The First Dodd Battery Powered Preamp Has LANDED!

alotaklipsch · « **Reply #60 on:** 3 Nov 2006, 11:36 pm »

Quote from: toobluvr on 3 Nov 2006, 02:06 am

Quote from: alotaklipsch on 2 Nov 2006, 06:32 pm
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.........SPEND THE MONEY ON THE BEST TUBES, WHICH ARE :duh:amperex 6922 pinch waist d getters USA, from the 50's

you will aa aa aa not :deadhorse:but will be SMILIN

Hey Steve...

I would buy some if you'd stop buyin' 'em all up
and elevating prices!! Every time I turn around you
are winning ebay auctions!

Leave some for the rest of us, will ya!

I AM NUTZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wendell · « **Reply #61 on:** 17 Nov 2006, 07:10 pm »

any more reviews on this from other owners. I believe Gary had about 20 of them shipping.

S Clark · « **Reply #62 on:** 17 Nov 2006, 10:32 pm »

I have about 6-7 hours on mine now. The big difference is in detail and depth of soundstage. Just put on a David Wilcox cd that I know by heart and found new detail that I did not know were there. Wow!

MarkR7 · « **Reply #63 on:** 18 Nov 2006, 02:06 am »

Quote from: wendell on 17 Nov 2006, 07:10 pm

any more reviews on this from other owners. I believe Gary had about 20 of them shipping.

I received my Dodd Battery preamp (in Curly Maple) about 10 days ago, and now with roughly 75 to 100 hours of burn-in time on it, I can happily say that I am excited about it.

It sounded good "out of the box" but the first thing that really hit me was the grainless midrange. I didn't think I had grain, but the Dodd has such a revealing clarity to it, that yes, the detail has improved for me in the ever-so-important midrange, and in the highs too. More importantly, the detail hasn't improved at the expense of warmth with the scale tilting towards brightness (which would be unacceptable). If anything, I feel that I have gained presence and palpability in the midrange (not to be confused with forwardness), which wouldn't have happened if the system became brighter because of the preamp. The only negatives "out of the box" were soundstage related, where the depth and width were lacking and closed in. I can happily report now that the preamp is starting to open up and the soundstage is really starting to bloom. I anticipate that another hundred hours or so will bring the preamp to another level, if that's even possible.

Other important notables about the Dodd Battery preamp in my system: wonderfully silent with a black background (I'm amazed at what being "off the grid" gets you!) resulting in very good inner detail and overall detail, responds very well to tube rolling (I haven't rolled too much yet, but so far, I'm getting excellent results with US Amperex 6922 PQs white shield, and Amperex 6DJ8 Bugle Boys), the preamp is very fast with excellent PRAT, dynamics and transient response, it gives a nice "airy" presentation where notes naturally decay into the blackness, excellent instrument and voice tonality, timbre, etc., imaging is spot on and stable, and most importantly, this is a highly musical piece of equipment that lets the music flow without boundaries. Oh yeah, it looks good too...

Yeah, this is a rave... aa, but I am seriously excited about the performance of this preamp in my system. It just does things right for me, and that's with less than 100 hours on it! I'm no stranger to preamps (over the last couple of years I have OWNED the following stellar preamps: BAT VK-51SE, Joule LA150, First Sound Presence Deluxe mkII, deHavilland UltraVerve, Audible Illusions L2, Belles 21A, Sonic Euphoria Passive, and lately the venerable Modwrght, which itself is an amazing preamp). You can see the rest of my system over at A-gon, where I'm known as "1markr".

Any power cord suggestions out there for this preamp.....NOT!!

oscar · « **Reply #64 on:** 18 Nov 2006, 02:34 am »

This is my first tubed gear so I'm afraid I can't provide much of a comparison. After break-in, it will be compared to an allegedly highly respected Meitner Switchman (SS) preamp. My initial impression is it is more "lively" and "musical" than the Meitner. I do have concerns with possible treble rolloff but that might have more to do with the ICs being used (I've had to go back to "inferior" SE ICs but I may rectify that shortly. The Soundstage seems to have gotten bigger, imaging better, and better (bloated?) bass. Looks the keeping the AC grunge away from the preamp electronics is doing wonders... Seemingly Blacker than black background without the need for exotic power cords; in fact, I'm using completely disconnected from AC power (temporarily I hope because of recharger issues).

