[pbrstreetgang]

Does anyone find any reliability problems with Juicys unsupported board mount RCAs? I guess it also makes it hard to add sub outputs. Really like the retro look of their products though.

[doug s.]

recent (and i mean yesterday) comments from my bud who yust bought a melos sha-1:

(dave, yesterday):
I just gave the sha w/amperex tubes my first 'serious' listen.  Im amazed. Im not one to brag or  exaggerate, and Im the first to bitch when I don't like something, but this cheap sha has TOTALLY transformed my rig into 'I believe' the best sounding rig I have ever owned...  ...it sounds as  transparent, utterly detailed with incredible imaging...  and this is with my cheap chinese tuber ($100 6aq5 amp) and sansui (sp2700) speakers....  ...wait until I get my big waves (speakers) and dyna (modded st-70) back in the rig. i know then it will sound even more awesome.

(my reply to him, last nite):
your description of the sha-1 is why i have always loved my melos pre - dynamic, detailed, extended, transparent, excellent imaging/soundstaging, w/o being over-done...

(dave's reply to me, this a.m.):
dynamic is a good way to describe the sha.  I never thought any preamp could have such a profound effect on the performance of a rig.  after 12 years Im still learnin'

doug s.

[guest1632]

recent (and i mean yesterday) comments from my bud who yust bought a melos sha-1:

(dave, yesterday):
I just gave the sha w/amperex tubes my first 'serious' listen.  Im amazed. Im not one to brag or  exaggerate, and Im the first to bitch when I don't like something, but this cheap sha has TOTALLY transformed my rig into 'I believe' the best sounding rig I have ever owned...  ...it sounds as  transparent, utterly detailed with incredible imaging...  and this is with my cheap chinese tuber ($100 6aq5 amp) and sansui (sp2700) speakers....  ...wait until I get my big waves (speakers) and dyna (modded st-70) back in the rig. i know then it will sound even more awesome.

(my reply to him, last nite):
your description of the sha-1 is why i have always loved my melos pre - dynamic, detailed, extended, transparent, excellent imaging/soundstaging, w/o being over-done...

(dave's reply to me, this a.m.):
dynamic is a good way to describe the sha.  I never thought any preamp could have such a profound effect on the performance of a rig.  after 12 years Im still learnin'

doug s.

Hi Doug,

I saw the one up there on the Gon for 600 bucks. I guess the manufacturer doesn't exist any more? I don't need the phono, but I guess it would be good to have. So you go in there and replace the cheap pots with good stuff. Any idea of the output impedance?

Ray

[doug s.]

hi ray,

afaik, the maestro doesn't have a fono stage; it's basically an sha-gold-r, but w/o the photentiometer pots.  don't get me wrong - the pots aren't bad -they're good alps pots.  but you're not gonna find any pots, even hi-dollar dact/etc, that are more transparent than the photentiometer pots.  unless you could get mark porzilli to install his hi-zoot tube pot mod, which melos audio restoration offered for ~$700...  you will still love the melos sha-1 or maestro w/the alps pots - when i first bought my ma333r (two box dual-mono iteration), it had the alps pots, cuz the photentiometers had awreddy gone bad on it - they work fine, but don't ship well.  it was fantastic, i enjoyed it for several years, before i had a tube wolume pot installed by mar. 

yes, melos is outta biz, but my ~13 year old modded ma333 is still going strong...  at $1500, this one is more expensive, but if you have the cash, this is a fantastic deal here:

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?preatube&1208489605


this one is similar to mine, mine is silver, & has separate l/r wolume pots; that one looks like it's not been modded, which means it has a single wolume pot for both channels, & a separate balance control.  and, it also does have the outboard fono stage.  if you buy it & don't need the fono, mebbe i will make an offer to you for it?     the guy doesn't wanna ship - i suspect he's concerned about damaging the photentiometer pot, if it's still intact...

re: output impedance, i don't recall exactly, but i know it's low, (applies to all the melos pre's) - something like 150 ohms, or even less.  i know it can easily drive a pair of 5m cables into a 12kohm input impedance, when a rogue magnum 99 preamp couldn't...

doug s.

recent (and i mean yesterday) comments from my bud who yust bought a melos sha-1:

(dave, yesterday):
I just gave the sha w/amperex tubes my first 'serious' listen.  Im amazed. Im not one to brag or  exaggerate, and Im the first to bitch when I don't like something, but this cheap sha has TOTALLY transformed my rig into 'I believe' the best sounding rig I have ever owned...  ...it sounds as  transparent, utterly detailed with incredible imaging...  and this is with my cheap chinese tuber ($100 6aq5 amp) and sansui (sp2700) speakers....  ...wait until I get my big waves (speakers) and dyna (modded st-70) back in the rig. i know then it will sound even more awesome.

(my reply to him, last nite):
your description of the sha-1 is why i have always loved my melos pre - dynamic, detailed, extended, transparent, excellent imaging/soundstaging, w/o being over-done...

(dave's reply to me, this a.m.):
dynamic is a good way to describe the sha.  I never thought any preamp could have such a profound effect on the performance of a rig.  after 12 years Im still learnin'

doug s.

Hi Doug,

I saw the one up there on the Gon for 600 bucks. I guess the manufacturer doesn't exist any more? I don't need the phono, but I guess it would be good to have. So you go in there and replace the cheap pots with good stuff. Any idea of the output impedance?

Ray

[dorokusai]

Wasn't the Melos originally designed to be a headphone amplifier? Anyways, I've heard a SHA-1  in my travels and it's stunning sonically.

Mark

[doug s.]

Wasn't the Melos originally designed to be a headphone amplifier? Anyways, I've heard a SHA-1  in my travels and it's stunning sonically.

Mark

the sha-1 has a headfone amp built-in, that many headfone fanatics still think is among the best ever made.  but, it also has a fantastic preamp, tho w/limited inputs (2 or 3, depending on when made), and only a wolume pot & source selection.  the sha-gold/sha-gold-r/maestro iteration added more inputs, remote wolume control, balance control, & a passive pre option, tho everyone says the active is best...  i understand that the early (nla) $450 dodd preamp was basically this preamp in a much smaller package, & w/o headfone amp...

doug s.

doug s.

[Steve]

 "The one thing I've heard consistent is the 6922 tubes get noisy fairly fast."

Hi Ray,

     Just saw your post. To address your question of the 6922s, I had one customer discuss and order new tubes. He ran his 24/7 and got approx 21,000 hours from his in my preamp. It will vary with other preamps of course. (I did have a couple of tubes that went bad with less than 100 hours though, but I don't know if one would count those since they were obviously defective.)

Cheers.
Steve

[doug s.]

"The one thing I've heard consistent is the 6922 tubes get noisy fairly fast."

Hi Ray,

     Just saw your post. To address your question of the 6922s, I had one customer discuss and order new tubes. He ran his 24/7 and got approx 21,000 hours from his in my preamp. It will vary with other preamps of course. (I did have a couple of tubes that went bad with less than 100 hours though, but I don't know if one would count those since they were obviously defective.)

Cheers.
Steve

i have at least 20k hours on the four 6922's in my pre, & i am only considering replacing them "just because".  the pre still sounds great, & there's no noise at all...

hell, now that i actually think about the way i use my stereo, it being on ~110 hours/week, there has to be easily over 30k hours on the tubes...  i have four fresh amperex quads sitting there - mebbe i should check out a new set...   

doug s.

doug s.