[icefox]

I believe Icefox has gotten his SL preamp back and is working on putting together a vinyl rig too.....  

This is right about a month ago. I am indeed very sorry to say, the repaired SL Pre "Die Erleuchtung Reference" got fucked AGAIN after 1.5 month of operation. It's the second time.

I do have some serious concerns over the reliability of SL's hybrid gear.

Thanks god and touch wood, the RG4 and the CD player still work okay.

Shipping the thing back and forth for fixing is a pain in the arse. I am not impressed.

The analogue will be coming in 2-3 weeks time.

[Marbles]

I've only heard the amps, and I am suitably impressed.

What's Happening with the Pre?  How does the pre sound (when working)?

[Guan]

Hi Icefox,

I have just got my CR Developments Kastor tube pre-amp repaired. But I only needed to send it to a competent local HK based tube technician. He also upgraded my Mesa Baron tube amp with AN pio caps and kiwame resistors and huge SCR power supply caps. No problems and very good workmanship.

PM me for further details. I know how it feels to have temperamental tube equipment mate!

Guan

[bob82274]

I am curious in that how hard would it be to assemble one that had an optical input?  That has been my problem in that I made the mistake of buying a cd player with only Toslink out.  It would require me to use the Monarchy dip (or a similar device) to convert it over to an ART DI/O or Scotts Dac.  I may be upgrading my cdplayer in the near future so it probably isn't going to be a problem.

[doug s.]

hi rob,

i was all excited to try my new aiwa transport (toslink digital out only), w/a gw-labs dsp between it & my di/o  (the gw-labs dsp is basically the monarchy dip & upsampler combined in one box.)  well, it was unlistenable w/the upsampling;  and w/no upsampling, it was no change over my prewious nad coax-output transport.  so, i returned the gw-labs thing to audio adwisor, & got one of these, which works great, & costs less $$$.  there's even cheaper ones out there, but this one was the only one to provide jitter specs:

http://www.rackups.com/fpspr1.htm

i tink it was ~$90, from full compass (joel is nice, at x1116)

unless/until my upgraded caps/diodes/powercord aiwa xm37 5-disc changer gives up the ghost, i won't be replacing it any time soon!  

doug s.

[Jay S]

This is right about a month ago. I am indeed very sorry to say, the repaired SL Pre "Die Erleuchtung Reference" got fucked AGAIN after 1.5 month of operation. It's the second time.

I do have some serious concerns over the reliability of SL's hybrid gear.

Thanks god and touch wood, the RG4 and the CD player still work okay.

Shipping the thing back and forth for fixing is a pain in the arse. I am not impressed.

The analogue will be coming in 2-3 weeks time.

That really sucks!  Sorry to hear that the pre has been problematic.  Its especially frustrating since your electronics are all SL.  What seems to be the problem?

[icefox]

I've only heard the amps, and I am suitably impressed.

What's Happening with the Pre?  How does the pre sound (when working)?

Marble,

Sorry, I don't think I'm in a position to comment yet. I first received the unit on early July 02. The total time for the pre amp that is switched on is probably less than 90 days (consider it has been returned once to Germany for first repair for more than a month), the time that I can critically auditon the unit is less than 20 days before it failed for the 2nd time. I think I'll refrain myself from giving a definitive comment on its sonics at this point. It's simply unfair to it, the sort of improvent one can see as it run-in is quite phenomenal, especially for SL gear. I don't think I reach even an early stage of the proper run-in phase yet.

All I can say is, when it works, it sings...... all I want now is to get the incident resolved properly and have a SL pre returning to me that can sing in a reliable manner.

I can't help asking where is the rock-solid German engineering heritage. This is a brand new amp of significant amount of money. I do expect more than that.

Life might be easier if I speak German.

[klaus@odyssey]

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[icefox]

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Klaus please check PM.