[texasphile]

(like...uh...how did that Blue Circle integrated sound?)

I REALLY enjoyed the Blue Circle Integrated coupled with the Opus 21.  I spent more time in the room with those components and the monitor sized speakers than the room with the full range speakers.  I really liked the finish on the Focus speakers.  The Blue Circle was a little tricky with the knobs taking a bit more effort than with components I was familiar with.  Thanks for sending the components, I appreciated the gesture.

Chris

[arthurs]

I thought the Blue Circle and the Opus with the Gallo's was remarkably good.

[marvda1]

i'm going to try the blue circle in my system.  they also make a lower wattage integrated. here's the link to blue circle and brian they do have a remote option.  http://www.bluecircle.com/index.php?menu_id=3175
marvin

here's the link for the smaller amp.  
http://www.bluecircle.com/index.php?menu_id=50

[brj]

i'm going to try the blue circle in my system.  they also make a lower wattage integrated. here's the link to blue circle and brian they do have a remote option.

Yes, I looked at their website prior to the jam and saw the remote for the smaller amp.  They don't offer a remote for the Shalco switch equiped larger amp, however, which is what we were lucky enough to audition at the jam.

[PhilNYC]

Hey guys, glad you enjoyed the gear!

Regarding the BC integrateds, the NSCS (the one you guys demoed) shares the same preamp stage as the CS (the lower-powered one), but the amp stages are different.  The NSCS shares the design from Blue Circle's 200-series amps, which are fully balanced and use what Gilbert calls "True Balanced Output" (which means both positive and negative speaker binding posts supply active signal to the speakers).  The CS is a single-ended design similar to the 20-series amps...

[DTB300]

Someone also brought in a solid state pre-amp that we dropped in at the tail end of this session. It was built into a Legacy Audio chassis. I forget the name of the guy that brought it and the name of the gentleman that built it, but it was really nice sounding. This is the best sounding solid state pre-amp that I have heard in a long time. It was a close comparison in some ways to the Dodd pre-amp that we were using and I rarely hear anything that can hold its own against that pre-amp. The Dodd still had a more airy and more detailed top end to it but in many other areas it was really close. I wonder if it was using any DC coupling caps in the output and if so what they were?

Neither of the people in question in the quote above are members of the Audio Circle (so they can read, but cannot post) and they have asked me to post something for them.   Remember I am just the messenger here and I did not attend the Jam as it is quite a drive from the East Coast (so don’t shoot the messenger) If you respond to any of this, please direct your response to the peoples names mentioned below within your post.  

The person who brought the Pre Amp was Craig, and the person who designed, implemented and built the Pre Amp was Charles.  I asked Charles about the design of the Pre Amp, since Danny was asking if it used DC Coupling Caps and what type they were….

Charles responded:

  “There are no capacitors any where in the signal or feedback path of the pre-amp. It is direct coupled from front to back.  The version at the Texas Jam is of Dual Mono construction with separate transformers for each channel and separate secondary windings, rectifiers & filter caps for each of the +/- supply rails for each channel. The unit also contains separate high-quality discrete +/- regulators for each channel.  Other versions can be built with different power supply variations depending on how far you want to go, but the model at the show is the top configuration at this point in time.”


Craig who brought the unit to the Jam has asked me to post his impressions.


To start out with, The Audio By Alexander Pre Amp is the least sounding pre amp that I know of and I have heard MANY MANY models, Tube and Solid State, in many settings.  Danny stated that it was a close comparison to the Dodd?  I did not think so.  If it was "close," then why did Danny ask Gary Dodd how long it takes for his Pre Amp to warm up when the Dodd was reinserted into the system after only having Mr. Alexander's pre amp in the system for 10 minutes?  The Dodd had been in the system for several hours previous to that - hardly enough time to cool off that much iron. Or for that matter, did you mention how loud the music was in the next room?  The music was even louder when the Alexander was being auditioned.  I personally find it easier to tune out sounds emanating from another room than I can tune out noise added to a signal emanating from speakers being listened to. With no warm up or excuses, the Audio By Alexander Pre Amp was well received, as noted by your enjoyment of the unit and IMHO sounded better.

During this evaluation and listening session, I was then told that I was not in the sweet spot for the speakers. This is funny to me since the speaker designer himself mentions a "wide sweet spot" on his web site.  And, since I remained in the same spot for both pre amps, I was comparing apples to apples and I know what I heard. Throwing untrue terms about is what drives people away from this hobby.

