I was dusting the other day, and noticed something. On the SA-T7, I thought the bass control is on far left, followed by the treble control next to it. But it's the opposite! I had the treble set to 10 o'clock, and the bass set a 12! Obviously, engaging the Tone control was having the opposite effect to what I intended! Chalk it up to another embarrassing incident on my part. PS I just noticed on the Vincent site that the new SA-T7MK has lost the chrome rings around the knobs. I wonder why? I like the look of the chrome.
I ordered a Music Hall HA11.1 Headphone Amp from Music Direct for $85 shipped (open box). Got it hooked up today via the rec out and it works great!
Hi, Just want to follow-up with your Vincent SA-T7 experience. Been looking for a tube preamp with tone control to plug into my 6c33c-b mono blocks. I was initially looking at the SA-32 which I guess its a lower model with submarine tubes. Anyways please let us know your recent experience and thank you. By the way, my system setup is 95% analog sound source. Reel to reel, cassette decks and vinyl. Thanks, CCG
I'm still loving it. I still have the stock tubes. After all that discussion and helpful input from others here, I decided not to swap. Part of that decision was my experience w/ the PHO-701, which I also love. I tried two other great tubes, and while I liked them, I ultimately went back to the stock tube and like it the best. Vincent engineers say their devices are tuned to work best with the stock tubes, and maybe they're right. Back to the SA-T7: Is it perfect? No. Is anything perfect? No. As we've discussed here ad-nauseum, the remote volume control is not fine enough. I use the tone control to reduce bass on some bloated content. It works fine.
Thank you for the follow-up and very well said. I agree with everything you said including the tone control. I agree theres a lot of funny sounding bass lines recorded especially on the newer music. I record a lot using analog formats and the tone control is a must for me for playback. Sometimes the tape media I'm using can be brighter that the other one so I have to back up a notch on the treble from time to time. It also serves as a tool making a mediocre sound to a million bucks. I also read somewhere that the volume control remote is not that friendly. Most amps and pre amps are like that. Even my old primaluna is the same so I have no problem with that. My other question to you is, what about heat inside unit? Do I need to put a small fan to relieve the temperature? I'll be replacing the Sony preamp in the picture right underneath the turntable. So I'm not sure if I need to put an extra attention with the temperature since it seems like compartmentalized. Where did you buy yours? I wanna get one from an authorized dealer so I can get the warranty. I hope theyre blowing out a sale today. I just bought a back-up cpap machine this morning with a 25% discount.
Nice gear! It does get hot, but not to worry. I have mine on the second shelf in a rack similar to one of yours. There's a wall on the left side, and a desk on the right. I don't feel the need to have a fan. I bought mine open-box from Audio Advisor. I highly recommend them. Oh, look, they have it on sale now! That's still a lot more than I paid ($1991 in 2019), but inflation, pandemic, etc... I see the new MK2 model is considerably more expensive.
Oh cool.. Thanks. I haven't bought anything from Audio Experts yet. I'll ask them about the warranty. I'll get the one without the Bluetooth and digital inputs. Last time I fired up the Node 2i was more than a year ago.
It's Audio Advisor, not Audio Experts. I don't know anything about the latter one. Here's my cramped rack:
On SA-T7 RCA Output (not the recording out). Are the 2 sets of output are in different ohms? I heard this preamp on live 3 weeks ago. It really blows my mind even on a hybrid setup. That one notch of bass and treble adjustment makes all the difference in the world. Should fit my rack perfect. Thank you for your continuous follow-up and input. I ordered it today, cant wait to have it anytime this week.
I hope you enjoy it! Let us know. The manual doesn't mention any difference between the two RCA outputs. Several folks here have testified that they don't hear a difference, either.
I'm finally gonna retire my old Sony integrated/preamp. I bought it back in 1986 which basically paid for this Vincent. I was gonna get it recapped but I know even if its new, It wont sound the same as a tube preamp plus the money I will spend on it is astronomical. However I have an excellent sounding solid state phono preamp. I was thinking if I buy a tube phono preamp, it might not even gonna make a difference for it will be chained to a hi-end external equalization, to the tube preamp then to a tube power amp. I am so thrilled on the recording output which is perfect for my recording setup. I have another recording integrated tube amp with a recording out that is setup on my room upstairs. It does a lot of magic and recordings features that's connected to nakamichi deck. Sounds phenomenal on playback.
