Audible Illusions M3B or L3

I have a Modulus 3A with Gold phono board. The gold phono board is all fet designed by John Curl and is very similar to the sound of the Vendetta phono preamp. The Gold phono board adds about 20db of gain to the signal, then it passes through the M3B tube phono preamp. I use it with a ZU/Denon DL103. The sound is to die for.

I also have a Modulus 3B in my main system and the sound of the 3B is light years ahead of the 3A. It is much quieter, has greater bandwidth and the sound is much more relaxed and analog sounding. I am using a Dynavector 20xl low output mc cartridge on this preamp with a Denon AU320 step up transformer. I must say that the gold phono board on my Modulus3A sounds better than using the Denon SUT. The tube phono preamp on both units are very satisfactory. Both phono preamps are very quiet using the Ultra low noise 6h23neb tubes from Audible Illusions. I have to put the preamp volume 3/4 of the way up before I hear even the slightest amount of hiss with my 89db efficient speakers.

The L3 is just the line portion of the M3B preamp, it only uses 2 tubes instead of 4. Everything else is the same. If you do not have a turntable, get the L3 instead.

In my system, the volume control is usually around 11 o'clock which gives me levels in the 85-88db range. To really get it loud, I can go up to a little past 2 o'clock on the volume controls. On the 3B, they seem to have more of the in-between steps. All I know is my system really bloomed after replacing the M3A with the M3B. The M3A is now in my upstairs system which I am listening to as I post this.

You can order directly from Audible Illusions.

You should have spoken with GC Audio in Texas.  He probably had one in stock to sell.  It is definitely well worth the wait but at this point, I would demand my money back.  I posted a "want to buy" here and scored a 6 month old M3B in silver.  I have been using it since 2012 with not even a hiccup or fart from it.  I re-tubed it in 2015 with the AI recommended tubes.  It blows away my previous M3 and M3A preamps.  And no, I'm not a fanboy as I hate the dual stepped volume controls but put up with them because the sound is extremely natural in my system.