Phonostage: Wavac vs Doshi vs Tron

Pani: Between the Wavac and Tron, which do you prefer? Did you own both of them in your system?

Not heard the wavac, but the Tron is truly excellent. Yes I agree it is tube like, but not lush or coloured at all, I would say lifelike. Graham tends to spec the units for a particular cartridge, so if you change cartridges a lot, that may be a problem. I do like Wavac, but I feel they are crazily overpriced

Wavac for me all the way

Raul visited my home several years ago with his Essential 3150. We A/B'd with my Doshi Alaap (the two chassis version, not the four chassis version). There were no Doshi version numbers then, but it would be a 1.x (upgraded by Nick as far as a version 1 can go).

All listening was done with the components listed in my System, using a large variety of LPs. Listeners included Raul, Dan Edmundson, my partner Paul and me.

After two days of intense listening by four experienced audiofools, it was agreed that:
1) these top end SS and tube preamps sound more alike than different, each was superb in its own way;
2) the Essential offered stronger, tighter bass;
3) the Alaap transmitted more musical information (low level detail and subtlety, instrumental harmonics and complexity).
Which you'd prefer would be a matter of taste, but the presentations are different.

The Alaap 2.x improves on all the above. I've not heard the 3160.

No experience of the Wavac or Tron except briefly in shows, with too many unknown variables to draw valid conclusions about a preamp.

Hope this helps.

Hi Doug,

Thanks for your post on the Doshi. That's one of the reasons the Doshi is on my list. But I am thinking of just getting the phonostage and link that to my Essential 3160 preamp. That way I have 4 phono inputs and can have a choice between SS and Tube phonostages.