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It might be possible to improve Beacon Two but....... is it a worthy proposition????$100 just for the new Beacon Three logo. $150 for premium caps or $250 for "SOTA" caps. $150 for all wood enclose. So, do you think it is your lucky day?Do you????
What?Beacon three already exists?Four & Five too?Sorry I wasn't aware there were more then 2 models in the series. I wonder what the differences might be between Beacon series preamps?RitchieLower end is probably one thing that I would try to improve. I am anxious to hear other opinions/experiences regarding Beacon's bass reproduction.Mariusz
Sorry about that- the whole upgrade thing was my fault. First I ask for suggestions then state it doesn't require upgrades. After the tour, we may see a pattern of things to improve. Looks like the tour is going to have a slightly different route for Dangerbird. Ritchie, you'll have to get the Beacon Two & LH-1's over to Dangerbird so he can have it for their group meeting. I think it will work out fine if you can ship it on or before the 13th. I'll provide the shipping address. After that, the schedule will go according to the list.
Ritchie, Thank you for your review! Prices are based on performance plus design qualities. The Beacon Two will easily go up against preamps costing considerably more, as will all of our products. My circuit topology will be new to many people and that's a good thing! Qualities which make a product stand out from the rest are memorable. When you buy anything what are you paying for? You are paying for a machine which was made to do a specific job. The price point should reflect performance and design quality. Something with 10 components that can perform the same as or outperform a competing machine with 30 components is much, much more valuable. The fact that I spend so much time in the "skunk works" to come up with these designs and not charge extra and stay competitive is a big bonus to the purchaser.
Now,bad news:I don't know about Mariusz definition for deferent bass respond,but I was looking for him long time but never founded.He know what good punchy bass my amps can do. Dynamics,low,low punch to you guts,that "phew" when Dee Carstensen whisper's to microphone and her lips go apart,that is what I was missing. Of course music I do enjoy is deferent from music that Mariusz was have and that is why I will absolutely recommended Beacon Two to somebody who is big fan easy Classical music,women vocals,nice slow guitar strings...etc.
The characteristics that can describe Beacon Two preamp are:- excellent speed and pace- transparency and attempt of faithful reproduction of the source/media- female voices and string instruments sounded most impressive - bass is fast, punchy, but one might wish for more weight and meat around the bones- minimum self noise, black background, very quiet
Ritchie said I know what you're saying Rich but it has nothing to do with the music used for evaluation. There is plenty of bass (Ben Harper, Olive, NYAR demo disk etc) and its shades on recordings mentioned in my fallow up. We have talked about it and I told you exactly what I thought differentiate Beacon Two from my personal preamp. I also told you about having a hard time figuring out Beacon's strengths and weaknesses. We both agreed that its most puzzling shortcoming is low frequency reproduction. Middle range, soundstage, highs were quite good to excellent. Ofcause my findings might be no issue in different setup with gear that might benefit from these qualities. I also would like to emfesized on importance of synergy. There is also an issue of frequency extension. It is possible that I might have missed something due to the choice of speakers used for this particular evaluation. 15" Audio Nirvana in OB is limited to about 70Hz lower extension. Also bass reproduced by OB designs is a bit different then BLH, TL, BRx etc. I could have used GR OB sub but it wasn't setup ir handy at the moment. But I still stand by my original conclusion:
