Back in the early 1990's,Mike from Quicksilver came over with another audiophile friend and we compared preamps. Mike had his Quicksilver tube, my friend brought his ARC tube preamp and I had my Accuphase C200 SS preamp.Well the Quicksilver sounded very good with my VAC 70/70 amplifier. The ARC sounded very colored,shockingly so. My Accuphase blew both into the weeds. Both were speechless.The truth is...a good dual mono preamp will produce great sound. I still use the same preamp today, although it has been recapped but still use the original film caps and matched resistors. I also increased the grounding. Sounds absolutely phenomenal.
Basscom is 👑 👑 of audio! I respect him extremely well and have much to learn from him. There will come a day that I will own a pair of bhk amplifiers and preamp. It is definitely on the top of the bucket list.
Im with BHK here. Just come from a passiv NLE (danish hifi dude) Very nice, clean, absolute no noise, to a Opera T1, simple tube preamp. Very engaging and natural (?) sound on my JMR speakers. Im into a simple, low-cost, musical system. Love your videos!
I played around with passive volume controls many years ago and was not really sold on the sound. In my mind I thought it had to do with output impedance levels being fed into the cable and input network of the power amp. For the last 20 years I've used a Conrad Johnson PV-10 preamp ($600 used) and been happy with that, there are better units out there but not at that price point. I swap out the tubes every two years or so.. I think the care they take with their power supply in that preamp has a lot to do with the way it sounds. Most people don't appreciate how much harm a power supply can do if it's not done right,
The late Allen Wright and myself discussed this very subject. He showed a measurement of the then "FVP Preamp" and compared the measurement of of the phono stage and the final output of the line stage and the line stage of re-ordering the various harmonic distortions. I said to him the a kind of pre-processing was going on and he said "exactly." I know that Bascom knows who the late Allen Wright was and even recommended Allen's upgrade to Arnie Nudell's Sony SCD-1 and which was sent to Bill Thalmann (of conrad-johnsen fame) to be upgraded. Sad to hear about Arnie, he comes across as a true character and in the world of pasty personalities, oh well.
I'm preparing to test this and I'm very excited. I will be going from a PC to high end DAC to tube-preamp to passive Attenuator to Bi-Amplified Studio Monitor. The monitors are internally amplified and the Volume levels are set to a static position so that the Attenuator does all the switching and volume controlling. I cannot wait to add the presence of tubes to my system! I'm sure the subs will enjoy it as well.
My take is … electrons are flying in an actual 3 dimensional space from screen to grid giving a dimensional quality to the signal. I notice this most in guitar amps where the pickups are effectively wired directly to the first tube in the preamp section. About as raw as it gets on signal generation.
I went straight from a Mytek Brooklyn+ to a pair of Musical Fidelity m8-700’s. I sounded good but I wanted to see what putting a tube pre in the chain would do. I picked up a used BAT VK 33 and I agree with Mr King.
The very high price of this preamp puts into question my belief that PS is accessible to most audiophiles who want to buy the best equipment for the most reasonable price!
I agree with that as i tried no preamp for a while. So the question is if one active preamp is good would two be even better has anyone ever tried this?
I might know why. Years ago a great old venerable reviewer stated that digital is better than analog and had no issues regarding sound staging and imaging. But then he noted that just lately (since he had been listening to digital) he noticed the need for a center speaker to fill the hole between the other speakers. Refusing of course to even consider that it might be the digital source. Similar thing here. Both Bascom and Paul have come to the recent realization that they need a vacuum tube preamp between the DAC and amplifier. Well, like a class D amplifier which is quasi-digital, they both need the help of analog filters - a.k.a. distortion devices. The warm and rich sound of a vacuum tube preamp acts as a filter for the digital. The reason they didn’t realize this before is because they were using mostly analogue which hardly needs another analog filter.
Does anyone know what the name is of the preamp he mentions that he used to own? Sounds like he is saying Aestetic Klipsho or something similar. Just curious. 😊
Agree with this guy 100%... unfortunately it took many years and a lot of $$$ to figure this out. I have tried several tube preamps over the last 10 years or so... Quicksilver, VTL, Blue Circle, etc. Currently have a Grommes PHI-26 SET that sounds amazing. I never thought that I would need a preamp in between my front end and amp, but it makes a HUGE difference. Those wind chimes are annoying as hell... if I lived next door to him, I would tear those down and melt them down.
Sounds like wind chimes, he probably keeps them around as a measurement for his hearing capabilities . I have come to to conclusion that older people can hear higher frequencies just fine but the tune them out over time. so its probably like a exercise for the ears. as the saying goes "if you don't use it, you lose it".
@@constablehaze124 if i had a bet, id say cbc is saying... years from now, youll find almost everything in your first post turns out to be false. im only 59 and i have already experienced significant upper freq hearing loss. use it or not, it goes.
A preamp, designed to drive an amplifier, if it is a good one will have a clean & quiet gain magnification, with a low output impedance, with an output stage that is capable of swinging higher voltage than a source unit: DAC, DAW, Open Reel, etc... A preamp designed with some thought into its intended use, results in having the correct input and output impedance (Nice dynamic range, quiet, and correct tonal balance as well) sounds like a useful item in ones stereo rack. Most Dac's do not use the best method of controlling volume either, long conversation.... and instead of continuing reinforcing my point, am going to suggest that people read more about how a preamp is for voltage gain, and the amplifier is for current gain.
Holy-Moly. & People accutionaly Thought the Emiggie-D-Vice was da Cat's ASS.100 yrs Later we R Still tryi'n 2 decipher the Big-Bopper, [Music ]. When does the Hurti'n STOP ? YYZ-60+NOOB.
I don't buy it. He had a "moment" when he was used to hearing a true, clean signal and then he listened (hopefully to the same signal) with a tube pre-amp. Of course there'll be differences. Does it really sound better? That's completely subjective (and somewhat objective, in regard to the actual recording) I'd argue that when you're going through a passive pre-amp, you're leaving your listening experience in the hand of the recording engineer. S/he is the one who decides what instruments to attenuate or not, what frequencies to attenuate or not. The question is, do recording engineers record "for the least common denominator", it being their recording being played through a car stereo, radio, receiver? Or do they record it to give you an exact replica of what was produced in front of them? I doubt they'd do the latter. Thus, I'd somewhat agree with him that we need "some form" of control over the signal, one that cannot be achieved with a passive pre-amp. At least he did say that it was "perceptually true", which sounds right on.
I've had a few Passive's in my time in HiFi and always found them lifeless. I can tell you, if "I'd argue that when you're going through a passive pre-amp, you're leaving your listening experience in the hand of the recording engineer" is true, then are crap recording engineers.
You're overthinking it. The distortion is created at multiple points in the chain. But the distortion tubes add is probably different and a result of a different reason. The result of adding tube amplification in the chain just adds a more musical element and completes something missing to the sound. You should just try it and decide for yourself. I'm saving up for a decware preamp or the schiit Freya. It's kinda like comparing two photos. Perspective might change but one might look more appealing color wise and inviting as if you could jump in. Doesn't make the other look fake...It's still a photograph but adding different elements from different perspectives can make things way way better.
I've used both and found the passive to be thin sounding. But...I'm now listening without any pre and with all the rest of the gear the same and it sounds very full. I'm loving it, actually.
so Tube preamp on DAC does something solid state preamp on DAC cant do , thats basically what they are saying , and not just any tube preamp, its the one they sell . Waht a loud of crock
