[cd45123]

Has anyone heard these two and compared? I would be interested in understanding the sonic differences of these units.

I currently run an NP1 with the Vision RB. Looking to get a more holographic sound, possibly add a little warmth although I may experiment with that further upstream.

Thanks

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Get the FET Valve.  It is their top preamp and sounds the best.  Both are very good but the FET is better.  I heard them both and I have done several reviews of their gear for AVAHiFi.  The FET really responds to tube rolling.

By the way, their preamp/DAC is awesome.  It is very holographic and almost 3D.  It is neutral sounding.  The sound stage is huge. 

If you want to warm things up a bit, look into Duelund 16g RCA or XLR cables on ebay.  I bought both and they definitely warmed things up.

[cd45123]

Appreciate it, thanks. I have also been giving that digital pre/DAC a hard look, too.

[hawkmoon]

One beauty of the fet-valve series is the ability to “voice” the sound through different tubes.  Once you have the preamp running in your system for awhile, change the tubes!   Mullard, Siemens, RCA all add a little something to the sound.  I find this ability very useful.

[WGH]

I wrote a review about tube swapping in the Fet Valve CFR preamp.

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=180635.msg1898392#msg1898392

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Appreciate it, thanks. I have also been giving that digital pre/DAC a hard look, too.

The Digital preamp is not warm, it is neutral.  But like I stated earlier, if you want to warm things up look at Duelund RCA interconnects.  They do warm things up, especially the 16g vs the 20g.   

https://www.ebay.com/itm/225856575360?_skw=duelund++rca+cables&itmmeta=01K3KSS4VN8FP75G15CRSYXT3P&hash=item349619d780:g:BBsAAOSw~Jhfko0t&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1cSaG%2FiOOWwRWpUr%2BKpzXL1XxXgxwsVccZYVKi%2BRu7T4ovT6yJxYUTtusvubTXihSr2OakAQbnDNPC6XN4NuTnweTP%2BsAnvoacjFI1MA3%2By9WU%2FMgKt5UuJbB9wrAgOqBBDDaQiQJCnlf5l3mO2oNcc8Lfl9IdIO5CSt716RZtY4dyt2PLmrpCUKADKiE9ajkqNvaTtdtgLvcgMYDre9Ch08FP5Gqt59Qvs2rZohIs31DCh8yMqQL%2FD9tcLR00RkyU%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4LO5PmcZg

I bought 2 cables from the site above.  It took about 3 weeks to get them.  There is a guy in Detriot area that sells the 20g cables.  I tried messaging him if he can make the 16g cables but he never responded.

[YungestMarco]

You should go with the fet valve cfr. There are a lot of 12at7 and 12au7s to choose when when rolling tubes.
A big benefit to the SLR chassis over the RB chassis is having the low gain button. The additional headroom allows for more clarity and dynamic range, especially with efficient speakers.