Modern Linestages

If simplicity also meant inexpensive it would be nice. All to often something that is very simply made, almost elegant, is a work of extreme craftsmanship. A simple circuit will do but when you extend that to better/purer resistors, capacitors, etc. etc. and so forth, simplicity adds up to a lot of costs real quick.
A Swiss watch is a thing of beauty, not a lot of moving parts but try getting one for the cost of a Timex.
Sometimes paying more gets you more and sometimes it is a case of a fool and his money are soon parted.

Let's look at the cost of some of the key components in a top quality preamp - like my tube preamp.

- 45 step Shallco volume control $300 - $450
- Duelund/Vcap or like quality coupling caps can cost as much as $200-$500 each depending on size. Mine takes two of them! Two Duelund 3.3 uf caps cost $400!
- Large power supply caps (computer grade). You know the ones that look like coke cans or even bigger. They cost up to $30-$60 each and my preamp has 12 of them!
- Large transformers are also very expensive. They can cost $150 - $300.
- Mine came with 7 tubes. 4 of them are NOS RCA 6sn7's from the 40's and 50's. Tubes alone can cost $300 or more for all 7.
- In addition, my preamp has chokes, expensive solid core copper wire, ceramic tube sockets and other parts....
- What about the cost of a good, well made chassis with all needed hardware, knobs, footers and the particular finish. I bet such a chassis made from heavy stock, with a thick face, special finishing, nice knobs etc... can cost up to $1000. I am not sure, but speculate here.

I see a lot more than a $1000 in parts here folks.I see closer to $2800 in "parts" before all the labor needed to hardwire (point to point) this puppy.

I suppose some preamps have a higher mark-up then others, but once all the costs are considered, the mark-up on some is not even 100%. Costs also involve, R&D, labor, insurance, building, utilities and on ......

So how much should a preamp like the one above sell for? I mean sell for direct from the builder with no additional mark-up? How much? $5000 - $10,000?

Uru975,
Well stated post! In my experiences simple circuits with fewer parts count(but of premium quality) with a high standard built do usally sound better than than complex (multiple stages) designs with many parts crammed into a chassis.

My linestage is very simple in actual circuir(no signal path capacitor or resistors) layout but admittedly heavy(73 pounds) due to the weight of various transformers,chokes and the two separate steel chassis.

Hi Grannyring,you must have posted just seconds before me, Your case is well made using the Dude preamp as an example.

Simplicity doesn't mean inexpensive, but again we're talking about linestages! A linestage only controls the volume and source, so why shouldn't they be somewhat simple? For the following example I'm going to use product weight as a proxy for component complexity.

As a point of comparison I gather some data about 8 top of the range linestages. In the first group I put EMM Labs, Pass Labs, BAT and EAR. The average price is $13,125 and the average weight is 48lbs. In the second group I put Soulution, MBL, Constellation and Boulder. The price average is $38,700 and the weight is 88lbs. Roughly speaking, the second group is 3x as expensive and 2x the weight of the first group of linestages.

I freely admit that my groupings are totally arbitrary, limited and thereby possibly misleading, but I think it makes a certain point. Each of the companies and/or designers have impressive track records of producing superb quality products. I make the assumption that each company could produce any product they envision and that they have the imagination/brilliance to conceive at the state of the art level. Yet there seems to be a clear dividing line as to what is the vision of a top grade linestage. While still very expensive, one grouping is much less expensive than the other as well as being significantly less complex.