New tube preamp

Exron,

Like so so many of us after reading the reviews I to wanted to hear one (RP7) I had a McIntosh C52 which, in my opinion, was mediocre at best and I got the Mac at cost because I work in the industry. My local Rogue dealer offered to trade the Mac for a new factory sealed RP7 so we did an even swap. I made sure to put about 200 hours on the RP7 before coming to any conclusions. NOT impressed. Like so many other pieces it did some things really well. It was very quiet, clean, open, nice bass and good midrange but where it fell short for me is it had absolutely no tonality, I need more tonal color and accurate timbre and I was so disappointed in that regard. It bored me to tears!

scot

Since you have tried some decent preamps and they each bored you to tears, would you mind sharing the rest of your system? Your source of boredom is likely somewhere else in the system.

Hi ghasley

My system I have currently does not bore me to tears at all, it's actually pretty good (in my opinion). I am just looking to improve it and I think my preamp is my weak link.  My system consists of a Jay's Audio CDT2 dedicated transport (remember those), the dac (tube output and tube rectified power supply) is a newer company from England called SW1X Audio, I bought their Dac III Standard model, Black Cat Tron (one of their best) bnc digital interconnects, PS Audio BHK Signature preamp, a Pass Labs XA30.8 amp and Eminent Technology LFT8B speakers. Most people are not familiar with the speakers, they are a planar magnetic midrange/tweeter and a dynamic woofer in a sealed box. The interconnect and speaker wire and power cords are all Kubala Sosna "Emotion".

I am very happy with the transport, digital interconnect, dac, amp & speakers and all the wiring. I just feel that the preamp can be improved upon. Full disclosure - I had the BHK preamp, sold it to try the Mcintosh C52, found the Mac to be much less musical than the BHK and sold the Mac and bought the BHK again because it was more musical with better tonality. The Mac was solid state and I value tonality and tonal color most and the BHK pre being a tube design has that, the Mac did not. A good friend on mine was a PS Audio dealer so I got the BHK pre at his true cost each time so I don't get hurt when I sold it. I just want something better.

I also realize that I am very fortunate, I have a dedicated, acoustically treated listening room that has been dialed in over the last five years that allows me to really hear the differences between each component. You quickly realize the difference between a good component and a great component. The attributes I value most are accurate timbre and tonal color and the system has to be involving, it has to draw you in. It has to communicate the emotion message and above all it has to have great musicality. I don't care about the usual audiophile attributes like pinpoint imaging and soundstage width and depth, if it has those great, the attributes I mentioned above are much more important to me. The preamps I am looking at are the Linear Tube Audio Microzotl, the Supratek Cabernet 6SN7 and the Coda 07X. Not because of price but because they are supposed to be very extremely musical with great tonal color. If anyone has owned any of these please let me know. Thank you.

Scot

I tried the bhk pre for a few days and I wasn’t impressed. I have a coda 07x now and it sounds a little better than the bhk. I didn’t like the click/pop sound of the bhk when it reached different volume levels. I like the simplicity and quietness of solid state preamps. I had a plinius and now the coda preamp, they are both nicer than the bhk and modwright preamps I tired. I’ll probably try the backert labs preamp in the near future, just to give tubes another chance. 

Hi phastm,

Thanks for your response and thoughts.

From what I understand, there is a new Coda 07X that has some new design elements that improved the sound quality and supposedly made a big difference. I also understand that they kept the same model number so one can't tell when those improvements started (not very smart if true). So the question is, how old is your Code 07X? According to Terry London who posts on this forum often under the name of teajay just got one in for review (Terry is a professional reviewer for several online hifi magazines) and connected it to his main system and was very impressed with the new models sound quality. He claims that it's fantastic and sounds better than some very highly rated tube preamps and he's not a solid state kind of guy when it comes to a preamp. He will post a review on this pre in Stereotimes.com in the near future. I've know Terry for a long time and I trust his judgement and his ear, he has heard a lot of preamps over the years and he loved this new Coda 07X. I would like to hear one in my system. Thanks. 

Scot