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How good is the Dodd battery powered preamp ?

I heard an early sample from Jan 07 and it was spooky with the superb s/n ratio and dead quiet background voices are Real and instruments have a nice woody tone ,or brassy real trumpet sound, and the Bass was very tight and fast. The review that was in 10 audio was a sample only running 2 of the 4 batterys all new models run 4 in series for unlimited current on demand , also the review sample provided from a dealer named in the review
is of little knowledge in electronics, the preamp had less than 60 hours on it ,therefore the teflon -Sonicaps were
not even close to be run in, no wonder the bass was a little shy .Wake up guys before you test any product make sure is has at least 200 hours on it to give the product a fair evaluation.
pjl2122
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
Just ordered a new version of the Dodd, with four battery operation. We'll see. It will be interesting to compare with my "off-the-grid" Bent TAP w/autoformer.
mrjstark
1,112 posts
 
Well Pubul57, like I have said already - it is a close call between the two. Is Isabella better? In short, I like them both. Dodd can (or used to be) be had for $2495 which makes it one of the best values that I know off. Isabella is IMO just a bit better when it comes to sound stage and imaging.
It is also voiced to sound more on the warmer, fluid but still detailed side. The biggest diference is in its buil-in Isabellina DAC which is just awesome. However with DAC option Isabella price jumps to 6K which is quite expensive and puts it in completly different price frame then Dodd.
If I had extra 6K, I would go with RWA and its build-in DAC.
Dodd on the other hand will give you 95% of the Isabella performance and with careful speaker placement, right tubes and some diffusion it will make you stop looking.....at least for a while. I am planing to give RWA another try when my system will be at its 100% so I can ones again evaluate it and look closer into its bass performance which IMO was a bit more polite then Dodd.

Cheers
Mariusz
mrjstark
1,112 posts
 
TVC or Resistence preamp?
I will be interested in your commparison.
Give Dodd some time to burn-in its Sonicaps. Word on the street is that they need 500h or more but 100-200 should get you 95% there.

Cheers
Mariusz
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
The "New" BENT is like a TVC but it uses a autoformer (by Slagle) instead of a transformer. I am very interested in comparing these two as I buy into the idea of being off the grid -- question is, is there an advantage to building additonal gain only to attentuate it. The BENT is outstanding and have chosen it after having CAT, LAMM, ARC, and Joule tube actives - so it certainly competes with some fine tube pres. I wonder if much of what I like is being off the grid (plus minimal parts and no ciruitry to build gain). Both my amps (Music Reference RM9 SE and the Atma-sphere M-60s are transparent/neutral types so I think I'll be rolling some Amperex or Mullards in the Dodd for just a touch of warmth, etc. I'll let you know when I get a few days with.
mrjstark
1,112 posts
 
Sounds good
and keep us posted.

(I believe a lot of Dodd's or Isabella's performance has to do with excellent separation, low floor-noise and last but not least - pollutionless battery operation)

Cheers
Mariusz
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