|   Which Tube pre Amp Kit is the best ? | solo8008
Jul 11, 2001 8:04 PM | | Hi...
All tube Grues out there ,which tube pre amp Kits should I build ,
(1)Audio Electronics AE-3
(2)Transcendent sound Ground Grid
(3)Van Alstine Inc. super pass 3i
which one sounds the best any comments? |
| Bottlehead Foreplay is supposed to be very good(nt) | Azuth
Jul 12, 2001 9:14 AM | | |
| Bottlehead Foreplay is supposed to be very good(nt) | solo8008
Jul 12, 2001 5:40 PM | | I seen that too, beefed up unit cost $300, but its Ugly , connot be displayed ,I do care about looks. |
| Hehe! Yeah, its not a pretty one! (nt) | Azuth
Jul 12, 2001 7:30 PM | | |
| re: Which Tube pre Amp Kit is the best ? | Barry S
Jul 13, 2001 6:12 PM | | I've not heard the Audio Electronics or the Van Altine so take my comments for what they are worth.
I put a grounded grid together from scratch using the parts list and schematic from Bruce Rosenblit's book. The construction of the circuits was pretty straight forward and fun. Sourcing the components and modifying an old preamp chasis were not. The grounded grid kit is a bargain for the amount of time and trouble it'll save you.
The grid replaced another, more expensive, tube preamp in my system. The stock grid is almost as musical as the first preamp but retrieves a lot more detail and has much better frequency extention at the top and bottom. Its a very nice piece.
The killer, though, is to modify the feedback circuit in the grid. After living with the preamp as designed, I found a recommendation to remove the 100k feedback resister and replace it with a variable potentiometer. A linear 250k would be ok ... mine got a 500k. Now the amount of feedback is adjustable from almost none (very, very traditional toob sound) to too much (very tight bass, clean treble, shorter soundstage and not very tubey sounding at all).
This simple modification allows me to taylor the sound to best show off the source material. Wanna play old jazz recordings from the 20's and 30's and make them listenable? Remove some feedback from the loop and soften the presentation. Doing acoustic music? Add some feedback to tighten the sound up without losing the tube magic. Want to rock and roll? Add more feedback and kill the tube sound altogether.
The circuit mod makes the preamp an absolute joy for whatever type of music you want to listen to. |
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