[Jonathan]

Hi guys,

As I've mentioned in the past, my Unison Research Unico (which sounds excellent with my De Capos, by the way) has a low level hum coming from the transformer that the manufacturer and distributor both claim is as a result of AC anomolies in my house. Since the power company has had no idea how to fix this on their end, and since the hum is pretty much driving me nuts, I've had the unit for sale.

 With all my kvetching (complaining) about the hum on online boards like this one, I think that I may have scared potential buyers away, in spite of the fact that I've made it clear that the Unico only hums in my house and that it's intermittent. Anyway, I have gotten an interesting offer to trade my Unico for a pair of Bryston Powerpac 120s and some cash. I'm very tempted by the offer, and am thinking that these amps, along with a decent tubed preamp might be a nice match for the De Capos.

 I'm wondering if  anyone out there has any ideas for a tubed preamp in the $600 range that might mate well with the Brystons, or if you have any other suggestions about what might work better with the De Capos.

Thanks, much.

Jon

[wongstein]

I don't know anything about your Unico, how much it's worth or how it sounds, or whether it has a ground-lift switch.  I can tell you, however, that the Powerpac 120s are Bryston 3B-STs in mono-block form and probably have at least 10 years of warranty left on them.  The 4B-ST and the matching premp has been reviewed very nicely by TAS (Neil Gader?  I can't remember, but he was using vinyl as his source) and is generally very well-respected as pro stuff that assaults the hi-end sound with good value.  It's hard to get a really good demo of Bryston gear, but I've had an old 4b and 2b in my system, and I'll say that they were very nice when set up right.  Liquidy highs and I never thought there was any grain, but apparently the ST series eliminates some grain, and the newest SST series is slightly better in most ways they say.  Some schools of thought about having fewer parallel transistors would suggest that the 3B-ST should sound sweeter and better than the 4B-ST if the power is adequate, but the Bryston PR guys told me that they all sound equally good or something diplomatic like that.  I almost bought a 3b-ST used for about CA$1200 (US$900), but instead settled with the Plinius 8200 MKII.

The Powerpac 120s have a ground lift switch, which may help you out if you're worried about hum.  They may have balanced inputs, and that might help too.

Brystons are known to be real tough, well-protected internally, and easy to drive (100KOhm input impedance, and I think less than one volt is needed for full power for the 3B-ST) allthough I thought that passive preamping sounded very transparent, smooth and detailed with the old 4B, it was also kinda passive sounding in character (less dynamic than the best).  The 3B-ST should be better with passive than my old 4B though.  Like MOSFET amps, they're invulnerable to any DC offset current that some tube preamps can output.  This is all to say that you can use any preamp that you like without worry.

Do you need a remote?  Have you considered a used Melos SHA-1?  Or a used Sonic Frontiers preamp like http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?preatube&1077333626">this one on Audiogon?  I think you'd want to take advantage of the Bryston's extended highs and powerful bass with a preamp like this.  I've also heard the new Conrad Johnson PV-10 at a dealer in an all CJ system with Wilson Sophias, and was duly impressed by the sound it offered for the money.  There's also http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?preatube&1075750097">one  on Audiogon for about US$600.

Cheers,
Anthony

[Jonathan]

Thanks for your input, Anthony.

The guy I have been talking to about trading the Unico for his Brystons has been kind enough to offer me an audition prior to an 'official' deal (there really are some great guys in this hobby). He's also sending along a Creek OBH 12 (I think) passive to try out, too.  In addition, I'll ask my friend who has an AR LS 8 preamp to bring it over. I think this will give me a good idea of how the Brystons sound compared to my Unico.

I have the two preamps you mentioned in your post on my short list of affordable preamps, along with the EE Minimax and the IRD Purist that has gotten quite alot of good press here at AudioCircle.  

I'll post my impressions after I had a chance to noodle around with the Brystons.

Regards,

Jon

[Rocket]

Hi Jon,

Dodd audio have an entry level tube preamp which you may be interested in.  It is $450us and you can find out more thru gr research, they have a forum at audiocircle.  Apparently it is similiar in design to a Melos preamp which sold for $3500us, so i've read.

The ird preamp has my interest as well and has had good reveiws.

regards

rod

[cyounkman]

I don't have direct experience with either of your current options. Having heard the Unico at a dealer, and with a decent idea of the Bryston house sound, I would say that the sound you'll get (of course depending on the preamp used) will be fairly different--the Unico was lush, wearing its tubes on its sleeve, whereas the Bryston 2BLP I used for a while (not with De Capos) had the classic ss hallmarks--clean extension, tuneful bass, good dynamics; with a nice sense of spaciousness as well. As Anthony mentioned, we've seen mixed results using various Brystons with passive pre-amps, but any of the tube pres mentioned above might make a good combination with the power pacs. Lastly, of course, the power pacs should provide plenty of power.