I will have my new preamp tonight!! YES!! Bet you all know what I'll be doing this long weekend!
gary
well the preamp is on it's sixth or eight CD driving a forty watt tube amp into a pair of Meadowlark hotrods. It already smoked the Quicksilver it replaced in everyway but the soundstage, and that's not a fair statement. It's much faster than the Quicksilver, and seems to have much more presence in the system already. Seems to be really compatable with the Jolida tubed cd player, and of course I knew the Marantz sacd player would work well. Have not used the turntable yet, but expect the same results.
I had to delete the use of my tuner (I listen to a couple jazz shows on the tuner a lot, so I'll really miss that), and of course we all know there's no tape loop in this unit. So the Nak goes upstairs. I think this preamp is going to be a good one.
Here's what I've noticed right now:
*Bass! The bass presence is there in spades. An acoustic upright sounds about right, and is very tight.
No rumbleing, and the bow is near perfect.
*Piano.....Just sounds right. Maybe a touch distant right now, but seems tobe be moving forward as I write this. One of the few preamps that will do Red Garland right.
*Sax....have not listened to a lot of tenor, and it seems a little light. Expect it to only get better with more slam. The vibration of the body is already correct. Saprano sax was right there, but once again a little distant. This will only get better with age.
*drums are about right, brass may need to open up a bit. Snares are perfect, and hope they don't change on me
*Trumpet.....I think this preamp has it right from the get go. Plenty of heft, speed, and I know where the trumpet is all the time (even when he moves or turns his back to me). Miles would be happy.
Now I didn't go into great detail for two reasons. One I don't make reviews, and two, I'm far from an expert. All I know todo is compare what I hear with what they really sound like. In my world I listen to musical instruments first, closely followed by the performance. J.J. Johnson taught me listen for musical presence of each individual piece in a quartet, and how it interacts with the others. I don't care about meter readings saying this can go down to 20Hz. What I care about is playing the tune right, and with the force it deserves.
gary