magic. I have also rolled in a pair of Sylvania red label 12at7's,and a pair of Sylvania JAN green label 12at7's. I think they all have similar tone,but the Amperex's are king of the soundstage. The red label Sylvania's come in second,and the green labels a very close 3rd.(very close) When first plugging in my Unlimited,I was very skeptical about how the sound could be improved upon. This is simply a steal,and very receptive to tube rolling. Maybe sometime in the future I'll try the cap upgrade???

I just had one of Aric's earlier preamps rebuilt & upgraded, & am thrilled with the results. Aric worked with me at every step of the process, to make sure I got what I was looking for (a tube preamp w/o a lot of trim), & that it was within my budget. He & his shop are located in MA, & I found his communications with me, via email, to be clear & quick. You don't often find a vendor of this level of gear who is willing to work one-on-one with his customers, and trust me, Aric didn't get rich from the work he did for me: it was a labor of love, as it were. For anyone in the market for mid-priced tube gear that performs at true hi-fi levels, built by someone who really cares about your happiness with his work, check Aric Audio out.

By the way, I'm using cryo-treated Gold Lion 12ax7's at the moment. I also like NOS Amperex Bugle Boy 12ax7s in this preamp, as well.

Just wanted to jump in, I took the plunge last week and ordered an Unlimited phono stage after reading a million reviews for other hybrid preamps and stumbling across this thread.  Aric was great to talk to and helped me understand a few fundamental differences between this and some of his other gear as I'm still relatively new to all this.  Very excited to get my hands on this to see how it performs!

Right now I'm running a Music Hall MMF-7.1 with the factory Mojo cartirdge (Ortofon 540 Mk. II), feeding a Marantz NR1200 2 channel receiver.  Speakers are Definitive Technology Demand D9's and a Definitive Technology ProSub 400.  The phono stage on the Marantz is fine, but I've been looking into a separate phono stage for a while now.  Also, due to furniture constraints, the distance from the turntable to the receiver isn't ideal.  I'm running a 10 foot cable from the TT into the Marantz, so there should be some improvement by keeping the Unlimited next to the TT and then sending the Unlimited signal to the Marantz instead.  A big part of the enjoyment of this hobby for me is all of the experimentation and tweaking that goes into it!