Fred Volz and Emotive Sira Pre Amp

After many years enjoying my aging Audible Illusions Modulus preamp, I finally began searching for a replacement. About a year ago I ran across Emotive and their Sira line of tubed preamps. I had considered an AES, Cary, newer Audible Illusions, Prima Luna, and even Supratek. But, I kept going back to the Sira, I just had a difficult time justifying the cost vs. all of the others.

From the pictures it is a beautiful piece of audio gear. However, finding reviews on it are a little difficult. I would see occasional used ones on the market, but never quite pulled the trigger. I decided to contact Fred at Emotive to determine what upgrades could be done to a used one. After much correspondence, I decided to have Fred build one for me rather than buying used.

I am a bit of a guinea pig on this build as Fred is making some slight changes from the existing Sira. I do not pretend to understand audio circuitry so I can only say that the biggest difference is the chassis will be aluminum rather than the existing stainless steel. Perhaps Fred will see this thread and chime in.

I am hoping this new model Sira will sound as good as the limited reviews I have read of the existing Sira. The build is in process so delivery is still TBD.

I will use this thread to chronicle the process and the result. I realize that it's a little unfair comparing a new boutique built preamp to a 25y/o circuit board based tube preamp, but it will have to do.

I would like to have found more reviews on the Sira, but there is little out there to read. My experience so far is that Fred is an easy gentleman to work with and the gear that he makes is beautiful in my opinion. I will be honest in my assessment of it's audio and aesthetic qualities, so stay tuned to this thread for updates. My hope through this thread is to provide more information for anyone considering one of Fred's creations.

Fwiw my current set-up includes;
Cary cd308 cdp
laptop based music server w/ onkyo interface
Parasound dac1000
Audible Illusions Modulus 2D
AES Six Pacs
Gallo Sub Amp
Gallo Ref 3.5
all gear isolated w/ black diamond cones on 2" maple shelves w/ cork and rubber isopods.
Gracenote Speaker Wire and power cables
Homegrown Audio Super Silver I/c
Mapleshade digital connects

Brad