anyone with a higher budget, this Audio Research SP-11 with Phono sure looks good!
Says local pickup only, you just need to have them drop it off in your name, unboxed, to a local UPS, you pre-arrange pack & ship.
Tube Preamp with Full Featured Phono (both MM and LOMC with loading options).
My friend has very little room in one of his systems he wants to upgrade, so a single Preamp with Full Featured Phono built in is advantageous to him.
No Tape, Streaming, DAC needed, so not too many inputs, no XLR needed. Has two TT now, with external switcher to his existing Preamp, that's ok, but two Phono Inputs would be advantageous.
I'm gonna start looking, used is fine, budget 1,500 to 2,500 USD (stretch to 2,700 if just a few hundred more gets a great find).
Remote Volume and Mute would be nice, but not that important in that system. Usually, a Remote gets you a newer used item. I'm not living with remote volume, balance, mute. He could find room for the Chase RLC-1 Remote Line Controller he has heard here many times.
That opens the door to Full Featured Vintage Tube Preamps, but that is usually only MM Phono needing an external SUT, costing more, and taking more space. I showed him my FRT-4 SUT which fits under my Turntable, he could do that.
Lots of options, his preference is a single Tube Preamp with Full Featured Phono for both MM and LOMC.
Whew!
Any help will be appreciated, thanks in advance
Elliott
- ...
- 57 posts total
My speakers are highly efficient horn tweeters and horn midrange from Electrovoice in 1958, came from my uncle's Fisher President II Console. I changed the tweeters from T35 to T350's, and use the L-Pads to match their volume to the Mid Horn. https://www.audiogon.com/systems/11420 both horns have drivers with impregnated linen, I'm told essentially indestructible. I have re-coned the 15" woofers a few times over the years, I am shocked and deliriously happy that the horns are still producing (I blend them with the woofers using a pair of L-Pads and an SPL mic on a tripod at ear level with test tones) I did melt a T-35 tweeter coil blasting Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida on Reel to Reel Tape once. I guess they are over 100db efficient, maybe 102, 104 ????? You are correct, If I get my ear near the tweeter, I might hear some hiss, but often not. |
@elliottbnewcombjr Yes minor hiss that requires your ear on top of a tweeter is a nonissue and can’t be avoided with the super efficient speakers. I had Audio Research LS15, LS16, LS25 and Ref1. That generation of ARC had a decent amount of hiss and I heard it when music wasn’t playing thru the not very efficient B&W N803s. When the music started I couldn’t care less. Modern ARC stuff and Rogue that I heard in my system were dead nuts quiet. To obsess over minor hiss is not the best possible pastime. |
"Do I detect an anti tube bias?" Good one. Actually, no real bias against anything audio, as I have learned over the years, many years in fact, and age-wise, I'm not too far behind you. I did say an all tube phono preamp, as I thought that was what the OP was after. I reread what I wrote last night, and while I had planned to say that outside of a hybrid design, SUT, solid state device, something like that. I, in full disclosure, had a few Jeppson's limited, full cask strength(130proof) Bourbon, and by the way, delicious, I might add, yesterday evening watching snl and writing this, I might have forgotten to mention the rest of my thoughts. I have been using low output cartridges since the mid eighties and my very first was a Supex 900 Super with its matching transformer(both I still own), amongst other devices like a P S Audio moving coil pre-preamp with three power supply options(also something I own in my museum of audio stuff stashed away somewhere). I'm not an audiophile like many here, changing out equipment for the sake of change. It wasn't that long ago that I was at Music Direct comparing phono stages from various companies, even BAT's top tube offerings, which today seemed to have gone solid state. I once owned some OTL's that I ran my Quad ESL's with, a match made in heaven. Regardless of price, the pure tube offerings made too much noise. There is this one preamp from the early/mid seventies, a rather (exotic ?) unique all tube preamp that, while not all that pretty, was one impressive device with two phono stages that I believe Peter Moncrieff of International Audio/Video Review reviewed. I just can't remember. But someone I know owns or used to own one. By the way, I have his review that came with the PS Audio pre-preamp. He liked it but suggested replacing all the caps with Wonder Caps, but then he suggested that for every component. Talk about ethics |
I have had my Rogue RP-1 for quite a few years now. It's actually the one component I have had the longest outside my DAC, a Schiit Iggy, that's been on my rack for 10 years. No qualms and hopefully will upgrade to a RP-7 v2, later this year. Never used the phono input, but the phono integrated is solid state. The RP-1 uses 2 - 12au7 tubes on output and I have accumulated about 12 pair, knowing that I will use 4 in the RP-7. The tubes are not expensive and easy to swap out, albeit there are 10 little screws. Never had any hiss problems, or any issue, and Rogue is in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania. |
- 57 posts total