Finally a 6SN7 driven preamp...

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by WHitese, Jun 1, 2017.

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  1. WHitese

    WHitese Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    North Bergen, NJ
    Mr. C.C. Poon of Monarchy Audio sold me a modified unit of the out of production M9 preamp.

    5-step coarse steps
    30-steps using a Swiss made ELMA gold switches
    WIMA and high value capacitors
    good 6SN7's included.

    Only 1 input ( he is including hardware if I want more inputs) and 1 output...which can be changed with a selector switch..


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  2. 33na3rd

    33na3rd Forum Resident

    Location:
    SW Washington, USA
    Looks interesting. How does it sound?
     
  3. WHitese

    WHitese Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    North Bergen, NJ
    Its on its way to me...although my last two boxes incoming to me are lost by the USPS....:tsk:
     
  4. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    He of the monkey picked tea??
     
  5. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    My Audio Electronics Constellation by Carey Audio is 6SN7 based and sounds real nice.
     
  6. John Woo

    John Woo Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Singapore
    just a point for discussion, i remember an elderly gentleman who played with tube amps for years
    told me, for tube driven preamps, the bigger tubes, like the 6SN7 gives a more "meaty" sound
    compared to smaller tubes like 12AX7s will give a "thinner" sound.
    is there any "truth" in this comment?
     
  7. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    That's kind of my feeling. But, it's probably more of a feeling than anything concrete.

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    This thing has some serious transformers in it. Its total weight is 22-lbs. So it has a lot more going for it besides the 6SN7's.

    Cary uses 12AX7's and 12AU7's in their top of the line preamps. So does most everyone else.

    You can't really judge a tube by it's size. Take output tubes in the EL84 family. They are the size of small signal tubes, but put out much more power. While they don't have the power of the larger output tubes, they are very solid sounding.

    Right now the Constellation is feeding into a PrimaLuna Prologue Five, running KT88's at a modest 36-WPC. It is essentially a vintage/modern sound, as the tube circuitry is not overtaxed and has large power supplies that allow the preamp/amp to do tubes in a more classic way.

    Tavish Designs makes a vintage style 6SL7 based tube phono preamplifier. Here is a link to a review from c|net's Steve Guttenberg.

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    I currently have a SS phono-pre I hope to be upgrading to a tube phono-pre, in the near future. I am considering either the Tavish Design Vintage or one from Decware, since I have a couple of tube amps from them.
     
    John Woo and Rolltide like this.
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