Questions about Mcalister Audio

Frihed91 · « **on:** 18 Jun 2006, 09:48 am »

I looked at Mcalister Audio's webpage and contacted Peter Mcalister about a pre-amp and a push-pull amp to drive my "conventional" (no horns) speakers. It turns out that is web page is out of date. He is trying to interest me in a SE-44, but i am not so sure that it can drive the Harbeth C-7s to which i hope to upgrade from Quad 12Ls (plus some Audiovector fllor standers you aren't familiar with).

To move on, here are my questions:
1. Has anyone heard any of his equipment; if so, how does it sound compared to....?
2. I have read comments that he is slow. How slow?
3. Is he reliable, in general, in the sense that he keeps his word; makes good on commitments; and ships "bug-free" equipment.
4. Anything else i should know?

Thanks,

John
Copenahgen

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #1 on:** 19 Jun 2006, 04:27 am »

Could you provide a link to his webpage?

Gordy · « **Reply #2 on:** 19 Jun 2006, 04:34 am »

I just happened to have saved it from an earlier post.... http://www.mcalisteraudio.com/

wafermadness · « **Reply #3 on:** 19 Jun 2006, 05:54 am »

Hi all, I met Peter mid-July 2003 and bought his SE-30 SET amp. I brought over a pair of Kinima G-1 bookshelf speakers (90db eff) and some cd's. Needless to say, I took the amp home and started looking for a tube preamp for Peter to upgrade. Found a nice Dynaco PAS3 and he did a major overhaul/upgrade. Eventually built a T-Line pair of speakers using the Zeteg drivers (as found in the G-1) and find the quality of music extremely satisfying.

I have put in my order to Peter for an SE-44 and his pre-amp (I will be suppling the rack-mount cabinets purchased at a very low price last year) only because I want to bi-amp the speakers and shake the dust in my basement.

Now to answer your questions:
1. I will NEVER go back to transistors for serious 2-ch listening
2. I believe Peter is a Fanatic when he is in his "zone"....dim-witted he is not. If you mean does it take a while to hand build each customer order and test it, burn it in, then yes we all HAVE to wait our turn.
3. Yes
4. What else do you need to know? I may have one (SE-44) to listen to and burn-in for a couple of days, so I will take some pics and email to whoever wants them.

Best Regards
Igor
Mississauga, Ontario

Frihed91 · « **Reply #4 on:** 19 Jun 2006, 07:59 am »

Thanks, Igor, for your input. They have to be a little "mad" in the first place to be good.

So, you haven't heard the SE 44, yet? And I gather your speakers are high efficiency. Mine are not. The only high efficiency speakers I reall like are AN, but I can't afford them.

You did own his SE 30. Did you get a chance to compare that with other SETs? How is the bass, and how fast is the amp?

Have you heard any of his push-pull designs? He seems open to exploring almost any option. I guess I'll have to keep talking with him.

How long will it take to build your two pieces of equipment?

Thanks again,

John

wafermadness · « **Reply #5 on:** 19 Jun 2006, 03:12 pm »

Hey John,

I still have the SE-30 and I like it a lot, never found it lacking for anything. I did some reading about tube equipment before actively looking for a tube amp, and had quite a lot of wrong ideas about tube stuff from reading "reviews" and other comments on the net. Back in the 80's , I had a tube preamp, the Audible Illusions Mini-Mite 2, which I never should have sold.
But, no, I have not compared it to other SET amps, because I find no need to. I did find out that any piece of tube gear properly DESIGNED, has no change in sound character when changing tubes. Something to ponder, I know. Peter indeed tells it like it is. I like that. So when Peter described his dual Mono design to me a few months ago and the fact that each channel has 4 output tubes and larger hand-wound output transformers than the SE-30 with only 2 output tubes/ch I knew I would want one in my system for certain.

I heard an older push/pull design when I first visited Peter back in July 2003 and it rocked.

I am hoping to get my 2 units in 6-8 weeks on account of all the orders "in house" placed before me. I asked if I paid him ALL the $$$ right away, maybe my goodZ could be ready sooner......damn his integrity, he smiled and said "sorry, fair is fair."

Good luck in your quest for stress-free listening.

Igor

Frihed91 · « **Reply #6 on:** 19 Jun 2006, 03:54 pm »

Very encouraging. I believe he is honest and direct and can make good musical instruments. Let us know how it sounds.

