Superphon Preamp

mrmusic · « **on:** 12 Oct 2005, 12:31 am »

Why do you own a high quality stereo? If it is to impress your friends and family, read no further. If you are seeking to improve your appreciation of your favorite music, then you've come to the right place. The SUPERPHON REVELATION III is the cleanest, clearest, and most neutral control preamplifier we have ever produced. The legendary Revelation Basic held that title for years at anywhere near it's price range. The Revelation III takes performance to a new level, regardless of price! There are no secrects here, just a great design with the best parts and meticulous construction. We believe the REVELATION III has the lowest sonic coloration, and signature currently available. Our recent experience at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest has only served to support our belief. Hand building each one means unit to unit quality control will be maintained. The preamp you hear at a dealer or club meeting will sound exactly like the one you buy. Just break it in and leave it on...incredible sound will be at your fingertips. visit our website at www.superphon.com or call me Chuck Jones at 541-579-1374. The best is now, and it is affordable.
Chuck Jones, Superphon Inc.

Marbles · « **Reply #1 on:** 12 Oct 2005, 03:41 am »

Quote from: mrmusic

There are no secrects here, just a great design with the best parts and meticulous construction....

The site needs some work.

If you can, get rid of the adverts.

Show us at least a picture of the back.

Give us some specs.

If your going to talk about the "best parts", at least tell us what they are...., you know, Dact volume control etc...

Best of luck, and I'm looking forward to listening to the unit in my system.

JLM · « **Reply #2 on:** 12 Oct 2005, 10:45 am »

"SP100 buffered passive"

Never read of such a beast, please tell more.

mrmusic · « **Reply #3 on:** 12 Oct 2005, 01:31 pm »

When i refer to the parts, They include four pole jensen capacitiors,For the power supply. high quality toroidal transformer, premium rca,s from Vampire, vishay Dale resistors, DACT volume control, Premium selector switch from electro switch, And internaly wired with reality cable wire. I agree our website needs help and it is something i'm working on fixing soon.

Marbles · « **Reply #4 on:** 12 Oct 2005, 02:42 pm »

Thank you.

That's exactly what I was looking for, and will hopefully be on your site soon.

mrmusic · « **Reply #5 on:** 13 Oct 2005, 02:07 am »

Quote from: JLM

"SP100 buffered passive"

Never read of such a beast, please tell more.

Are you refering to the SP100 being the industries first buffered passive?? Also what more would you like me to tell you???

Brimsley · « **Reply #6 on:** 13 Oct 2005, 06:47 am »

Quote from: mrmusic

Quote from: JLM
"SP100 buffered passive"

Never read of such a beast, please tell more.

Are you refering to the SP100 being the industries first buffered passive?? Also what more would you like me to tell you???

Sigh.

He's toying with you.

JLM · « **Reply #7 on:** 13 Oct 2005, 10:58 am »

Chuck,

Do you build/sell a passive buffer or not? Why be coy?

I have an all battery system and would like to add a buffer that keeps me off the AC grid. A passive tube buffer would be even better.

JoshK · « **Reply #8 on:** 13 Oct 2005, 01:54 pm »

passive tube buffer is an oxymoron, unless the tube is there for looks. A tube (as well as a transistor) is an active component, therefore it isn't a passive buffer.

A buffered passive is a loosely used phrase to mean a zero gain buffer stage.

mrmusic · « **Reply #9 on:** 14 Oct 2005, 01:38 am »

Thanks, Josh your explanation is right on the money!

douglesc · « **Reply #10 on:** 14 Oct 2005, 08:18 am »

I have to say that on tuesday night I heard a proto type of what will be the new new 300S. I believe it will have 150w into 8 and 300 into 4, thus 300S.

That said I was mighty impressed, it was sweet, liquid and it DID NOT have any of that dryness that some switching amps have. What it did have in spades was RESOLUTION of the tinyest details that get veiled with so many other amps. It is and was addicting and makes you want one.
If you want to talk to me I am at 5032549315, cell 5038060487 and yes Chuck and Stan are friends but I am not with the company.
My Speakers are von schweikerts vr4 that were moded to vr5.
In a few days I am going to hook up my Classe Omicron and see what I think. If anyone wants to know what I find out I would answer.
Doug

Marbles · « **Reply #11 on:** 22 Oct 2005, 02:08 pm »

Rick Craig · « **Reply #12 on:** 22 Oct 2005, 05:46 pm »

I used to have a Superphon preamp and amplifier. Stan's designs always sounded good to me and were reasonably priced.

mrmusic · « **Reply #13 on:** 23 Oct 2005, 12:16 am »

Quote from: Rick Craig

I used to have a Superphon preamp and amplifier. Stan's designs always sounded good to me and were reasonably priced.

