Dodd preamp vs. McCormack RLD-1 preamp

Pardon my faux pas regarding both being SS. The Dodd is indeed tubed. I'm not much of a tube junky but would still love to hear one. Dodd doesn't offer a 30 day trial so it's a bit of a gamble with $3K. Thanks for replying gentlemen.

By a used one and resell for what you paid, more or less. I know Spencer has has many good preamps and he can comment on the relative merits of the Dodd versus them. My Dodd arrived today and I will be comparing to my BENT and Atma-sphere, and comaprisons with CAT, Joule, ARC and Lamm pres I've owned recently. I suspect the DOdd is killer with some tube rolling; I'll be using Amperex.

Pub,

Do keep us updated on your findings with the Dodd vs. the other pre amps you have/had.

The GP EARLY '60's Siemens CCa crushed the Amperex WL GP PQ D getter in my system.

I have only seen one Dodd pre up on the 'Gon and it sold in two days. Good luck finding one used.

You will see mine next week. I did not think that it would ever happend......but......
Upgrading to almost twice as expensive RWA Isabella preamp with build in dac. Both very similar in design and performance.

Hi Glory. I'll just make the general comment that for me, tube preference (or evaluation) is completely (almost) dictated by the circuit it is used in and the system context, as performance is strongly related to those factors. In other words, I'm rarely comfortable with a statment like tube x sounds like this, and tube y sounds like that as a general proposition, it is very system dependent. In some systems for example, I need, prefer Siemens 5814s, in others RCA 12au7s -- which is better? Depends. As far as the Dodd, Amperex seems to be preferred by Gary and a few others - which of course doesn't mean I would not like the Siemens, but I suspect that the Siemens might be too much of a good thing (they tend towards speed, transparency, clarity) with the Dodd. I think of tubes as spices, different soups, different spices.

What I do think, not having yet heard it, is that the off-the grid, and simple circuit of the Dodd will let you hear differences between various tubes more easily -- the circuit gets out of the way. We'll see....