Amps & Preamps
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General discussion about amplifiers and preamplifiers.
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Hi Ed, maybe I haven't been paying enough attention lately. There have been a few occaisions where the sound was a bit bright, but I chalked it up to the individual recording. If this occurs while listening to Redbook CD's, I just change the Dithering mode to 2, instead of 1 on my Digital Time Lens, where it normally is set. That takes the brightness away. If is with vinyl, I either change the cartridge loading, or lower the tonearm a bit, and that usually takes care of it.
It didn't occur to me it might be the tubes. Maybe you're right. I do know that I definitely prefer the KT77's much more than anything else I have used. I sent my old VAC in to Kevin at VAC for an an upgrade and refreshening, so my benchmark will have changed upon its return. I'll do a follow-up here if there is something revealed at a later time.
While I know it's very dependent upon the type of music you prefer as well as the equipment/speakers hooked up to them...below are a few amps that made a big impression on me:
AudioNote Onganku
Art Audio Jota
McIntosh MC275s
Mark Levinson Monoblock Towers (I don't remember the model number but it was in the mid to late 90s)
Agreed, Spicoli. It amazes me the differences involved w/ cables & cords. Yes, one must match the cable/cord(s) to one's system!
Hi Gavin,
Yes, retirement is great, but it was a long time comin'. Make sure to enjoy your youth, cuz life hurts when you get old. Thank God for music!
Which tube(s) sound best in Conrad Johnson pre-amps?
Tubes, if done well its a simpler design with much less components than SS. So there is less chance of screwing up source signal:)
Could be one of the many examples of phsychology at work. Simple way to resolve this: Next test - get someone else to adjust the volume so you can't tell which method they tried apart from the sound and see if you can dependably identify what method they used.
It migt be the case that the controls are operating different parts of the circuit but unlikely.
Kevin
OT--wonder what happened to Dejan? He had some cool stuff coming out, I think I'll ping him.
I've seen what caps can do when discharged, believe me. In my younger days, we used to ride our bikes down to a local thrift store that always had junk tube tv's they would put outback for bulk trash pickup. We used to pull the vacuum tubes to shoot with a bb gun and cause general mayhem in the neighborhood. I knew better than do anything but pull tubes, but my buddy Tim didn't. To this day we don't know exactly what he was doing, but he tried to rip something out of a set and it sounded like a 1Kv switch opening. Knocked him back a good 3 or 4 feet as I recall, and he was pretty much stupid the rest of the day. Got complete use of his left arm back 3 or 4 days later. His sense of humor started to come about a week later.
My buddy Gary Dodd (Dodd Audio) has been known to put warning stickers inside his tube amps that read 'Go Away, nothing but Death for you here - High Voltage'.