I take it you have the MC option (rare) for the APT...?
I bought a fully modded one from Vince at AudioProz...I
wasn't immensely impressed with it. Yes, it was quiet...but it was pretty soft even modded (and broken in) and the gain was too low for me to work with 'punch' with anything but the 6mv ADC XLM MK. III Improved I have. It did sound good with that one dialed in with correct capacitance.
As I needed a tuner too, and had been told that dual mono preamp architecture can often be quite beneficial to vinyl performance - I took a leap at a vintage (about the same era as the APT)
Mitsubishi DA-C20 Tuner/Preamp (with MC input). After about 25 hours it started to cook in (I think it must have been sitting for many years as it had characteristic burn-in attributes) it started to come to life.
At around the 50th hour the APT was put on ebay and I've never thought of it since
Here's a review of the APT before I met Mr. Mitsui...it was all over from there for the APT-Holman.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=39060.0After 30 years, likely stock as it left the factory (tired caps and all) the Mitsui bested the APT for MM/MC, and was
equal at least on line/CD. Plus, it came complete with a decent AM/FM tuner. I paid $129.00 for it
Some day I'll have it updated, but I'm enjoying it too much now to bother (very quiet MC stage, too, btw)
Anyhow, I feel a lot of the Japanese preamps of that era are greatly overlooked (Technics, Nikko, Nakamichi, MItsubishi all built good ones that can be had for a song). Vince at AudioProz updates these, too - I think a good many of them better than the APT to begin with.
All and only my opinion above, of course. Regards, John
