Promitheus TVC passive preamp anyone?

GHM · « **Reply #1560 on:** 1 May 2007, 01:38 pm »

Hey Nick..what USB receiver chip will you be using in the new Dacs?

Thanks

rollo · « **Reply #1561 on:** 1 May 2007, 01:47 pm »

Guys,

By now we all know what the TVC can do for our systems. The base model [ stereo] will give you most everything, the dual mono all of everything. Especially bass and imaging with more air and decay of notes.
The Promitheus Active Preamp/TVC combo just takes it up a notch by adding that organic feeling without loosing a thing. There is just more there there. Save your pennies and try one out, because if you like the TVC as is you will love the combo. The Active Preamp is the perfect mate as it designed to be an upgrade path to complete the picture.
Since adding the Preamp I have no desire to return to my Reference Preamp. I never thought that would be the case as the Loesch & Weisner preamp is no slouch. Now it is being used as a dedicated phono stage with TVC/Pre combo and staying that way for a while. I never heard my vinyl sound so good. What else can I say. For me its the bomb.
Next up will be pitting the Lectors D/A to the tubed Promitheus DAC. The Lector being the costant as the transport for the DAC to compare apples to apples. We shall see. The Lector retails for $4500 these days. If the Promitheus even comes close it will be a winner. Time will tell.

rollo

PS Matt glad the black hole pad worked for you. If you run TVC with cover off, please try mounting trannies on Ebony pen blanks. They will raise hgt. of trannies 3/4" so top will not fit. If not line entire bottom plate with black hole pad and use double layer under trannie itself. Have fun you tweakarama you.

gooberdude · « **Reply #1562 on:** 1 May 2007, 01:50 pm »

Hey Nick,

thanks for the recomendation... I'm about to loan my Room Tunes acoustic treatments to another TVC owner for a week or so & will build the Room Lenses. According to the Stereophile Review years back, the Room Lenses might work best with no other acoustic treatments in the room.

A few months ago I had the chance to listen to a system that had 4 orig Room Lenses in it, they do work for sure... However, this room had dozens of 8th Nerve products installed also. Moving them around the room did bring out changes though.

and for $50 and a fun weekend project its a no brainer.

Nick what do you think of the Hawthorne's and applying Black Hole pad to your transformer chassis??? Both are making me wildly happy, the BH pad is the most thrilling cheap tweak i've ever done.

Please ask your friend to look at the woofer on his SI's. If they do NOT have a rubber rung around them, he needs to order a pair directly from Hawthorne. these make a really big difference in the performance & tone of the SI.

stay busy!!

matt

1000a · « **Reply #1563 on:** 1 May 2007, 05:20 pm »

Nick, Reference TVC with integrated Amp

just a few more questions before I can order

1- my phono amp: Input sensitivity 3mV / output is 250mV, will this work with the TVC?

2-there are 2 outputs on the TVC can I run a powered subwoofer off 1 of them?

3- Price on Tubed DAC? Price on adding a USB? Shippng to USA?

4-Does the DAC come with 2 digital inputs: 1-RCA and 1-toslink?

Thanks again,

1000a · « **Reply #1564 on:** 1 May 2007, 05:24 pm »

Hey guys,

where do I find the guidelines to build the room lens?

thanks,

gooberdude · « **Reply #1565 on:** 1 May 2007, 05:44 pm »

Nicks Room Lenz recipe is on the main page of his website. www.promitheusaudio.com you have to scroll way down to the bottom.

His page is so full now with all the Review links.

the jist of it is PVC pipe of a certain diameter and length & making sure the stands you make have holes all the way through them. Then, from what i gather, you take a handful of sometype of acoustic material that can be purchased at Home Depot and play with the position of that handful of stuff inside the tubes, which also experimenting with location of the indiv lenses.

making 4 of them should cost $40 or so total...though i don't have a clue as to how much pipe costs.

the RCA outputs on the TVC can certainly be used with a powered sub. I ran 2 powered subs off the TVC outputs, works great.

rollo · « **Reply #1566 on:** 1 May 2007, 08:02 pm »

Matt,
Which Hawthorne model did you purchase? The Duet or Solo. Checked out site. They look very interesting. Good Luck !
rollo

gooberdude · « **Reply #1567 on:** 1 May 2007, 08:36 pm »

Hey Rollo,

I just bought a pair of the raw Silver Iris drivers and threw them into quick, easy and tiny baffles. they sound best tilted WAY back, like 40 degrees or so. a very good way to spend $350 in this hobby.

