Euphoric Realism vs. Euphonic Romanticism

Promising indeed.

Herron tubed pre-amp.

Anybody heard the Audio Space Reference 2 full-function preamplifier?
It uses 300Bs and is a truly balanced design. Jonathan Valin did a review of it in the August 2007 issue of "The Absolute Sound."

Hear are some quotes:

"the Audio Space Reference 2 sounds in the midrange less like hi-fi and more like the real thing than virtually any other preamp I’ve auditioned."

"Usually when one thinks “300B,” one thinks of a warm, gorgeous, euphonically colored sound, rich in second harmonics. Here the sound is beautiful, of course, but utterly natural—non-colored, non-electronic."

Have not auditioned this preamp, but based on your love of the 300B, it may be worth your while to look into the Manley Labs 300B preamplifier, which incorporates the use of two 300B tubes in their design.

http://www.manleylabs.com/containerpages/300b99.html

Yes, that is certainly a possibility although when I heard it a few years back it came across as beautiful but euphonic (not that there is anything wrong with that).

I think the Audio Space will more closely match the 'modern' 300B sound that I was getting with the Mastersound integrated amplifier.
I should note that I made mistake earlier in this thread: the Mastersound 300B P.S.E. integrated amp has an active line section. I was incorrect when I said that the line section was passive.

I will pair the Audio Space with my Hovland Stratos amps this weekend and see how close I get to the magic of the little Mastersound integrated.