Great Northern Sound Company (GNSC) was in business for many years modding mainly ARC and Wadia gear. Steve Huntley was the owner and head tech. He had worked for a number of years at ARC and knew the gear intimately. The unit I have was his personal preamp.
I would rate it a 7/10 overall. The bottom cover is scratched up around one of the screw holes and one screw on the bottom cover is missing.
The mod consists of three large blackgate cans in the power supply, AC filtration, V-Cap OIMP caps bypassed by V-Cap TFTF caps as coupling caps, Caddock resistors in the signal path, Stealth rectifiers, damping of chassis, critical caps, circuit traces, and other areas where vibration is detrimental to sound quality.
Here's what Steve had to say when I bought it:
"This is a special unit in terms of the mods The Black Gate filter caps we used in this mod have not been available for some time and so this unit has a really valuable set of mods that can't be reproduced….some of the other parts we used in the mod are still available like the V_caps, Caddock resistors, Stealth rectifiers, etc….but you could never achieve the blackness of background this pre-amp has without these black gate caps.
Anyway, the sound of this modified original LS-25 compared to a stock LS-25 MK-II is that you would hear a lot more detail and resolution with this modified unit (simply has way lower distortion), and you'll hear a much quieter background that the music emerges from,. Munch more bass weight and dynamic capability and I guess overall just more involving. It preserves the significant sonic strengths of the LS-25 sound…while I feel effectively improving upon the weaknesses. This modded unit is just really well balanced and sounds great with any music style."
The Preamp will come with the 4 Amperex Bugle Boy D getter tubes that Steve sent with it and I will include 4 Amperex Bugle Boy large O getter tubes and 4 Matsushita 7DJ8 cryoed tubes from Upscale Audio. I don't know how many hours on the D getters. The O getters were NOS when I bought them and have about 300 hours on them. The Matsushitas were NOS and have about 50 hours on them.
Also includes original remote control and brand new remote that I bought from Audio Research. Original boxes and packing; unit will be triple boxed.
It isn't often a piece like this comes along, I have enjoyed it immensely.
Took some time to consider selling but I'm returning to SS gear.
Asking
$2950 $2700 plus shipping to CONUS. I will split Paypal so add 1.5%. Will ship FedEx ground insured and supply tracking number.
Please email or PM with any questions.
Thanks for looking.
