Battle of the phone pres for my system.
I have a Yamaha GT-750 with a Hana SH mk 1. I had it running into my Musical Fidelity A1 and listened through Dynaudio Evoke 20 speakers. I have tinnitus so I listen off-axis and liked the sound. I had ordered a Decware Zrock3 and hadn't considered when I ordered it how I was going to use it. When if finally came, I realized I could only use it with my transport and DAC )and it was worth every penny.)
A friend lent me their Manley Chinook so I could see how it would work with my analog front end and the Manley/Decware combo was pretty sweet. I can't afford a Manley and after removing the Zrock3 and going head to head with the A1 didn't make me feel that I wouldn't choose it anyway. After casting about, I was all set on getting a 834 clone and putting in some nice tubes. Then I read about the Softone Model 4 and saw systems like @lalitk and @macg19 . It sounds like what I would want if I put some Mullards in it (though hopefully cheaper ones). I ran across many others who could afford a more expensive phono pre using the Softtone.
As I was searching, the google AI wanted to help so bad that I asked it what it thought. It said the Softone would match better with my equipment and gave a bunch of reasons that were things I hadn't thought of, like gain matching and cumulative power running through the system. It seemed to think that 834 would be more problematic and too much syrup.
I told AI to make the 834 work or I would delete it from the internet, and it told me to put a 5751 (less gain because of the Hana's output coming in) in V1, then a Raytheon then a Mullard. Or something like that for gain and sound differences taking into account my tinnitus and to match my system. It seemed sound thinking, but again, stuff I hadn't considered. I didn't write it down, but it made me wonder. It congratulated me on my awesome thinking on putting together my amazing system. I closed the browser to make it forget this ever happened.
I figured I thought I would ask real people what they thought since I'd prefer empirical evidence over data surfing. The other point in favor of the Softone is that it's a real product and not an aliexpress special, though plenty of people are happy with their clones, all are one and one are all.
Thanks.
