Old Timers Advice Required

Yes, Dekay, that is OLD. [:)]

There is a set of these amps for sale right now on Audiogon.

Chris, The gear you mentioned was highly regarded. I have owned a Thorens 125 with the Black Widow arm and an Ortofon cartridge. It was a great table and I still own and use a Thorens TD 126. I bought a Apt/Holman preamp brand new in like 1980 something and used it for years and years. I now use CJ but still have the Apt as a "backup". Speakers in my opinion have gotten better than electronics. Listen and you decide. Regards

I owned the Apt Holman preamp, and admired the well-written manual, but the sound was never good, in my opinion, even for its time. I myself wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole. I replaced it with a PS Audio 4.5, which was many orders of magnitude better. And I'm retired, hence an older-timer than most in this forum, so special respect for my opinion is due. Fellow forum contributors please note.

OK, I can't resist. I purchased an Apt preamp and amp early enough that the manuals were still in preliminary form - I received final versions later. I still have the preamp, but it had been in its box for 15+/- years until a couple of weeks ago. I pulled iy out and set it up on the bench to use the headphone outputs and play with the phasing control. It makes an interesting tool. It worked for about 2 days, then I experienced its first failure - one of the low noise JFET ICs. Probably alpha particle bombardment over the years :) It is also somewhat noisy, and I don't remember that. Although I was initially pleased, I was able to drive the Apt amp (I used a single although they are bridgeable) to clipping at only reasonably loud levels despite the headroom claim (this of course also involves the speakers and room and how much you want to abuse your ears. Subsequent use of early PS Audio preamp and bridged amps (small world) resulted in a more open sound such that I might describe the Apt as constrained. I ended up with Belles I amp and XLM preamp. Belles amp was even more current capable. Bottom line IMO - it might be fun to try, but it is old - components age - even solid state devices. Also depends on your current listening requirements. Soory for the long post, but you know how us old timers ramble.