Aesthetix Calypso VS ARC Reference 3

KC - I can't honestly say how long the tubes last. I have only owned my unit for a couple of months and much of that time it has ended up with a variety of tubes in it. I would suspect that at this point, if I had a pair of tubes with 250 hours on them I would be surprised. As for outbidding you on EBay the other day, I was surprised I won that auction. Most of the time I only bid in the final 15 seconds. I was tired that night and bid hours in advance and probably paid more as a result. But I have now bought 3 pairs of these as I want to have two pair for back-ups as I suspect I will keep this preamp for quite a while.

Ckoffend,

FYI, I was discussing with Aesthetix regarding HT bypass a long time ago, and I vaguely remember it was 2k-4k hours (stock tubes)
. I think it is crazy to burn $600 worth of tubes on a tube-preamp when watching movies.

I'm just curious if the 10M will last 10k hours.

Currently I'm using Telefunken/Fishers R-plate for now; it looks like I can't afford the 10M ...the last pair were sold at $270 yesterday.

The 5751, as Jafox suggested, for some reason, went up to $225 on ebay yesterday.

I got some Ediswan for the 6922 position as per the recommendation of another A'goner, but I haven't tried them yet.

BTW did you play with the gain settings?

I find that the Calypso won't sing if coupled with a tough load (in my case, singled ended connection to Ayre V3).

Calypso is also quite sensitive to the powercord.

Happy listening.

K

If a device is sensitive to a power cord it is very poorly designed.

If a device is sensitive to a power cord it is very poorly designed.

I never understand why people make such generalizations like this.

Rwwear, your statement would then imply that Ken Stevens of CAT, Michael Elliot of Aria/Counterpoint, Alex Peychev of APL, Jim White of Aesthetix and Roger West of SoundLab, all designers of top-tier products that I have much experience with, are all poor designers. Products from these companies (in my system) respond significantly to power cord changes. Please do not attack the designer of the product but rather the implementer of the completed system.

Kschiu: Sorry about the jump in price on the 5751. That sometimes happens when there is a frenzy with auctions. If you can find a good deal on a GE or RCA pair, the triple mica might also work out well. I only compared the Sylvania and the JAN to the various 12ax7's I had and the Sylvania was significantly more full-bodied and clear compared to the JAN in the CAT JL-3 amps I was comparing them in.

Concerning the use of a tube line stage in "bypass" mode for movies, I am in full agreement.....it makes no sense unless you can do this with the line stage powered off. I contacted a few preamp companies about this exact feature and I got the same answer: their product needs to be powered on. The new Aria WV that I have had for two months is the first tube line stage that I am aware of that defaults to bypass mode when powered off.