Preamp Deal of the Century

Stevem,

If you can't remember, it's already to late! Ask your wife, she'll remind you :)

Hi Steve

For what its worth I am also using the Linkwitz Orions with the Chenin pre. I couldn't agree more with Abe's description of the Oorions. I also was a huge fan of electrostatics and went from Martin Logan Ascent i speakers to the Orions and the Orions sound better by far than the Logans. I also use no sub.

Fiddler, I thought it was that ;-) had to ask anyway.

Thanks DWR, I will have to follow up on the Orions one day.

Steve.

For the Cabernet Dual has anyone tried bi-amping using this preamp on a two-way pair of speakers that can be bi-wired.

I've just hooked up a pair of 2A3 monoblocks to the 101D section which feeds the ribbon tweeter on the speakers and a pair of 13E1 monoblocks to the 6H30 section of the pre-amp which feeds the woofer.

The sound is fantastic, but am thinking some of that mid-range magic is compromised. Any thoughts ?

I bought a set of XLR-RCA adapters for the preamp output of my Cabernet to see if it would reduce a hum issue I was having. The adapters did eliminate the hum, BUT it ABSOLUTELY killed the dynamics, bass, and overall volume of the music.

The manual does not state what the xlr pinout is, but I did email Mick and he stated that pin 2 is hot, so I believe the Cabernet follows the USA XLR standard (Pin 1 = Shield ground, Pin 2 = Positive balanced signal, Pin 3 = Negative balanced signal). The XLR-RCA adapter was made to the USA XLR standard according to the maker of the adapter.

I'm connecting the Cabernet to a Yamamoto A-08S. As stated before, I wanted to try the adapter to see if it would effect the hum issue which I have. I had previously built my own RCA to XLR cable (Pin 2 to RCA Center, Pin 1 & 3 to RCA Ground) and I had the same problem with my homemade cable that I had with the adapters - death of dynamics, bass depth, and overall volume. I thought I just botched my cable job, but apparently the problem is different.

I'm guessing the problem is with the Cabernet. Before I received the Cabernet, I had the Yamamoto connected to a Denon receiver and did not have the hum problem that I'm having now. I haven't changed the RCAs, power cords, or speaker cables. The only change was the Supratek.

As far as addressing the hum before the adapters, I have tried floating the ground on just the preamp, just the amp, on both, and on my speakers (Von Schweikert dB99-SE). However, all the ground floating did nothing.

I reconnected the RCA to RCA this morning, but left the adapters still connected to the Cabernet XLR out. I noticed the same reduction in hum as well the constriction of dynamics, bass, and volume. Once I unplugged the adapters, the hum came back, but so did the "life" in the music. If anybody has any suggestions to reduce the hum, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks much.