Preamp suggestion for Coincedent M300B Frankenstein mk2
I have a Constellation Inspiration Preamp + Stereo Amp for my Mino-D speakers.
I’ve decided to investigate the “tube” sound so I started with the Coincedent 300B Frankenstein MkII amplifier which I planned to attach to my Constellation (SS) preamp. The 300B will drive my 100db Volti Rival.
Am I going in the right direction or should I use a different preamp? If different, any suggestions? I’m also a confused if choosing a tube preamp with a tube amp may be too much of tube sound?
@charles1dad I was prepared to go route of NOS WE at point I was having issues with 101D reliability. I had experienced failures of recently purchased Psvane WE and Linlai Elite, one WE and one Elite failed at about 75 hours in Statement, and two DOA failures of each type purchased direct from Chinese sellers. One of my Linali Elite failures (75 hour failures) was Grant Fidelity purchase so easy warranty coverage. So, while Grant Fidelity purchase was warrantied, I received refund rather than replacement. One may ask why refund rather than replacement? This due to poor quality/excessive failures of Linlai Elite. I was told production has temporarily ceased while Linlai gets 101 quality under control, Rachel not selling these at the moment. Israel also mentioned to me poorer quality of Chinese 101D tubes since pandemic. This due directly to pandemic, or is it change in operations of both Psvane and Linlai since founders of Linlai left Psvane?
Anyway, thought I should mention my recent experiences with 101 tubes in this thread. I should also mention since I changed out heater resistors to .33uf 1/% tolerance not a single peep of noise from my Linlai's that were previously noisy with .22uf 5% tolerance resistors. Recall, newer production Statements all use .33uf, insuring durability of 101 reason for this change.
Charles, on side note, don't want to hijack thread,but I believe you've been using Duelund Cast PIO in some of your components to good effect. Recently went from Audyn True Copper Max and Miflex KPCU to Duelund Cast tinned copper in custom build 300B's. Wow, Cast relegates all other audiophile film caps I've tried to distant second place! |
Yes, thanks to good advice from grannyring years ago who suggested them for my Coincident speaker crossover and my DAC. The Duelund CAST Cu foil capacitors have been superb for me. Expensive capacitors and worth every cent. I’m not surprised by your terrific results. Charles |
@kennyc I have owned the coincident Frankensteins, coincident Dragons, coincident line stage and coincident phono stage. I didn't care much for the coincident phono as a preamp, it sounds sterile like a passive preamp or like going dac-direct. Sound loses body.
The coincident line stage was better, but I did not like it as much either. I tried it with the stock tubes. It was not that much better than the coincident phono. Later after I sold it I was told that it sounds better if you replace the stock tubes with the psvane alternative.
The best preamp I liked with the Frankenstein 300b was the Shindo Monbrison. It's probably the best sound I have had in my system till date, I was dumb to have sold the Monbrison when I moved across the pond (I should have rewired to 230V, in hindsight).
You can get a used Monbrison for $6000, if you look hard enough, and bonus, it comes with a world class built in phono.
Just my two cents and my experience. Cheers and good luck. |
After 5 years of intensive research, I’ve nearly completed my first bucket list analog+digital audio chains emphasizing linearity and neutrality hoping to land somewhere mid-fi - Constellation Inspiration Pre+Stereo electronics to a Magico A5. |
