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Tube Research Labs Latest Dude Preamp

For those members following a recently closed thread about my TRL wows, I have an update. The manufacturer has contacted me and offered to replace my first generation unit with their latest and greatest unit free of charge. I spoke with Paul today and we have agreed on a framework to get this done.

This is an extremely generous gesture as the new model is radically different and more expensive then the generation it’s replacing. We had an interesting conversation about the new units fully balanced design that Paul feels will be a much better fit for my particular needs.

I was not expecting anything like this. They really have stepped up in a big way. Keep you all posted on the situation and hope to have some specifics on the new architecture and features soon.
cdente
yo2tup's avatar
yo2tup
47 posts
 
Ah ok thanks. It sound so good as is, I'll leave well enough alone!

Btw, I was able to compare the Dude directly with the Shindo Arieges-L. Granted, the Dude is more expensive than the Shindo...but it didn't take much to determine the winner in my system, the Dude bested it in almost every way.

I'm using a Burgess 45 SET amp btw.
agear
1,362 posts
 
Very kool. Welcome aboard....

And yes, leave it alone...
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,603 posts
 
Agear is spot on to call Paul about those tubes and the bias. Yo2tup, did you just get your Dude or have you been a Dude owner for a longer time?
tthean
21 posts
 
Hi yo2tup, thanks for answering my previous post. Now I am waiting to see if anybody has the chance to compare the Dude to the more expensive Shindo preamps.

Do you have the SE or the balanced version of the Dude?

Thanks!
cdente OP
111 posts
 
I have a series of questions for the technical experts:

1) SE vs. Balanced. It’s a question of application rather than sound quality correct? In my case I have fully-balanced equipment on the input and output side driving the need for a fully-balanced unit.

2)Input component matching. The balanced Dude will handle much higher input. Probably 15 volts of input easily according to Paul. Does a higher voltage output on a cdp or dac equate to better sound in this case?

3) Output component matching. As I previously noted, my balanced Dude will use a bigger tubes (6080's) instead of 6sn7's for the active circuitry for my low-impedance loads. Paul asked if I needed this extra juice so they may still use 6sn7 in the base balanced version. Anybody have the scope on this?

I’m not seeing anything here that indicates a balance unit sounds better than the SE version but rather (like in my case) SE version can sound less that optimal for the wrong application.
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