Any experience with the Tron Syren Preamplifier

Hi Frontier1. I'm getting the Tron 7 phono preamp. Go to the website for High Water Sound and call Jeffrey Catalano who imports the Tron Line. Jeff is one of the most respected and knowledgeable individuals in this industry. One example, understanding my taste and budget he recommended a cartridge that he does not even distribute.

I've heard the Syren several times. I own a TRON Meteor, which was the immediate pre-cursor of the Syren. In fact, my Meteor is Graham Tricker's (TRON designer) personal demo unit which was upgraded over time to use circuits very similar to the Syren. Mine is silver wired throughout and has WBT connectors.

What can I say? It absolutely is NOT bright at all. The 6moons review is pretty much on the money - not hyped up or overplayed. My Meteor sounds fabulous and the build quality is awesome. You will not find a better quality build anywhere. What's more, all the Syrens are built by Graham himself, as is all his kit. No outsourcing to a cheap far eastern factory.

I would email Graham himself (sales@gtaudio.com) or call him +44 1895 833099. You will not find a nicer guy to talk to in the hi-fi industry. He will answer calls until about 10pm UK time as well and often at the weekends too.

Jeff at Highwater is his US agent and Graham would want the sale to go through him (as he's pretty honourable about these things). In the past, he would consider selling his amps to overseas customers on a sale or return basis - he was that confident about his product. I'm not sure that he can still do that now. Also if you want to use a particular phono cartridge, then tell him and he will build the correct loading in.

I've known Graham for over 15 years now, but only as a loyal customer. I have no other connection than to say how happy I've been with his products and more importantly his after-sales service.

I hope that helps.

Best wishes,

Charlie

Charlie just boosted my confidence with my purchase of the Tron 7. He's right on. Graham is changing out the single-ended outputs to XLR...for free. He's also upgrading the caps to the ones used in the Reference.

Putting aside superior sound for the moment, this is the main difference between all of those "other" companies and ones like Tron...handcrafted products/personal service.

Given that the sound quality is excellent, the ability to provide a truly bespoke service is almost unique in hi-fi terms. All the TRON pieces are built to order by Graham in his workshop at home. Inevitably there's a time lag between placing the order and delivery. But each amplifier takes between 70 and 110 hours of his work to build. Over Christmas, Graham was so busy that he was in the workshop on Christmas morning whilst his wife was cooking the turkey!

Graham's customers tend to be a quietly loyal band. I have only ever seen two of his preamps (a Syren and a 1997 Nucleus) and one of his power amps for sale second hand. That's quite telling.

Charlie

If you want some pictures of the build quality, then let me know and I can send you some pictures of my Meteor