[kbuzz3]

I have been lurking for quite a bit and am quite fascinated by vinnie's amps.  To date Ive been a sole user of tube preamps for reference. What are folks doing with thier clarits, and lotus amps.

Is there anything inherrent to vinnies design and execution which lends itself to use a red wine passive pre....has anyone tried vinnie's stuff with tube pre....thanks

[miklorsmith]

The Modwright SWL 9.0 SE tubed unit is outstanding with Vinnie's amp.

[Dmason]

If I were to use a tube pre, I would head straight for full sized Octal tubes for a Big Phat Sound, gives you the sound of the tube in no uncertain terms, and having heard a SinglePower unit modded for active linestage with a ClariT and it was WONDERFUL. A real Tone-Monkey. To my ears, the miniature triodes don't mix as well, having compared excellent examples of both.

 I honestly believe that ~most tube pre's get in the way of the ClariT, but Octals, especially the 6sn7 have this insane synergy with the T sonic signature, and I wouldn't attempt to describe it except to say warm, relaxed, ...a high calorie type sound. Phat!!  Lloyd Peppard D.Eng.,  right here at Mapletree Audio makes some seriously cool Octal stuff that regularly gets great reviews. He makes a minimalist linestage, the 2A, using 6sn7's, (which are included,) and a separate tube rectified powersupply which is supposed to be killer. That would be my choice, it is not expensive, and it qualiifies for Less=More by way of its implementation.   The Line 2A by Mapletree methinks would be a killer little tube stage for the ClariT...if you want to go up the ladder, head straight for the deHavilland Verve line.

[miklorsmith]

The Modwright unit uses the small triodes Dmason is referring to - 5687 types.  It is not warm, relaxed, or pfat.  It is dead-silent, even with very high-efficiency speakers, incisive, and fast.  It adds tube-dimension without the lush elements inherent to other designs.  Tonality is extremely even from the lowest bass to highest treble, it is a tube pre with an evenhanded signature.  It is not brittle or rough in any way.

I have not heard any 6sn7-based units and cannot comment directly on those.  Dmason's distaste for small triode tubes is surely well-founded in his personal experience and I happen to like mine very much - it all comes down to personal preferences, the particular piece, and the system.

I would venture that the choice of preamp is more aimed at your speakers than the amp.  My Clari-T is defined by its speed and precision.  It sounds like the recording.  My speakers are pretty full-bodied themselves and might be filling in the organics Dmason finds missing from my type of preamp.  Conversely, a warmer preamp might lead to a mushy, undefined sound from MY particular system.

If your speakers tend toward the clinical side, a preamp that softens and fills out the presentation might be just the ticket.  Generally, I think the speakers should be the basis for system building anyway.

[Dmason]

Good point. The speakers paired with the triode pre example I cited, (Dynaudio Contour 1.8MkII)  sounds fabulous, and with T amps as well. I agree that it would come down to the speakers. For some reason, the Visaton B200 really liked full size Octal tubes, perhaps I should have qualified this. It is possible triodes will be more suitable for another speaker, even wide rangers. It really is like a sonic Rubik's Cube. For example, miniature 12A-- series triodes sound amazing with 300B triode driver tubes, where an Octal tubed pre makes it all sound thick and sometimes mushy. I would recommend listening to several implementations of tube pre before making ANY decision. Difficult but essential I would say.