Preamp suggestions, yes again

Hi @donsachs  Very sorry for implying that your build is the same as the sp14 kit. Was definitely not my intention!  I've not heard the sp14, but definitely do believe that your version sounds better... which is why I own and love one (despite doing diy and running off of my own hand built First Watt F4 amplifiers). Thanks for your great work.

thanks for your contribution, don

good to hear from you here

So I figured I would come back and post an update to my pre amp search. I think I have too many hobbies and usually that proves to be an encumbrance, but this time around it proved to be beneficial to me as I was able to increase my allotted budget for my pre amp. I also decided to shift gears away from SS and towards tubes after some additional recommendations for pairing tubes with my clone Aleph J.

I stumbled upon the opportunity to get an almost brand new ModWright MWI SWL 9.0 AE Anniversary Edition pre amp for a pretty great price, and I decided to pull the trigger on it. The pre amp shipped this morning and I should take delivery of it Thursday.

I appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions.  

Congrats! Hope you love it.

@markf31

good call on the modwright 9 -- i almost posted the link here when i saw it offered for sale - for the money it is a steal

couple things when you get it -- i found mine to be slightly microphonic, so be careful with placement and do the pencil eraser ping test to make sure it is silent -- other related point to this is at power on, mine pinged badly, but once the relay clicked in, the microphony subsided almost entirely

second, changing out the factory sovtek 5ar4 inside to an old stock tube really helped round out the sound a good bit - this unit by its nature and dan’s voicing is quite extended at the frequency extremes for superior imaging and spatial ’magnification’, but can be a little tizzy for a tube linestage - changing out the 5687 signal tubes can help that, but the rectifier made the most difference for me

good luck, have fun