Apt-Holman pre-amp

I hate to rain on the beginning of a parade here, but when I replaced an Apt-Holman preamp by a PS Audio 4.5, I felt that I'd finally discovered the world of high end audio--the 4.5 was SO much better! I admired the logic and clarity of the A-H manual, and the apparent build quality (though I have no reason to suppose that other than generic resistors and caps were used), but I think the designers were of the "test bench" school, not of the "listen as we finalize the design" school. I might say that I was primarily interested in the phono stage in those days, and it's conceivable that the A-H was good as a line stage preamp and just poor in its phono stage. I have trouble believing it, but can't rule it out.

I had an Apt Holman long time ago. I replaced it with an Audio Research SP-10 pre-amp. The difference was night and day. The Apt Holman does not have a stable image. You can not tell where a voice is coming from. I feel the Apt-Holman must have done a great job on the reviewers. I do not consider it to be close to high end now, particularly since already in 1987 when I purchased the SP10 the unit was significantly inferior.

i'm with dcaudio. i bought an original model apt-holman new in about 1979-80. even then, it was cosidered to be the sort of "good value" product sam tellig (the "audio cheapskate") would prefer. it was never on the cutting edge of the highend.

Within the past few days, I saw a PS Audio 6.0 on the 'net for $200.00. I owned one of these several years ago and it was quite good. I would highly recommend this piece.

The APT Holman, developed by Tomlinson Holman, the TH in THX, was a well designed piece of equipment that did a lot of things better than average, but never really excelled at any one thing. It was a very good utilitarian piece of audio equipment, but it is now sadly outdated. It would make a very nice preamp in a second system, but it is not anywhere near the reference quality equipment available today. It is a very good deal for a couple hundred bucks if it's in good shape. By the way, I owned one for almost 20 years, having sold it only two years ago. The Bryston BP25 which replaced it, admitedly at three times the APT's original cost, is far superior at resolving and playing music.