“Airy” and “Detailed” are contradictory terms for me. Air in this setting was "tube sound", which tends to mask low level resolution.  For the Audio By Alexander Pre Amp, throw in a nice face plate with a few well chosen words from a respected audio reviewer and Mr. Alexander can charge $6K. A current Lamm L2 "Reference" pre amp owner is selling his $14K Lamm to go with the Audio by Alexander. The man, a tube guy, also had the same concerns about high end air missing. A variable pot that can custom dial in the desired 2nd order distortion to the end user's satisfaction can be added for a nominal extra charge. I can't for the life of me grasp how tube people can hear more detail through the air that is 2nd order distortion since in reality this added haze tends to mask lower level resolution.

There are no DC coupling capacitors in the Audio By Alexander. As we all know, they have their adverse effects to any signal. A properly designed pre amp as this is, inherently has negligible DC offset in the first place so coupling capacitors are not necessary. Thus the input signal is not inverted. Ciao.

[JoshK]

Is this Audio by Alexander Pre Amp unobtanium or can one find out more about it?  I googled it but nothing came back.

[Danny Richie]

Thanks DBT300.

Pass on to Charles that he did a nice job with it. I liked it. It sounded really good, and that such praise from me does not come lightly.

To Craig in regards to this,

If it was "close," then why did Danny ask Gary Dodd how long it takes for his Pre Amp to warm up when the Dodd was reinserted into the system after only having Mr. Alexander's pre amp in the system for 10 minutes?

I asked Gary this because I wanted to play the same track as soon as possible but knew that the tube pre-amp needed time to power back up before playing. It was not a turn on and immediately get sound type of deal. 30 seconds or so are needed.

During this evaluation and listening session, I was then told that I was not in the sweet spot for the speakers. This is funny to me since the speaker designer himself mentions a "wide sweet spot" on his web site. And, since I remained in the same spot for both pre amps, I was comparing apples to apples and I know what I heard. Throwing untrue terms about is what drives people away from this hobby.

Craig was off to the left to be nearly straight in line with the left speaker. Despite a rather generously sized sweet spot he was not in it. I was sitting dead center, and asked if he wanted to sit where I was as a curtsey.

With my seating position and my reference music he made not have had the perspective that I did.

Their pre-amp sounded nice top to bottom, but in comparison the Dodd unit appeared to have more upper level detail and had an airy feel to it that was not there in the solid state pre-amp. It was enough of a difference to be noticed quickly. The guy sitting next to me agreed. I preferred the Dodd pre-amp.

All of this is subjective and so is the way I describe what I hear.

Throwing untrue terms about is what drives people away from this hobby.

My choice of descriptive terms can hardly be called untrue because someone disagrees with them, and suggesting such is a bit offensive.

[arthurs]

He's a local guy and has only made a couple of them to date is what I have been told.  It was a very nice pre, I think both are very nice pre's, they have their differences, but I doubt anyone would be disappointed with either.  I think you're reading about subjective listener preferences and nuance here, and there's never any way to reconcile that, which by extension means neither can be wrong, IMO.  I also think this is what Danny is saying close to the end of his post.

[DTB300]

I think you're reading about subjective listener preferences and nuance here, and there's never any way to reconcile that, which by extension means neither can be wrong, IMO.  

A reply from Charles...

Art is right on in his evaluation of the situation. What you like is to a great deal dependent on what you are used to listening to and the nuances of that equipment. The design goal of the preamp I built is to not have nuances as much as possible, but to amplify the signal while preserving the original content of the signal. Nothing added was the goal. To evaluate that you must compare live to reproduced. The best test would be to record acoustic instruments in your room and then play them back. We'll have to hire a jazz trio next time(I guess we could have played one preamp through the other to see which one caused the most change).  As far as critical listening in the environment at the session, it was next to impossible to me because this was a social and networking get together and was more for fun than critical evaluation. There was too much switching in and out of equipment and talk and two systems going at the same time to really make accurate critical evaluations. But hey, it was fun and that's what it was all about!

Charles...

[PhilNYC]

Hey Jammers...fyi, the Blue Circle NSCS integrated just got its first review on Positive-Feedback.com:

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue21/nscsintegrated.htm