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Aric Audio's Motherlode II line-stage keep me up all last night

I received for review Aric Kimball’s new flagship line-stage the Motherlode II on Wednesday morning of this week. This beautifully built two piece (the massive power supply has its own chassis) went into one of my systems to burn-in/settle-in until I had a chance to have a lengthy listening session to get my first take on its performance. That turned out to be yesterday starting around six in the early evening. Well, I was so mesmerized by its performance I did not go to bed until four in the morning!

I have had the pleasure to review four different Aric Audio pieces in the past. Aric designs and builds some of the finest tube based amplifiers and line-stages on the market today for amazingly reasonable prices. Besides, he is totally "good people" with the strong suite of offering his customers first rate support of their Aric Audio purchase. He went "full monty" with the Motherlode II regarding parts quality, a short list of some of these are Khozmo volume control, Vishay resistors, special high-end caps, dual torodal power transformers, dual chokes, and a very innovative way to drive the pair of 6SN7 tubes to perform at their ultimate performance level.

Why was I up all night listening to this line-stage? It would have to be one of the most quiet/transparent tube based preamplifiers I have ever had in-house for review. This allowed all the micro-details to be easily heard. The overall speed, dynamics, aliveness it brought to the system were at the level of the finest tube or solid state line-stages regarding delivering the PRAT of the music being played. The Motherlode II created a large layered and realistic sound-stage with 3D imaging and air around each individual player. My favorite 6SN7 tube are NOS TungSol 1940’s Black Glass oval plates. When I put these tubes into the Motherlode II I heard the beautiful timbres and tonality that these tubes have to offer clearly coming through in the production of the music.

If you are looking for a tube based line-stage that will give you reference level performance in the price range right around $5000, take a look at Aric Audio’s website for all the details regarding the innovative design and the specific parts that are used in this piece. This linestage is a "killer" performer. This will be a fun and a total pleasure to continue to evaluate the Motherlode II and in the near future write my review on it.




teajay
aricaudio's avatar
aricaudio
277 posts
 
@rocray that's great news, and I'm very glad to hear you found a lightly used ML II that fit into the budget you had set! 
For anyone that would like to check out some of my current builds, or to see what's under the hood on my products, I have a new Facebook page at the link below which I would like to invite you to! The link is here:
https://www.facebook.com/Aric-Audio-Systems-102227592179530
rocray's avatar
rocray
1,448 posts
 
I’ve had the Motherlode II in my main system for eleven days. Wow! This pairs so wonderfully with the First Watt F5. The texture,the layers,the soundstage, all incredible. I was looking for an endgame preamp,and I truly believe I’ve found it. Once the temp cools down,I’ll be putting my FW J2 back in the main system. I’m certain this will also be a great match.  
     This is my first taste of a 6sn7 tubed pre. It came from the seller with a pair of Ken Rad 6sn7’s from Brent Jesse. At this point,I really don’t see a need to try rolling anything else. Mildly stated,I am one happy camper! 
earthbound
139 posts
 

Reviving an old thread I came upon while reading about Aric’s preamps. I have the Custom 300B pset and couldn’t leave well enough alone. The amp sounds so good I thought to myself, how good would it sound with a kick ass preamp. So, I spoke to Aric and decided to go with the Super 6sn7 Line Stage. A few upgrades will be added and it should be done in a few weeks or so. Very psyched. 
Also wanted to add I recently put my Synthesis push pull back into the mix. I’m amazed having had a Rotel for 25 years, Synthesis tube amp and now a Aric Audio 300B how different they are. The Synthesis reminded me of what push pull has to offer. That “push”, more watts as well, just gives it that drive for rock and roll. But, after listening to the 300b, it’s the sound I want forever. The clarity, realism and effortless sound is so wonderful. I will add my impressions after listening to the preamp a bit. 

mesch
3,524 posts
 

@earthbound Looking forward to your impressions of the latest version of your Super preamp. I own Aric's special, an early version of the Super. Planning on Aric upgrading some parts on it. 

earthbound
139 posts
 

Looking forward to seeing what it adds to the sound. Some want completely passive. I would like to think this will add dynamics or range. Who knows? I can’t imagine anything other than adding more goodness to something that already is great. 

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