John

wafermadness · « **Reply #7 on:** 3 Jul 2006, 09:27 pm »

Had about 2 hours of listening time on the SE-44 today before Peter had to take the amp home and pack it up for shipment to the lucky guy in B.C. Makes me glad I ordered one a few weeks ago,as it will do quite nicely in a bi-amp setup with my 2-way spkrs. We just listened to a bi-wired spkr set-up today. Compared to my 3-year-old SE-30, this amp is raising the bar just that nice notch higher we all want. Anyone who thinks SET amps have that lovely "tube-rolled" midrange BLOOM, and do not do well at the "other" frequency extremes, hasn't heard a McAlister Audio SET amp!

It also looks damn fine.....Peter better change all those old ugly pics on his website. Email me for recent pics if you want.

This is going to be a swell summer for me AURALLY, as I also have a preamp on order too!

Regards
Igor

djstrachan · « **Reply #8 on:** 3 Jul 2006, 10:34 pm »

As the "lucky guy in BC" :thumb:I thought I should chime in.

Obviously I haven't receiver Peter's amp yet (hopefully 1 week) but I do have a preamp he modded for me that, in my opinion, bested the Eastern Electric MiniMax I was using. It has better bass, punchier mids and excellent extension and clarity up top.

Peter is "passionate" about what he does which is build tube amps and preamps. That doesn't mean he is the best in the business at everything but his heart (and mind) are in the right place. All my dealings have been great. He always responds to e-mails and phone calls and is never in a rush to hang up. He explains his theory in detail (most of which I do not understand) and explains why his amps will work with other equipment. He is good at letting me know where things stand and aside from very slight delays (1 week max which, for hand made one-offs is awfully good), he has hit all deadlines.

I understood from Peter that he thinks the SE 44 can easily drive anything 90db or higher. Below that you may have difficulty depending on your listening habits. The (my) SE 44 drove his electrostatics to normal listening levels without difficulty, according to Peter.

I dont' keep alot of gear on hand for comparison but have had ARC, and Eastern Electric preamps and Bryston, Yamaha and Consonance (DIY tube) amps.
I will be posting my impressions of the amp in my system over on the Hornshoppe discussion forum (Audiocircle) as I am the proud owner of a pair of Ed Schilling Horns.

Hope this helps.

Dave

rayd · « **Reply #9 on:** 4 Jul 2006, 11:55 am »

Igor, thanks so much for your impressions. I spent about 1 1/2 hours on the phone with Peter a few weeks back and he is a very nice guy and easy to talk to. I encourage anyone interested in his work to give him a ring and talk about what he might be able to do for you. He is very accessable and fun to talk to.

Peter is building me a new version of the SE-30 (an SE-32) which incorporates his handwound iron. I was tempted to go with the 44 but for my application, it's just too much power (my speaks are 95db efficient and my source output is 3.5 v). I am having a volume pot put in as I won't be using a pre. Other than that, I think it's a stock unit

Igor, sent you a PM, I'd love to see some pics.

Thanks,

- Ray

boead · « **Reply #10 on:** 5 Jul 2006, 02:27 am »

I spoke to Peter the other day and my preamp is nearly done. Was putting the face plate on as we spoke.

I got it with 6 inputs.
2 sets of variable output and
1 set of line level output.
I had the balance pot installed by bypassed.
2 headphone jack out the front and
2 red LED’s on the front.

(2) 12SN7
(2) 27GB5/PL500
(1) 5AR4

I should have it in about a week or so.

I wish he had a remote for it. I could find one and have in install it but it’s a few hundred bucks to do it.

I wish he would put a down-n-dirty phono gain stage. He makes GREAT phono amps but when I talked about doing something cheap he didn’t seem interested. If you even did a simple, single tube gain stage for MM carts it would be a very nice bonus.
I bought a Bellari for a couple of hundred and will make due with it.

I’m realty interested in what Dave and Ray have to say, especially Ray since he has basically my amp and speakers and I’m very familiar with the sound of his CAL DAC.

Frihed90 · « **Reply #11 on:** 6 Jul 2006, 12:57 pm »

Thanks for writing. Peter and i have been talking about the future power needs i might have. My dream speakers are a little hard to drive and, after giving him the specs and my information, he thought I needed about 60-65 wpc. So, i am close to ordering both a new preamp and PP model, once i get more information.