I have been saving up to buy the Duet frame and a pair of Sterling Auggies (their subwoofers) once they come out this summer - even bought a remote control plate amp for them - but i might not anymore...

the BH pad is absolutely thrilling in the way it dampens - no damping material has ever worked for me like this.

take a close look at my baffles, the Home Depot shelf supports in the rear received a healthy does of Dynamat Xtreme and it is in use as gasket material. On the stamped frames it killed everything, but in places that don't directly affect the sound it works great.

before the BH pad inside the TVC the SI's sounded like wicked fast large midranges, now they sound deep & visceral and crazy as all get out - they haven't lost the speed & wild detail retrieval. I'm beginning to hear the guitar amps (an unmistakable hum that's present on certain rock tracks - The Cars Lp's) used in recordings, never heard that before!

OB is a lot of fun & the Hawthorne drivers make is SO easy. It took 3 nights to really tweak the baffles to my room..i won't be doing anything difft for a while.

its so weird to be satisfied in this hobby.

Once Hawthorne introduces their Sterling line this summer/fall all hell is gonna break loose for OB freaks. If what i have is their low-end, they are going to sell a lot of OB drivers in the future.

sorry to get off topic..

matt

rollo · « **Reply #1568 on:** 1 May 2007, 08:57 pm »

Matt,
Looking good man. It is great to see another company besides Promitheus that offers bang for the Buck. The duet sells for $1085 and solo for $750. Great find, I will follow the line to see what their up to in the future.

Enjoy
rollo

rayd · « **Reply #1569 on:** 1 May 2007, 09:18 pm »

Nick, please check your PM.

Thanks,

- Ray

1000a · « **Reply #1570 on:** 1 May 2007, 10:07 pm »

Thanks Gooberdude

You are most helpful I appreciate it. Was not sure on the subs and never went to the bottom of his page before and saw the lens stuff, now the only thing I am waiting on is the number check on the phono amp impedence issues from Nick. Would you post the measurements of the TVC box w/h/d? I might start rearranging my rack now!

Followed your comments on the Anti-cables along with others, I just finished hooking up my DIY bass run to make it a biwire job after a week+ of single run. IMS it out did single run easily. That stuff is off the scale incredible, completely and utterly blows away my Cat5 biwire DIY job. Unless people have very deep pockets mag wire should definitly be experimented with, cheap as dirt. Also did ICs blew away PS Audio extreme statments with 1.00 rat shack solderless RCAs!!! I will never by another IC or speaker cable, its too easy to make my own. If any are curiuos I'll post my designs on a new thread.

If anyone knows the Phono amp output/imput #s needed by the TVC, please post.

thanks

gooberdude · « **Reply #1571 on:** 1 May 2007, 10:33 pm »

I am an anticable fan for sure, but last week I was in Rat Shack and handled their wire that is similar...its like $4 for 500 feet or so, kinda funny. Cat5 is the worst sounding DIY speaker wire i've tried, and this was after buying a lot of expensive cryo'd Cat5 from TakeFive Audio & spending a few weekends with bloody fingertips...damn you Jon Risch! It works real well as Ground wires though now - the hawthorne SI's & the TVC trannies and 2 of my racks are grounded, makes a terrific change though i still have no clue as to why.

I'll stick with the A-C for now but its good to know there's an even cheaper alternative.

I'm not at home, but my guess is the TVC is 3" tall, 12" wide and 10" deep. Its a cigar box..pretty easy to make room for it.

please keep the good ideas coming...

Rollo, i don't want to use up my stash of BH pad, but i might just have to line the TVC, dunno....

