Hi All,
Since we're about a week away now from releasing our latest preamp, the LDR300x.V3, it's time to organize a tour. I've been at this now for 10+ years and to my ears the LDR300x.V3 is THE best sounding preamp we've ever made. And at the same time the best preamp for the money since we've also been able to squeeze some of the cost out of our earlier designs without sacrificing sonics.
The LDR300x tour unit will be an active version with a low gain op amp input stage (voltage amplifier) and a JFET buffer output stage (current amplifier). However, by popping the top shell off the enclosure (removing 4 socket head screws), you'll be able to move 2 jumpers turning it into a passive preamp that bypasses the active stage. I encourage you to try this and get your impressions.
But wait there's more!! The ePot.V3 Max board inside the LDR300x has a plug-in attenuation module. We currently make an LDR version and also a discrete thin film resistor version of this module. I will include both module types with the tour unit and you can try both attenuation module types and let everyone know your impressions.
In summary, participating in this tour will let you compare a single preamp in both active and passive mode with both an LDR attenuator and a discrete resistor (logarithmic ladder) attenuator. Cool beans! Tour Rules:
1) 10 people plus 2 standby in case someone drops out
2) You get the unit for 1 week MAX!!! You receive it on a Monday, you ship it out no later than the following Monday. So if you're not ready to actually listen to it because you have too much else going on please be honest about that and take a pass rather than sit on the unit for several weeks. Yes, that has happened in the past.
3) You MUST insure the shipment with tracking info when you send it onwards to the next person.
4) By participating you agree to post your impressions in this thread. Nobody expects you to be a clever pro wordsmith. In your own authentic words is good enough.
5) Once the tour list is full up I'll ask all participants to provide their full name, phone, email, and home address which I'll keep private except that I'll send the contact info of the next person to the current person so they can ship it forward when the time comes.
If you're interested please respond to this thread or PM me.
Product page:
https://tortugaaudio.com/products/passive-preamps/ldr300x-v3-preamp/The link below is to the product thread on AudioCircle by way of reference. But please use this current tour thread for all questions and comments specific to this tour.
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=168215.0Cheers,
Morten