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It’s time to upgrade my pre-amp

A strange thing happened to me at the start of Covid.  I could not bare to listen to most music other than jazz, primarily post 50‘s jazz.  I’m not asking for psychological assistance, but …this journey has led me down the never tiring, wonder filled analog road and that has caused my close family and friends to wonder.   

I built and own a Dynaco ST-70, Dynaco ST-35 and an Elekit TU-8600S with all of the upgrades including the Lindahl transformers.  The Elekit is my amp of choice. My thinking was, what better way to learn to listen to jazz than on the equipment it was designed to be listened to when originally recorded.

Today I am in need of a pre-amplifier that will support my current amplifiers, as well as, higher wattage tube and possibly digital amps in the future. For the time being, I’m sticking with highly efficient speakers.  As I mentioned in a previous post, my turntable is an Acoustic Signature Tornado Neo with a Hana ML cartridge and GoldNote PS10+PSU10 phono stage and separate power supply.  

My listening space is rather large 22 x 40 and my goal is to listen at low to moderate sound levels while maintaining clarity, detail and the experience of being inside the music space.

Thank you ahead of time.

goodnightpaul
solypsa's avatar
solypsa
462 posts
 

@goodnightpaul Nice setup.  A few comments:

1) You need to know what is ( and how this varies between your amps ) the input sensitivity of your amp(s). For old school amps this was expressed as x voltage to drive amp to max output ( usually between .775 and 2 volts ).  Anyhoo this will help you know what gain you may need after the Goldnote combo. Note: Gain alone does not tell the full story of ' how good it sounds ' but it is an important thing to get right.

2) Do you have a lot of original monos? Reissue monos? Thought about a mono cart?

3) low level detail is great to have tough to get. Room artifacts, noise level,  and all the system elements play here. Nice to have that spacious room!

4) Not trying to make this an upgrade list....but there are better carts out there...

pindac's avatar
pindac
2,864 posts
 

@goodnightpaul I'm Glad you made two things known.

One being, "I built and own a Dynaco ST-70, Dynaco ST-35 and an Elekit TU-8600S". 

Two being, "while maintaining clarity, detail and the experience of being inside the music space". 

I can't recommend enough, the Nelson Pass Korg Nutube B1 Pre-Amp'.

It has been in use within my local HiFi Group for many years now.

For the money to build the working model, there is not much out there that can offer a lucidity and insight into a recording.

If the design is built modular in a nice aesthetic casing, the basic cost will creep upwards. 

Within the local HiFi Group, it has been selected over other Pre-Amps numerous times more expensive to purchase, when entered into comparison demonstrations.

One Group Member took one over a very expensive EAR Pre-Amp.

It does carry a little extra injection of gain as a basic model, but this is easily resolved if wanted to have more control.

Well worth an investigation and there is endless build support available through the forum whare it was conceived as a design. 

goodnightpaul OP
8 posts
 

Thank you for the recommendation.  I am quite new to high quality “listening” apparatus and have much to learn.  The good thing is that I have a pretty good ear.

 

goodnightpaul OP
8 posts
 

To answer SolyPsa’s questions about input sensitivity:  ST70 - 1.3v, ST35 - 1.0v, and Elekit TU-8600S - 320mV rms.  I’m not sure what this determines, but please do explain.

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