I've only got 15-20 hours in and judging from the responses so far, it looks like it could get even better with proper break-in.

James Romeyn · « **Reply #65 on:** 26 Nov 2006, 01:05 am »

Those preamps look embarrasingly good. You look at one & say "Wow that's gorgeous!", then one appears that's 3x as sweet. I almost felt my chest sink & my breathing slow when the quilted maple scrolled slowly up to fill my screen. Who the heck did the design work? The knobs look like they'd be way over the top on anything else, but they totally fit w/ the wood faceplate. The grain of each faceplate & remote is so individual that Dodd or the new owners should consider naming them.

Based on the photos one could reasonably estimate $10k to $15k if it was a salon brand. Though I haven't heard the preamp yet, it looks like Dodd might have succesfully produced a new pinnacle in both performance & cosmetics at a real-world price. Pretty darn nice!

mono-tubeleosis · « **Reply #66 on:** 28 Nov 2006, 06:25 pm »

Quote from: MarkR7 on 18 Nov 2006, 02:06 am

Quote from: wendell on 17 Nov 2006, 07:10 pm
any more reviews on this from other owners. I believe Gary had about 20 of them shipping.

I received my Dodd Battery preamp (in Curly Maple) about 10 days ago, and now with roughly 75 to 100 hours of burn-in time on it, I can happily say that I am excited about it.

It sounded good "out of the box" but the first thing that really hit me was the grainless midrange. I didn't think I had grain, but the Dodd has such a revealing clarity to it, that yes, the detail has improved for me in the ever-so-important midrange, and in the highs too. More importantly, the detail hasn't improved at the expense of warmth with the scale tilting towards brightness (which would be unacceptable). If anything, I feel that I have gained presence and palpability in the midrange (not to be confused with forwardness), which wouldn't have happened if the system became brighter because of the preamp. The only negatives "out of the box" were soundstage related, where the depth and width were lacking and closed in. I can happily report now that the preamp is starting to open up and the soundstage is really starting to bloom. I anticipate that another hundred hours or so will bring the preamp to another level, if that's even possible.

Other important notables about the Dodd Battery preamp in my system: wonderfully silent with a black background (I'm amazed at what being "off the grid" gets you!) resulting in very good inner detail and overall detail, responds very well to tube rolling (I haven't rolled too much yet, but so far, I'm getting excellent results with US Amperex 6922 PQs white shield, and Amperex 6DJ8 Bugle Boys), the preamp is very fast with excellent PRAT, dynamics and transient response, it gives a nice "airy" presentation where notes naturally decay into the blackness, excellent instrument and voice tonality, timbre, etc., imaging is spot on and stable, and most importantly, this is a highly musical piece of equipment that lets the music flow without boundaries. Oh yeah, it looks good too...

Yeah, this is a rave... aa, but I am seriously excited about the performance of this preamp in my system. It just does things right for me, and that's with less than 100 hours on it! I'm no stranger to preamps (over the last couple of years I have OWNED the following stellar preamps: BAT VK-51SE, Joule LA150, First Sound Presence Deluxe mkII, deHavilland UltraVerve, Audible Illusions L2, Belles 21A, Sonic Euphoria Passive, and lately the venerable Modwrght, which itself is an amazing preamp). You can see the rest of my system over at A-gon, where I'm known as "1markr".

Any power cord suggestions out there for this preamp.....NOT!!

Your assessments on the pre are close to identical to what I'm hearing. At first with the russian tubes I thought that overall it seemed brite. But of course this was right out of the box. I switched over to the 6922 PQ Amperex white labels (same as yours) and my impressions changed dramatically. At first with these tubes I felt the mids were glorious but a little bit of a roll-off on the highs. As time has gone on that has been eliminated and the soundstage which I also felt was not quite there has opened up considerably. This is an amazing amp and I only have about 40 hours on it. I'm going through my entire CD collection and hearing so many things I never heard before. It's the subtle things like a wobble in an acoustic note that just wasn't there before. Every instrument is dead on in it's place. What a treat. My Paradox 3's always seemed to be lacking in the bass but not now. I'm just blown away so far. My next feat will be to get in the Telefunken E88CCa tubes in I won a bid on back on the 5th of Nov. I still haven't received them. Think twice before buying overseas. This is starting to turn into 'Tube nightmare'.

