I personally like my original style (others may or may not agree) because of the additional room inside to work with)
Having remote does not interest me either, I'm much more concerned with sonics and having Joseph hot-rod my TP 2.0 to even higher levels than imagined (more $$ of course)
Grannyrings *3rd paragraph* of his initial impressions echoes mine to a proverbial T.
Increasing the volume "without strain or hardness" is a VERY BIG issue with me.
(I think it has to do with the size and build quality of the power supply, besides noise issues)
Having the music pour out in a huge, liquid, stable, unstrained and totally relaxed manner is paramount in my preferences (the highs, mids, bass etc, etc, should already be a given when attaining this status)
I've had many top preamps (owned, on-loan, borrow) pass through my shelf in the years besides my highly modded SA-5000A and none of them could pass this test (yet)
Of course, AC treatment and other components should be chosen carefully.
A buddy of mine has a Walker-Steelhead combo that literally kicks major butt and passes the test quite handily on many ocassions (due to recording variances) so I feel I have a pretty good reference of what I like (it's NOT the sound adjective descriptives like I said above) it is the *way-of-the-entire-presentation* the so-called magic of the soundstage.
I think Joseph's preamp is his forte' and has even greater potential than imagined.
Having remote does not interest me either, I'm much more concerned with sonics and having Joseph hot-rod my TP 2.0 to even higher levels than imagined (more $$ of course)
Grannyrings *3rd paragraph* of his initial impressions echoes mine to a proverbial T.
Increasing the volume "without strain or hardness" is a VERY BIG issue with me.
(I think it has to do with the size and build quality of the power supply, besides noise issues)
Having the music pour out in a huge, liquid, stable, unstrained and totally relaxed manner is paramount in my preferences (the highs, mids, bass etc, etc, should already be a given when attaining this status)
I've had many top preamps (owned, on-loan, borrow) pass through my shelf in the years besides my highly modded SA-5000A and none of them could pass this test (yet)
Of course, AC treatment and other components should be chosen carefully.
A buddy of mine has a Walker-Steelhead combo that literally kicks major butt and passes the test quite handily on many ocassions (due to recording variances) so I feel I have a pretty good reference of what I like (it's NOT the sound adjective descriptives like I said above) it is the *way-of-the-entire-presentation* the so-called magic of the soundstage.
I think Joseph's preamp is his forte' and has even greater potential than imagined.