I got the package today. I haven't even open it yet. But I will tomorrow. This package is big and heavier than I thought especially for a tube preamp. If we weren't going out tonight, I would have pulled it out and get it running. Excited!
Pretty rigid preamp. This thing is pretty heavy with a thick shell. In and Output connectors are excellent comes complete with RCA, toslink, 3.5mm jack, remote, power cable. Never the less I have all those already so I wont be needing them. Lets see how it sings tomorrow.
Congratulations! I believe this is a great preamp; may it work well, long and reliably with a lot of your satisfaction! P.S I also belong to the "Vincent family", so I am especially happy about this
Oh Cool. Which one do you got? This is the actual work now. All the 3 recorders that are integrated to my old amp, I'll have to do this using the preamps in and recording out to the passive router. This is gonna be a lot of fun tomorrow.
I believe it will be fun and great when you put everything together in the right way If the user knows well the connection methods, signal paths and has a little electrical knowledge - then there is no problem with the connection. You, I'm sure, handle it very well, so it's pure pleasure to look forward to! dbx?! The last time I saw this on my component was when I had a Technics RS-M 235 X cassette deck
Lots of RCA interconnects. So far I only made 40 (20 pairs). I need 6 more and I hope I have enough Belden Wires and Switchcraft RCA's. I takes a long time to plaster everything the right way. The good news is I have all the MXR EQ fully recapped so as the dynamic expander. Its difficult because I have 2 jobs. Little by little its getting there. I'm adding my newly rebuilt 1976 dual 701. I went to this table all the way to the last screw. Now I need a turntable preamp. Do you think I still need to get a tube turntable? I'm worried that it may not sound good for I have both preamp and mono blocks all tube.
I am not aware that there is a tube record player; at least I've never seen it before. The only one I know is the McIntosh MTI100, but it's an AIO solution (Pre/Pow/Turntable). I believe that your audio system will be excellent with Dual as well
A quality phono preamp is always good to have. If I were buying for myself, I would definitely take the Vacuum tube phono preamp.
"Bravo. I am very happy! I know the sound of my amp in and out. After I plug in this preamp and rand it for an hour. This is the first time I heard my 6-1/2 inch tower speaker sounds like a 7. More voicing with lesser distortion to none (if I may). I know all these tubes are the soviets which sounds okay to bad. Pretty much I have 5 brand new tubes on bugle boy. I'll get the rest of the 4 if I still can, wait for a month then pop in these vintage ones. I'm very impress even the sound of the midrange is widely open, 'not shouty' sub super smooth and clean and very pleasing to listen to. You can hear all the sound of the instruments sparkling all the way to the high hat stand. Right there I'm blown away. I can actually feel now that if I even buy a klipsch 3 way speakers, I'll be able to control and adjust the excessive midrange easily with this setup. I am so happy I bought a preamp with a superior tone control. Even if I glide the bass and treble back and forth, it drives the fullness of the sound with no decay. That 1 notch of adjustment to my sound preference makes an okay sound to a holy grail. I'm ready to put this on the living room this late afternoon.
The wording is a little unclear, but on page 35: "By not pushing the buttom (sic) the signal is passed by the analog inputs S5 and S6." This means out = analog and in = digital. I only use analog inputs and they're connected to S1 and S5. I have the button in the out position.
Thank you for pointing it out. Perfect that's exactly what I wanted to know. Have you used the toslink or the built in dac?
No, I haven't. I use my Marantz SA-KI Ruby to process digital music. I noticed somethings odd just now in the manual, and also in the photo you posted above. Back to your question about the two outputs, on page 26 (I refer to the English pages), it mentions: "Output 1 has a source impedance of 600 Ω, Output 2 a source impedance of 50 Ω. Generally, both outputs can be used for devices with input impedances from 10 kΩ onwards evenly, e.g. for bi-amping. Output 1 is ideal for the connection of high end or studio amplifiers with transfer input." Also, the manual doesn't label outputs 1 or 2 in any way. I believe the back of my unit is similar, but I don't feel like pulling it out of the rack. Your photo shows the outputs labeled 1(607 ohms) and 2(47 ohms). Maybe they changed it a bit. You don't have the new MK2 model, though. I do recall trying both outputs but couldn't hear any difference.
