Hi End Pre-Amp shoot out in central jersey?


Hi,

I have recently heard the DarTZeel pre in my system as compared to my highly optioned MA1 MK3, and thought it might be interesting to compare a few pre-amps.

I would be interested in hearing the ARC Ref3, the Dart again, as well as the latest from BAT, Halcro etc. Any takers?

Might not be a scientific experiment, but we might have fun and learn a thing or two.

Best,

Ron
rlips
Rlips, your room/system is *very* impressive! I hope you post your shoot-out results on this thread. I too have a Lamm L1 and would be interested in reading about your shootout if Seldon participates.
I think Mechans is referring to a phono stage?
NOT! Very very few phono stages, new or old, go much beyond 60db. And nearly all that have this much gain achieve it with a step-up transformer which takes a typical MM stage of 35-40db up another 20 to achieve 55-60db to support medium-output MC's.

db = 20Log(Av), where Av is the voltage gain. A gain of 200db would be 10 billion; the 8 billion noted above is close enough.

To imagine a line stage with an output of 1v to drive many amps to serious levels, and do this with a phono/line gain of 200db would imply the phono cartridge has an output of less than a nanovolt. This is silly. And to achieve any kind of phono gain beyond 60 db or so with tubes and deal with the noise issue almost requires miracles....something the SP6 is not capable of, heavily modded or not.

And now back to the main program.
Jafox,

I know that (the EE in me figured it out as well) but was trying to be diplomatic. As you say, and now back to our regularly scheduled program;)..............
As Mechans said (tongue in cheek, I assume)
This kind of ultra low noise tube has yet to classified there are only few electron particle accelerators large enough toidetect(sic) the subtle vibrations that each tube naturally resonates at....It is also best siuted(sic) to nanovolt output cartridges the upside is that no a step up transformer is needed.
Pretty damn funny when you think of it, though