I notice that one of you has had both a PP and an SE amp of Peter's. Any comparisons you'd like to share?

Is the build quality of his new stuff good? Not just the cosmetics, but the over all construction? I own some Blue Circle equipment which is extremely well-made (and equally great sounding). Other than a Mapletree head amp, which I love, this is my first real forray into tube audio. So, it would be nice to have a tube amp that has some more modern SS qualities (speed, tight base) but retains the characteristics mid range texture.

Oh, bag the remote idea. I thought i needed one, but now years later i would feel like a sissy if i did. It's easy to get used to and the sacrifice to the volume control can be quite large. I understand that Peter uses an old Alps attentuator (no longer in production), which will run circles around a motorised pot. The latter are nosiy and imprecise.

Thanks for all the input. Let's keep this thread going, so we can leave a paper trail about our satisfaction with Peter's products.

John
Copenhagen

Frihed90 · « **Reply #12 on:** 6 Jul 2006, 01:00 pm »

My son just bought the Pro-ject tube box. Prior to that, he had the old SS model. These are really "low-end" price products. But the sound is amazingly good if the rest of your analogue equipment is good. Try it out.

Frihed91 · « **Reply #13 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 08:34 am »

I forgot my log on and email and so had to create another user.

Sorry to confuse anyone.

JohnR · « **Reply #14 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 09:10 am »

Quote from: Frihed91 on 7 Jul 2006, 08:34 am

I forgot my log on and email and so had to create another user.

Sorry to confuse anyone.

Um, you know, we do have a forum for login help. (Not singling you out but this seems to be a common theme lately...)

Frihed91 · « **Reply #15 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 10:02 am »

Um...No, i didn't know that. Thank you for telling me. It will not happen again. I apologise to all.

Frihed91 · « **Reply #16 on:** 10 Jul 2006, 04:37 pm »

Did you get your preamp yet? What was his original delvery date?

boead · « **Reply #17 on:** 25 Aug 2006, 05:07 pm »

Just got my McAlister PL-10 preamp / headphone amp

So far it sounds very nice, not broken in.

Its very handmade looking but solid sort of overkill but lacks refinement here and there. Can't complain for the price and it’s certainly unique.

Peter said he made a change to the topography. He said this is a special version that uses 4 12SN7's with a sweep tube and a rectifier in the power stage section, the sweep tube being a regulator.
It also has a Alps steeped attenuator. All the switches and knobs are tight and solid feeling, very nice! The sockets are also beefy as well as the RCA’s. Its certainly built like a tank.

So far its got lots of nice bass, much more so then my Van Alstine - certainly deeper - I'll need to adjust my subwoofer. I was also feeing tiny puffs of air on my ears from my Sennheiser headphones with deep rich bass notes.
Its definitely not bright but cymbals crashes and piano keys are coming through well and nicely balanced. Vocals are very sweet so far, nicely pronounced and a touch upfront. The more I listen the more I like it. Very alluring vocal range.
Soundstage is tightly focused so far and deep. I expect it will widen as it breaks in. But if it stayed as is, I can easily live with it.
If Peters SET sounds as good as this fresh out of the box preamp, I’m buying one! We’ll maybe not so fast, this preamp is making my Select sound like it’s never sounded before.
Lastly the drive is incredible; it’s actually too loud in my 25 x 30 foot living room before clipping!

I've been away for a week and I'm off again tonight so I won’t get to spend any time with it for a few days. I'll open the hood and take some photos.

Wiring is all solid-core silver, point to point. This unit needs a lot of time to break in.

Frihed91 · « **Reply #18 on:** 27 Aug 2006, 02:54 pm »

Thank Boed,

Peter recently sent me a picture of your preamp before he shipped it. I wasn't aware it was a different circuit. Peter and i have yet to talk about that, since he is building me a power amplifier first.

I am glad it sounds so good right ot of the box. Keep us informed.

Two questions:

How does the headphone amp sound, and

How was the packing job?

John

Frihed91 · « **Reply #19 on:** 27 Aug 2006, 02:59 pm »

Actually, I think he sen me pictures of another preamp. What is the advantage of the 4X12 SN7 model he made for you?

John