Clearly in a previous life emergingsoul was a terrier. He just won't let go.
Hi end tube preamps, it’s all about functionality!!
So most preamps over $10 grand all sound very good. But functionality varies widely and a challenge to readily figure out.
some remotes don’t turn on unit, some leave tubes on while watching tv/movies assuming they have ht bypass functionality, some turn off avr when change is made to stereo listening (McIntosh), some use 3 tubes and some use 8 tubes, volume control process differences, power supply being external or internal, and many more feature variations.
it is a mess. The marketplace over time will make a buying decision abit easier as brands soon learn that the avr/stereo integration is a very important market and ease of use along with running costs need to be considered more carefully.
some remotes don’t turn on unit, some leave tubes on while watching tv/movies assuming they have ht bypass functionality, some turn off avr when change is made to stereo listening (McIntosh), some use 3 tubes and some use 8 tubes, volume control process differences, power supply being external or internal, and many more feature variations.
it is a mess. The marketplace over time will make a buying decision abit easier as brands soon learn that the avr/stereo integration is a very important market and ease of use along with running costs need to be considered more carefully.
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Right. Don't know the price yet, but I'll pay more than I am asked to pay for it in order to compensate the builder for the ridiculously low price of the awesome two 2x6BL7 & 4xKT77 monoblocks that he built for me. Agreed about the single tube. I talked to the builder (Charlie Cocci) about using two, one for each channel...possibly even using just one triode per tube per channel like the Dodd Battery Powered Preamp (my current preamp) does, but he says that in this circuit nothing would be gained by doing that. Based on how impressive his amps are, I'm inclined to let the builder build the thing the way he thinks it's best to build it. Truth is he's actually building two preamps for me; the other one being a modified (less circuitry) version of Eric Barbour's Brute Force linestage (https://headwizememorial.wordpress.com/2018/03/19/brute-force-in-a-line-stage/). I get to keep whichever one I like most. Should be fun! |
There is a important market for stereo listening at a high quality level and home theater in a combined system. ‘all’ it takes is passing a signal thru the preamp painlessly to allow sharing of mains between stereo and home theatre. Options, sadly are very limited. Brilliant minds will be able to achieve this outcome. soon, I hear audio research will be working on a feature to do a direct pass thru (ie. bypass tube circuitry) and thereby keep the tubes off. This will no doubt improve their $6 mil revenue and they can probably do this in a transparent way. will gladly pay extra for this outcome. |
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