Nothing says he can't revive the Budgie. My guess is people will mostly snob the Puffin and after seeing his numbers dwindle, Shannon will make the decision to resume building the Budgie, either while keeping the Puffin active or retiring it. Regardless of what happens, it'll be interesting to see what transpires.
Might get some Gold Note PH-10 users to disagree with that, it offers many of the same features but with a full analog path for around $1300. Pretty nice preamp.
What do you think of the phono stage in the 9090? I don't like mine at all. I find it bright and a little thin in the midrange. I much prefer my vintage Dynaco phono stage.
I've never used it. I have the 9090 set up as a dedicated CD spinning system. I would like to find a clean SR 717 to connect to it and I have a feeling that is where the puffin will live when that happens.
I think you are right here (unfortunately). Shannon reminds me of other more "DIY" business owners, like Tekton and many other small speaker makers. They get enjoyment from the tinkering and the building of new things as much as selling tons of units. Shannon probably got tired of building the Budgie and Budgie Hybrid pre-amps, tired of the circuit, or maybe ran out of a stock of NOS tubes and didn't want to source another lot? If you look at his past products, he doesn't usually bring them back. I really wish I had purchased a Budgie or Hybrid now. Guessing the market on those is going to explode though.
Judging from his posts on FB, he is selling them as fast as he can build them. I've been running mine with a Sansui 9090 set up I have working in my garage. It really is a nice bit of equipment.
It occurred to me that I never compared the Puffin to the internal on this Sansui. I just listened to one track on this album (that I've probably played about ten times in the last week) though both phono's. The Puffin absolutely blows away the internal. It gives you that upgrade you are looking for when buying a new phono, more of everything across the board and brings the music to life. If any of you are fans of JJ Cale, you know he tends to bury his vocals in the mix if not mumble them a bit. With the Puffin you can hear what he is singing, the internal is mumble city. Same thing across the board with the bass, the symbols and guitar, everything is more clearly defined without being louder. Is it a giant killer? No. Like most $400 phono's, if you've only ever heard an internal on the one you bought for $100 to get in the game, this is a huge upgrade and worth the money. I'm tempted to buy the discounted pro-ject tube box to run a comparison but this foolishness has to come to a end at some point.
I've not heard the JD9 but I would have every expectation that it is twice as good. Compare this to the picture I took of the inside of the Puffin. All be it a VERY sparse chassis but there is a lot more going on. Sure the Tubes are there but the power supply and capacitors are much more substantial. As it should be, it costs twice as much and is assembled by Chinese kids making $2 a day.
Has anyone seen a review of the Puffin outside of this forum? I know it just came out but you'd think there would be a few reviews somewhere. I can't find any.
Tavish. Should be ready in 2 weeks. I ordered the 6sl7 version. Just talked to him today. I did order it in May, so yes, there is a wait list in effect..
That’s where I came up with the idea it looks awesome. The one they sell for $1,700 looks even more awesomer
Since Shannon is selling the Puffin through Amazon, he asked me to post my review there -which I did. If you are not dead set on a tube phono pre, it's a good sounding unit with so much flexibility. I can get most of my poorly recorded old LP's from the 70's and 80's to sound pretty darn good by turning one knob and making a few adjustments. For me, it is a great product. YMMV.
Told you man. I was shocked at how bad the phono stage was considering how much I love the line stage and amp in my 9090. You'd think a totl piece from the heyday of vinyl would be of higher quality
I didn’t think it was bad, just a bit dull by comparison. I’ve heard worse from an internal. It always striking how much better an external can be.
