After only two day's use Dan's preamp is even better than my extremely high expectations. The company president likes it even more than I do. The president is excited about listening to music again.
Questions:
Will it burn-in with the CDP on repeat, but the sub amp & main amps turned off? Dumb question but does it make a difference if the volume is up or down (with the amps off)?
How long for burn-in by most users estimates?
I was tempted to do this before inserting the tubes, because it makes such an absolutely huge difference with my tube amp. But I didn't because I was afraid to hurt something. Can I apply one quick squirt of Caig Pro-Gold contact cleaner to each of the two tube sockets? Ditto the tube pins. I can't overstate how huge is the improvement on my tube amp.
I know the preamp sounds good enugh, but if we weren't nuerotic Dan would have to get a real job. Are the contacts of the Alps pot accesible for the tube from the Caig Pro-Gold contact enhancer? Ditto the input switch contacts? If it is contraindicated, why? Again, if you haven't tried this stuff you have no idea what you are missing.
Are there any acrylics, brittle plastics or other parts that might be damaged by the Pro-Gold? The bases of the original solid copper binding posts (late '80s) were disintegrated by the earlier Caig DN5 enhancer, but I've not seen anything damaged by Pro-Gold yet.
The tightrope is ultra fine between too-tight & too-loose. Too tight minimizes staging & other attributes, while too loose sounds loose & sloppy. I tapped the top & thought it resonated too much. But the preamp sounds so ideal that I imagined that applying any damping would only screw up the ultra-fine, ultra-ideal balance of the preamp's performance. Verdict: leave well enough alone. I only mentioned the Pro-Gold because after thousands of uses I have heard only positive results throughout.