Rick i agree Stans designs always have and still do sound good. Although with the cost of parts and labor these days our new products do cost more. You get what you pay for. I honestly feel you'll be hard pressed to find anything that is much better at any price.
Chuck Jones SUPERPHON INC.

douglesc · « **Reply #14 on:** 13 Nov 2005, 12:48 pm »

First off I have to say that I have owned the Omicron since March of 03 and that after having it for almost a year....... I wasn't that impressed........ until I took several Q tips and some 99% alcohol and cleaned the speaker terminals, I then preceded to clean everything from the RCA to inside the RCA jacks (shredding the cotton on a Q tip will enable you to put it inside the RCA jack).........DRENCH that Q tip with alcohol and rub it down good. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!!! I did this to everything and if you haven't done this then you may be in for a shock. Make sure you tighten down your speaker terminals also.
The Omicron is in my opinion, one of the BEST super amps out on the market today. I can't think of one analog product that would outperform it.

That said we did a side by side comparison of the New (prototype) 300S Superphon Switching amp (based on Hypex's module) and the Classe Omicron with all clean terminals. One thing on the 300S is that this proto type is not as good as the production one will be. The production one will have a bigger power supply and a few other things done to the power supply as well.The Prototype has a 500 watt transformer and the production one will have about a 650 watt. Enough said about this as I don't want to make a big deal about this.
The Omicron is big and powerful sounding while sounding rich and clean, detailing is as good as it gets you say to yourself.
Then we switched to the 300S and the 1st thing I noticed...... it was not quite as rich in harmonics and maybe the highs weren't quite as strong.
Let me say that while this is true, the 300S is not thin or dry or anemic AT ALL.
It is on the sweet side and very analog like. After listening to disc after disc what you notice is the EXTREME CLARITY. Superphon is using a near zero phase circuit in all their products that really makes a difference. Phase = time and zero phase simply means that nothing is out of time. Phase issues usually occur with the use of feedback where the feedback gets out of time (step) with the signal creating phase shift (out of time). This issue is compounded with layers upon layers from different components like a cd player, which could be one layer, then the preamp is another, and then the power amp.
I Became so totally lost in the music from this SUPER CLEAR AND SUPER DETAILED SOUND that I didn't think there was that much information on the disc in the first place. EVERYTHING was so seperated out now. I do believe that so much of this clearity is caused by the lack of phase blurr. Everything we played from acoustic guitar to voice, it now had it own place so you could hear deep into the stage and pick out information that gets blurred out. An Absolutely STUNNING PRODUCT. I am buying one and am very much looking forward to it.
The Omicron is good but not as good as this 300S is and the difference is not that little, not IMO.
When you factor in that the Omicron is not portable at all and sucks juice from the wall like a gas hog. And that it cost $12000 new......you get my drift. Also the 300S has that super tight bass with each defining note.
If your source is up to it and your pre amp will pass all the information........... I know you will be as impressed as I was.
A MUST have product.

mrmusic · « **Reply #15 on:** 14 Nov 2005, 03:34 am »

Thank you Douglesc for having the intestinal fortitude to tell it like it is! There is little I can add to your comments except a little clarification. We looked at several switching technologies and chose Hypex for the excellent design of their comparator/power stage. The input circuit is entirely our own, and does use the low-phase gain circuit shared by the gain version of our Revelation III preamplifier. We are trying our best to build the cleanest window in audio and it is gratifying to see that you appreciated it. Your comments about source components needing to be up to par is correct. I think anyone will notice a reduction in haze and blur with the 300S, but those with similarly clear sources and preamps will be amazed at how much more sound is revealed when the fog is lifted. The design work is done and we await estimates. The first delivery should be in early winter 2006. Target price is $2500 (pending those estimates!). Again, thanks for your comments and does this mean you want serial number 01?