Modwright SWL 9.0SE -vs- Aesthetix Calypso?

Ok, I'll go thru the hastle soon and list my system for you guys. Obviously if a power amp has a very sensitive input stage, the system may sound more foward with a high gain pre-amp. That one is easy to figure out. Or if the speaker is mid 90's and up in sensitivity, also an issue for fowardness. Like many of you, lots of pre-amps and other equipment has passed thru my rack over the years. The pre-amp that I compared it to was my modified Cary SLP-2002, driving a Classe Audio model 15 in balanced mode. Speakers are Snell CV, cartridge is Transfiguration Temper V. Digital player is MF A5. Using some of the best wire in existance, most of which I build myself. For those of you that have run balanced tube pre-amps, you should be aware of the potentially superior soundstage this offers. I personally did the modifications myself to the Cary pre-amp. Gone is the electronic hash of the stock unit. I hard wired the whole thing and improved every aspect of the wiring layout. The output caps are polyprop bypassed by polystyrene and REAL TEFLON capacitors. So we have addressed the fowardness and soundstaging issues. Sure, could be system dependent. But how do you explain lack of transparency and detail. Oh I forget, the so called "Teflon" caps were not broken in. Lastly, anyone that knows about the SLP-2002 is aware of the fact that it has very low levels of tube coloration. It is lightning fast, transparent, dynamic, detailed, with balls to the wall authority. At the time the Modwright was here, a friend lent me his AES AE-3 (cary)pre-amp. I ran both the AES and ModWright single ended in a direct comparision. The AE-3 easily outperformed the ModWright, in the soundstage depth. Detail and transparency were about the same. Then I compared them both to the SLP (hey, I'm always looking for a better pre and I'm not saying the ModWright is bad. In fact for the $$$ its a good value. I was just hoping for better) and it wasn't even close.

Thanks again, all of you guys!
All of your info is greatly appreciated.
Happy Holidays Everyone!

In response to the question about a balanced preamp, I do plan to offer a higher-end product in the future and it will be a balanced design. It will also be a higher-priced product, likely in the $3500-$4000 range.

In response to the comments about the Sonicap Platinum caps and their not being a true 'Teflon' cap: I was told that they used teflon as the dialectric. Yes, I believe that the construction of the cap does include a proprietary mix of other dialectric materials as well. I am a bit amused at what I perceive as an intended 'deception' here. Bottom line, I found that the Sonicap Platinum caps worked extremely well in our design and I chose them over other manufacturers' designs. I am not going to get into a debate here about the science of capacitor design or the benefits of different dialectrics. I am very pleased with the sonic results in our design with the Sonicap Platinum caps.

Thanks,

Dan W.

Hello I can tell you first off the 2 preamps need 200 ,the Calypso 300 + .You for sure want to trash the stock tubes the jj are ok
The 10 m Mullards are superb if you have $ 400.00 .for the 12ax7, for the input side ,for the outputs with the 6922 you could get some good amperex reasonably priced .
The input is where you will see over 90% of the sound improvement.The Modwright even with the Tungsols are more solidstate sounding with a little laid back presentation. The detail is very good .The Calypso is a little more forwards.In absolute terms with say a Te1efunkin 12ax7,
I would say the timber is a little more natural and a little warmer sounding ,as in life. not thick or tuby.as far as scaling dynamics the Calypso ,is a notch better and just stays glued.Everyone goes my 6 moons ,that is good
for his reference ,please remember the Calypso is 2x the cost.for a 5-10% improvement.if money is not the issue than the Calypso.
If you have 4k this is the a giant killer ,modwright is a close second,taken out of a 4 man panel,+ my wife.I own both,the Modwright is going to a freind.p.s they were both enjoyable.

Thank you for the reply. If I might summarize some of your findings for my own sake...just wanted to clarify some things as I lost track of which unit was being referred to in a couple of sentences.

"The Modwright even with the Tungsols are more solidstate sounding with a little laid back presentation. The detail is very good .The Calypso is a little more forwards."

***9.0SE is a bit more laid back in its presentation, while the Calypso is a bit more forward?***

"In absolute terms with say a Te1efunkin 12ax7,
I would say the timber is a little more natural and a little warmer sounding ,as in life. not thick or tuby. as far as scaling dynamics the Calypso ,is a notch better and just stays glued.

***Are you saying that the Calypso has a bit more natural timber and dynamics? I am just trying to clarify.***

I appreciate your sharing and I apologize for asking for the clarification. I am simply interested, as the designer, to know in which ways exactly, that you preferred the Calypso. There are some sonic aspects of both units that are simply subjective and will depend on personal preference. I prefer a certain sound, and some things I will simply not want to change. On the other hand, if there are sonic traits of the design that I can improve upon to make the unit better overall, I certainly want to do so.

Thank you very much for your thoughtful reply.

Dan Wright
President, ModWright Instruments Inc.