Preamp Advice/experiences needed


I recently auditioned a Vac Renaissance Mk 5 and it was damn fine. But there are some issues I have with it that would not make it a great fit in my system and also costs a bit much. I also have on my short list the Aesthetix Calypso Eclipse and Ayre KX-5 twenty. Can anyone chime in with their experiences? any advice is appreciated. (my pwr amp is CJ Premiere 12 monos). TIA

jimbones

Showing 1 response by mwh777

I have a Calypso Eclipse. I won't touch a lot on the sound quality side but, it's very satisfying to me. First, taking a logic, practicality, common sense view, it has several features that are major reasons why I have it. It has a large easy to see display, it's always muted when bringing it out of standby, the display and LEDs are dimmable, the top cover is held on by Velcro making tube access a snap and very importantly to me it has remote control switchable polarity inversion (often incorrectly called phase inversion) (yes, I know that many people are not sensitive to correct/incorrect absolute polarity).

One caveat is about tube changing. Aesthetix does warn about this issue. To avoid circuit damage, a wait of 15 to 20 minutes is required between powering off the unit and any tube removal. I suppose that the caps need to fully discharge before pulling out any tubes. Also, while I do have their new version of the remote control, I don't like it and prefer to use the original one.

It is a "musical" sounding component as opposed to an analytical or clinical/sterile sounding component. I'm using it with a McCormack DNA-500 with SMC Audio's second generation Silver Plus upgrade to drive a pair of Focal Sopra 2 speakers. The old saying that there is no such thing as too much power is easily observed in this case. I think the Calypso works well in my setup. Big and deep soundstage, boatloads of detail and lots of beautiful sound.