Hi Scot,
Thank you once again for all your time and effort - this time with the Isabella Renaissance Edition review.
Your review gets to the heart of why a good active preamplifier is important in "holding the sound together" in a multi-component system. It is indeed more than just an input select and volume control. It is about bringing in a firm sense of scale of the music, preserving the the life of the sound at lower listening levels, delivering a bigger soundstage, and retrieving more detail. I agree that even a good quality dac with digital volume control implementation has a hard time beating out a good active, analog-domain preamp in this regard.
And let's not forget the tone! I wanted the all-tubed (not solid state elements), Class-A design of the Isabella to offer good tone, but without "over toning it" - without getting too "toobey" to the point where adding too much of something (too much of a tube coloration effect) would end up taking away from the overall presentation. The LiFePO4 battery is responsible for the sounds of silence regarding the background noise.
With a tube design comes the joys (and possibly even neurosis
) of tube rolling if the user chooses to go there. Just like the gain select switch is all about being able to fine-tune the gain and usability of the volume control in the system, tubes are a great tool to fine-tune the sound of the preamp to work best with the rest of the system and it is not something that should scare away listeners who are new to tubes. But for those who don't find the need go there, they should at least know that the stock tubes will last a very long time in the Isabella due to the soft start circuitry and lower plate voltage. And this should also put the minds at ease of those who shell out the big $$$ for rare NOS tubes.
Thank you for also mentioning the Bellina PRO dac and your impressions of both the NOS setting and HRZ setting. NOS is warmer, more forgiving, and my favorite when it comes to getting the midrange right. For me, it sounds closer to a good phonostage (sorry I didn't have that
configured correctly in time). The high-res setting uses a d/a that unravels more detail and and has a more "modern sound" (I kinda like how you called it that!). I enjoy them both, but for the majority of my music, I prefer NOS.
Finally - I am humbled that you found the Isabella to be a "Julia Rule" compliant product in that you believe one would have to spend a lot more money to match its level of performance, and a component worthy of your Editors Choice award. This is important to me and everyone should know by now that if you don't love what the Isabella (or any other RWA component) does for your listening experience, then the 30-day refund policy applies. And if you do love it, you will also be pleased to know that I stand behind it with a 10-year warranty. I do believe that "all hand-made in the USA with pride of workmanship" means something important and is hopefully still valued by many listeners today.
With much thanks and appreciation,
Vinnie
