Aric Audio Systems Unlimited Preamp

In my experience, the "flavor" that different signal tubes add/subtract to/from the music and whether or not you ultimately prefer the sound, will depend on the gear upstream and downstream from the Unlimited, maybe even the cables. I have tried JJ, Tung Sol Gold Pin, Mullard new stock, vintage Mullard, and vintage Telefunken signal tubes.  When I had my SS DAC and Vincent hybrid amp driving Vandersteen 2Ci speakers, I thought the two vintage brands sounded slightly more musical. But now with a tube DAC and an SE tube amp and single driver speakers, same cables and same room, I have settled on the new stock Mullards and sometimes I swap in the new stock Tung Sol Gold Pins. I feel these tubes are a bit more neutral and better complement the rest of my system. The vintage tubes seem to add a tad too much emphasis on the midrange which I don't really need given the character of the speakers and the rest of the tubes in the signal chain. I am not talking night and day here and the experience could vary quite a bit by the type of music and the recording. The best bet is to just try different pairs and see which ones sound better to your ears in your system/room. Vintage tubes can get very pricey but new stock tubes are fairly reasonably priced and I honestly do not think the sound difference justifies the cost difference, at least in my experience. Hope this helped.
  

Thanks for the input kalali. To me,and I know others, this hobby has me sometimes  chasing the dragon. Currently I'm running the tubes Aric ships the pre with. No complaints at all. I was thinking of trying some vintage RCA cleartops. I guess I'm just thinking of changing for the sake of change. I think I need to seek help!  :)

Does anybody have an Unlimited or the Transcend 6sn7 preamp with remote? Looking at Aric’s website I don’t see a remote option until you get to the Special 6sn7 level. Just wondering if it’s even an option for remote volume on the “lower” tier preamps. There’s certainly not a shortage of praise for Aric’s amps from what I can see.

Hello! I wanted to chime in regarding the remote. I do offer a remote control option on all of my preamp models. It is based on an ALPS blue velvet pot with a motor behind it, controlled by Phillips microprocessor which are mounted on a small PCB. It is a $165 option. On the Transcend 6SN7 Line-stage it is a $185 option- as I also need to add a separate 12 volt power supply to power the remote processor board (the 6SN7 operates on 6.3 volt heaters so I need another power source). The remote controller itself is a simply 2 button remote controlling Vol Up and Vol Down. You are more than welcome to ask here, and also feel free to contact me if you have any other tech or build questions! Best regards, Aric

@rocray - I definitely second what Kalali posted regarding the equipment on either side of the stream having a large bearing on what tubes may sound best in the Unlimited. I want to also suggest the Gold Lion 12AU7, and 12AX7 (I haven't tried the GL 12AT7, and am not sure if they make one.....they must though?). The Gold Lions I've tried so far have had very good definition to them- without leaning towards too much emphasis on one frequency or another. I found they have a very balanced presentation, however each does provide just a little "coloration" which I find to sound very complimentary so long as the rest of the system is fairly balanced/neutral. I hope this helps! Aric