OK guys; so you want to know about the dart pre? you sure you don't want to debate reviewing methodology a little more?
;^)
i had one of the first two production run dart pre's (the other one is in Europe) in my room for a week prior to the RMAF, and then for a few days right afterwards. so about 10 days in total. this unit is from the initial production run but was not fully functional. it was rushed here so it could be shown at the RMAF. it only had one BNC output and one RCA input operational. the remote control was still flukey. i am told fully functional dart pre's will ship in November (mine is fully paid for and in the first batch).
for the first week i had it i assumed that it was running on the battery power......as i drooled all over myself at it's amazing performance (for those of you that have not already read my comments click on my system below and read the more recent posts on my system thread). the day i shipped it out to RMAF i found Herve' e-mailed me to let me know that the software for the pre-production pre was buggy and you needed to unplug the pre if you wanted to hear it is DC mode (this will not be necessary for the regular production units). so all my initial comments related to the pre running on AC. as it turned out; i ended up only listening for about 20 minutes total in battery mode due to some pre-production issues. these 20 minutes were quite mind-blowing.
so i have listened to the new dart pre for a week in my room; then for 4 days at RMAF (in a very similar system but different room), and then back in my room for a few more days.
Henryhk, to answer your questions;
since only one BNC output was operational; it was not possible to try the new pre with anything but the proprietary darTZeel 'zeel' connector (BNC connectors with a 50 ohm cable) and dart amps. i could not compare cables or other amps. it is too bad as i really wanted to know how my Valhalla interconnects and Tenor Hybrids might have compared. when i get my new pre (with all the outputs operational) that will be one of the first things i try.
if i were guessing, i would expect that most of the magic of the pre would transfer to other amps. the only caution would be that the darTZeel amps are particlarly quiet and without any sort of mechanical nature or any sort of added warmth. the pre is sooo transparent that any coloration of any kind will be fully rendered.
how does the new darTZeel pre compare to other preamps? i can only relate it directly to my Balanced Placette RVC passive. first, i have compared the Placette to around 15 SOTA pre's over the last 4 years and always preferred the Placette in my room and system for it's total transparency, lack of veiling, superior microdynamics, and naturalness without edge.
the new dart pre improves on every aspect of the Placette's character and in a few ways goes waaay beyond. first, there is a liquidity, palpability, and delicacy that is simply unique. it took me a few hours of listening before i could understand how this was happening. eventually i figured out that there was a layer of 'greyness' that was removed from the music, a kind of distortion that i had been accepting as detail and texture. with this greyness gone; the music was just there without edge, with considerably more substance and nuance. everything just was more real and pulsating with life......more ACTION.....like 'live' when the recording captured that. details that had been obscure or just hinted at became significant. separation between instruments was greater but also more natural. the greyness also had given an unnatural edge to things....with that gone the soundstage was more like live.
it's late, i gotta go to bed....more later.
