Tri-planar vs Graham

Hi Doug,

It may be a bit disappointing to have ditched a first class preamp for a second class one due to problems which had nothing to do with the preamp,

To which preamps (make and model)do you refer? Do you think their performance is in absolute terms or system (Ian's) dependent? I know that Ian did recently change his amps and perhaps the old preamp was simply a mismatch.

The Dynavector XV-1s/TriPlanar/Raven should be a very good combination once set-up properly with the MINT Tractor. Congratulations Ian and enjoy that new front-end.

Hi Peter,

Ian's Alaap reproduced harmonic overtones his system couldn't handle without ringing at higher listening volumes. It's possible this change to a harmonically more transparent/less ringy turntable and tonearm might have eliminated the ringing and allowed him to enjoy what the Alaap can do. Now he'll never know (unless he tries another one). :-(

As you say, it's also possible that other components and interactions were contribting to the ringing. I'm unfamiliar with his speakers, amps and wire. IME, most SS amps aren't particularly adept at reproducing higher order harmonics cleanly, or at all, but that's just a generic statement which may or may not apply to Ian's amps.

Just saying it's a pity that due to the short trial he may never know...

Hi Doug,

The harmonics/ringing issue makes sense to me. I did't hear that with his front end in your system with your Doshi. I didn't hear it with his Doshi in my system. The Doshi did'nt sound that good in my sytem. Ian is the third owner of that unit in a year or so, so perhaps it needs to go back to Nick for evaluation. Those listening that day attributed it, I think, to a mismatch (impedence?)with my Pass amps and not my system's inability to reproduce/capture harmonics. It seems to do that pretty well, though maybe not quite to the level of your wonderful system. At least no one mentioned that at the time. Perhaps Dan_Ed could elaborate?

The point of my question is this: I just didn't know which of Ian's few preamps you catagorically consider "first class". I now understand that to be the Doshi Alaap. He has had a few other preamps in the system - ARC Ref 3, H2O Fire, Pass Labs XP-20, to name three. I don't know exactly when he had them relative to the Doshi. Do you consider them all to be "second class" and the Doshi to be in a leaugue of its own? That would be an interesting, and somewhat unique, opinion it seems to me. Just curious to what you were referring when you made that assertion. That's all. Thanks, Peter

Peter,

as you have probably experienced, no other preamp sounds as good as a PASS preamp with PASS amps. What I heard with the Alaap in your system was not ringing. In fact it was just the opposite as I told you in an email. There maybe the first couple of harmonics coming through, but the rest are squashed into one impulse response or tossed out all together. This is just one other approach to music reproduction and it yields a quiet, pleasant rendering of music. I believe that Ian stated at the time he was using the same amps as you, IIRC.

I'm going by what Ian thought and what I can find online but it appears that the Pass amps are all 30kOhms input impedance which would account for the claims of the Alaap sounding rolled off. That is a less than ideal impedance match. The Alaap is pretty generic in loading and will work quite well with a load of greater than 50kOms, with higher loads even more desirable.

Now, my bass horn rolls off pretty fast below 25 Hz so I can't show an RTA plot of the frequency response that would mean much to this discussion. However, I recently brought in a pair of speakers that I helped acquire for a friend. The frequency response of these is well into the upper teens on the LF side when driven by my Alaap and Lectron amps. That Alaap, with the exception of some mechanical switch issue, is perfectly fine.

I might be mistaken but I think the Pass amps drop down to 15kOhms input impedance when using SE.