Well I’ve listened to the Purist for the past week and have to say I enjoyed every minute with it. I’d like to give a big thanks to Curt for the opportunity to audition the Purist.
First time taking it out of the box, I noticed how heavy it was. Whoa, this thing means business. Also it's very nicely built and loved the simplicity of the dials.
The first system I put the Purist into was my combination Home Theater/2 channel system. I use a Bottlehead Foreplay preamp with Mullard CV4003 tubes, Sweet Whispers –20 to –50 attenuation, RRSF(Reverse Recovery Spike Filter), DC heaters and Auricap output capacitors. Amplifier is the 5 channel Outlaw 750 and speakers are PSB Image 5T. Source components are Music Hall MMF-5 turntable with a Gram Amp 2SE phono preamp and for CDs I use a Pioneer DV-434 DVD player with Modwright Transport Level 1 modification and a Perpetual Technologies P-3A DAC with Monolith Sound P-3 power supply. Interconnects are Blue Jeans Cable with speaker cables being DIY CAT5 Ethernet wire.
The music I played on both systems ranged on CD Eric Clapton “Unplugged”, AC/DC “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”, Mapleshade’s “Music Festival”, Rolling Stones recently remastered hybrid SACDs, Norah Jones “Come Away With Me”, and some techno/dance music while on vinyl I played an original shaded dog LSC-2240 “Rhapsodies”, Led Zeppelin “Houses of the Holy”(Bob Ludwig mastered), Fleetwood Mac “Rumours” and Alison Krauss “Forget About It”.
After I connected the Purist the lower bass that is missing from the Foreplay in it’s current configuration showed itself immediately. Either source, whether CD or vinyl, displayed the bass that I know I’ve been missing all this time. Also the bass was somewhat tighter with the Purist. The midrange and high frequencies were better with the Purist than the Foreplay. It seemed the Foreplay was a little rolled off but I don’t know if this is because of the Foreplay itself or the Mullards. The Anticipation upgrade for the Foreplay is suppose to remedy some of the shortcomings which is on my ‘To do’ list but as is the Purist beats it in the first system. Definitely would be a keeper here.
The second system I connected the Purist to is my recent 2 channel only system. This consists of an Antique Sound Labs Orchid 2A3 SET integrated amplifier, and Omega Loudspeakers TS1Rs using Mapleshade Clearview Golden Helix speaker cables. Source components would be the same as above. I expected the Purist to have less bass advantage in this system since the TS1Rs don’t have as much bottom end as the Image 5Ts, 49Hz compared 35Hz. When I did start listening yes there was less bottom end but I also noticed that the great sound that I had heard from the first system was somehow muted here. The midrange and highs weren’t as clear as they were before. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that the Purist sounded bad, it just wasn’t as good as before. I tried all 3 gains but still the sound wasn't there. I don’t know if it was a component mismatch or the old adage of not putting a SS preamp with a tube amp but something was missing. However, the preamp in the Orchid was actually worse sounding since the bass sounded boomy and the midrange and highs were less than the Purist. I then put in the Foreplay and this is what I had expected. The midrange and highs were better and bass was about the same as the Purist. I guess if I had to use a scale of 1-10 Orchid preamp:5, Purist 7 and Foreplay 8.5 in this system.
In the end, the first system I put the Purist into was a definite improvement and just sounded great. The second system it didn’t have as much synergy as I thought it would have but still sound was very good. I guess that’s why it’s recommended auditioning components in your system to give you an idea about matching them up. But for $665 and you get it in the right system, this preamp is a steal!