alotaklipsch · « **Reply #67 on:** 29 Nov 2006, 05:50 am »

spend the bucks, and get amperex pinch waist usa d getter 1950's, they will last for over 10 years, and you can get bargains on microphinic ones, which are just perfect fot this particular pair. I sent Gary a pair, and he admitted this"you(me)are never getting them back" he says he did not think it could get better than HIS fav's............now he actually says, these are the BESTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

geofstro · « **Reply #68 on:** 29 Nov 2006, 07:12 pm »

Mine hasn't landed yet. Any news Gary?

Thanks

geoff

S Clark · « **Reply #69 on:** 29 Nov 2006, 09:07 pm »

Call Gary.

oscar · « **Reply #70 on:** 29 Nov 2006, 11:30 pm »

Quote from: geofstro on 29 Nov 2006, 07:12 pm

Mine hasn't landed yet. Any news Gary?

Thanks

geoff

Gary told me I got the last one he was going to have available for a while....

aa

Just kidding..... I know the feeling...

geofstro · « **Reply #71 on:** 30 Nov 2006, 07:16 am »

I contacted Gary. He had to send the faceplate back on mine to be refinished, since it wasn't up to his standards.

So the delay is understandable.

It's OK, I'm a patient man aa

geoff

PaulFolbrecht · « **Reply #72 on:** 6 Dec 2006, 03:01 am »

I was wondering if anyone has directly compared one of these units to either a S&B TVC of some type or a Supratek pre?

Marbles · « **Reply #73 on:** 6 Dec 2006, 03:14 am »

I replaced my Bent TX102 (S&B silver transformers) passive pre with the Dodd. My Bent had unity gain, not the +6 version.

The Bent is now for sale in the classifieds here.

PaulFolbrecht · « **Reply #74 on:** 6 Dec 2006, 03:18 am »

Quote from: Marbles on 6 Dec 2006, 03:14 am

I replaced my Bent TX102 (S&B silver transformers) passive pre with the Dodd. My Bent had unity gain, not the +6 version.

The Bent is now for sale in the classifieds here.

Interesting - I read an old review here from somebody who replaced a Supratek with the Bent and said the former had no chance whatsoever...

I really like my TVC - BUT - at RMAF, I did hear some systems with really explosive DYNAMICS, that I do not quite get, to that degree. Many say world-class macrodynamics are the one thing you just can't get with anything but an active linestage - so, now I'm thinking, maybe, of trying another one or two.

Did you post the differences between the Bent and the Dodd somewhere? I did not see this in this thread.

Marbles · « **Reply #75 on:** 6 Dec 2006, 03:23 am »

I don't beleive I did post the differences, and I'm not sure I will.

What I will say is that in MY system, the Bent is a GREAT pre-amp, but the Dodd is another level or two above it.

PaulFolbrecht · « **Reply #76 on:** 6 Dec 2006, 03:33 am »

Quote from: Marbles on 6 Dec 2006, 03:23 am

I don't beleive I did post the differences, and I'm not sure I will.

What I will say is that in MY system, the Bent is a GREAT pre-amp, but the Dodd is another level or two above it.

Ok... well... I'll see if I can pull those differences out of you then. aa

Is dynamics one area where the active linestage bested your TVC?

Marbles · « **Reply #77 on:** 6 Dec 2006, 03:39 am »

Yes, and bass

PaulFolbrecht · « **Reply #78 on:** 6 Dec 2006, 07:09 pm »

Quote from: Marbles on 6 Dec 2006, 03:39 am

Yes, and bass

Thanks much. That's what I was curious about.

PaulFolbrecht · « **Reply #79 on:** 8 Dec 2006, 09:05 pm »

Marbles,

Would you mind sharing your source's output and amp's input impedance, and sources max level (voltage)?

I've become really curious in the instances where actives outperform TVCs in dynamics - the numbers involved.

Further experimentation in MY system has shown NO gains in dynamics active vs. passive, but then again the active I'm experimenting with is far from world-class (and thus I won't post what it is).

The First Dodd Battery Powered Preamp Has LANDED!

S Clark

S Clark