Quote from: 1000a on 1 May 2007, 10:07 pm

Thanks Gooberdude

You are most helpful I appreciate it. Was not sure on the subs and never went to the bottom of his page before and saw the lens stuff, now the only thing I am waiting on is the number check on the phono amp impedence issues from Nick. Would you post the measurements of the TVC box w/h/d? I might start rearranging my rack now!

Followed your comments on the Anti-cables along with others, I just finished hooking up my DIY bass run to make it a biwire job after a week+ of single run. IMS it out did single run easily. That stuff is off the scale incredible, completely and utterly blows away my Cat5 biwire DIY job. Unless people have very deep pockets mag wire should definitly be experimented with, cheap as dirt. Also did ICs blew away PS Audio extreme statments with 1.00 rat shack solderless RCAs!!! I will never by another IC or speaker cable, its too easy to make my own. If any are curiuos I'll post my designs on a new thread.

If anyone knows the Phono amp output/imput #s needed by the TVC, please post.

thanks

reddmadder · « **Reply #1572 on:** 2 May 2007, 02:30 pm »

Hi,
Question:I'm running an RWA modded Olive( built in volumme control) directly into my 4 watt set amp w/ high eff. speakers
(95db)
I was using my pre but found that running directly into the amp gave me more detailed sound overall BUT less gain,not by much surprisingly!
So my question is would the Promitheus give me any sonic improvement?
Thx,
R.

jaspal kallar · « **Reply #1573 on:** 2 May 2007, 04:15 pm »

Affordable Audio May Issue has a interview with Nick... get it at www.affordableaudio.org.

Well worth a read!!

- jaspal

1000a · « **Reply #1574 on:** 2 May 2007, 08:15 pm »

great interview thanks for the heads up, very cool

anybody know the numbers the TVC needs to see from a phono stage?
100R (from the website) =100ohms

Goldring cart MM:
6.5mV

Gram Amp2:
imput sensitivity 3mV
imput impedence 47k
output 250mV

forgive my complete mathmatical clueless brian, majored in Fine Art go figure

1000a · « **Reply #1575 on:** 2 May 2007, 08:25 pm »

Hey Gooberdude

The room lens directions link is not showing up on Nicks page for me, could you just post a link here, thanks

rollo · « **Reply #1576 on:** 2 May 2007, 08:29 pm »

Quote from: reddmadder on 2 May 2007, 02:30 pm

Hi,
Question:I'm running an RWA modded Olive( built in volumme control) directly into my 4 watt set amp w/ high eff. speakers
(95db)
I was using my pre but found that running directly into the amp gave me more detailed sound overall BUT less gain,not by much surprisingly!
So my question is would the Promitheus give me any sonic improvement?
Thx,
R.

Redmadder,

Sonic improvement you bet. Email me and I will bring to Westchester for you to listen.

rollo

gooberdude · « **Reply #1577 on:** 2 May 2007, 08:34 pm »

The link for the Room Lenses is gone....no clue.

nick, where is the info for building the lenses???

aod · « **Reply #1578 on:** 2 May 2007, 11:26 pm »

1000a

I use a Whest phonostage and it has a helluva lotta drive. It has more power than most preamps and this baby pushes the signal about 10m through the wayyyy excellent Canare cables in balanced configuration to my amps/speakers ( I use the super flexible JBL LSR6328S + LSR6312SP powered monitors/sub system)

I have yet to try having a long run from source to TVC and short attenuated signal to amp/speakers.

So far, this has been a good little TVC but vocals, although beautifully presented, are not prominent enough & bass is a little too rounded with not enough tightness (compared to an active pre like the McIntosh MC46, FM acoustics 155, Orpheus Labs Two) I am sure the fixed gain preamp will help resolve these issues.

Anyone with similar experiences?

aod

dweekie · « **Reply #1579 on:** 3 May 2007, 03:22 am »

Quote from: gooberdude on 2 May 2007, 08:34 pm

The link for the Room Lenses is gone....no clue.

nick, where is the info for building the lenses???

Works for me now

http://www.promitheusaudio.com/roomlenz.htm