Some Frequenty Asked Questions. (actually most of it I thought of myself)

How does it sound?

Oh the sound! It’s very transparent. Doesn’t have a strong character. For those looking for transparency in their system, this is highly recommended! However, if you are looking for a sweet sound, then I recommend the 5965 in a different configuration. Will post this on my Projects page later.

Why does it sound kind of “edgy” in my system?

A friend did describe my preamp as “edgy” too (though my tin ears can’t tell). Solder grid stopper resistor of 120-150 ohm on grid of both channels and it worked great!

I don’t like your power supply filter and would prefer 100H-100uF-100H-100uF.

Of course! This is a DIY project remember? So do it anyway you like. I opt for a low capacitance high inductance power supply filter circuit but you can do it anyway you like. You could build it as capacitor input power supply. No problemo.

I finished building it, and proceeded to power on without tubes…

Oh no! Don’t do that! Without tubes, the transformer is not being “loaded”. The voltage can get very high! If it gets higher than the voltage rating of your capacitor, your electrolytic cap might explode! Always power on with tubes installed.

I hooked it up to the rest of my system but it hums… can play music though.

Hum is good. It means you are almost there. (this doesn’t sound comforting heh?) Write to me and we’ll try to work out how to reduce hum.

I don’t like your choice of parts. I would prefer tantalum resistors, Black Gate capacitors, Jensen copper foil capacitors, silver wire, teflon socket…

Be sensible. Start off with something cheap and move on. The sound you get is a combination of the various “sounds” of all the parts you put in. Splurging on parts without knowing for sure how they will sound TOGETHER in a circuit is not very smart. Get it working first, then (if you wish) break your bank with all the audiophile parts in the world. Don’t be suprised if some of the expensive ones don’t suit your taste.

Your ground wire looks so puny. You are not macho at all.

Yikes! You are right. Definitely not macho at all. I was lazy. You could use a thicker gauge wire, or parallel a few strands to get a lower impedance ground.

Are you offering a kit?

I prefer to concentrate on just parts. Look, I have given the transformer winder info. (so no middle man charge here!) I have even given the wiring diagram, step-by-step. The rest is up to you. You can find someone in your area to do your chassis, to my (oops, your) liking. Time is scarce and for all my trouble asking someone to do the chassis etc, I will need to charge you. Definitely no more “value for money”.

I heard that running one tube for each channel sounds better than utilizing both triodes in one tube.

I haven’t tried this as the other tubes I have been familiar with are all run both channels in one glass but if you DIY it, you can do it any way you like. Do let me know how it sounds. If it really sounds better this way, everyone should know. On an unrelated note, thank God I’m not offering kits. Otherwise, can you imagine how much work I have to bear to have all chassis reworked?

I actually prefer integrated amps. Never like the idea of preamp-power amp.

Ditto here. But then everyone has his/her own opinion. And my way is no superior to your way, vice versa. If you use power hungry speakers, solid state power amps is a must without breaking the bank. Tube preamps offer the opportunity to get tube sound at a lower cost. Alternatively, use this preamp circuit as your CD player output stage!

How many 5687/6X4 do you expect to sell?

I’m not expecting to sell many. The whole idea of doing this is to show you that building tube amps (or preamps) is very simple. There’s nothing magical inside. There’s nothing to “tweak here and there otherwise it won’t work”. You know, that kind of nonsense some folks spew to fool you into thinking DIY tube amps is only for electrical engineers. Once you understand this and start your first DIY project, trust me, this is going to be your most rewarding journey.

Okay, will stop here. Let me know if you have more queries.

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Since the day I put up the Simple 5687 preamp on my website, I have been
overwhelmed by the response! So many have approached me and so many have
initiated their rites to tube DIY! Some of their baptism of fire was easy, while
some had a bit more trouble, but overall, no one has yet written to me claiming
they don’t like the preamp. This is great!

Well, if you have built your 5687 preamp, write to me and I’ll put your work
here.

Waily, Ang Mo Kio, Singapore     Well done, Waily! Waily is using Marantz CD63, Roksan solid state power amp and Paradigm Studio Reference speakers. Waily can be reached at waily at yahoo dot com.

Hi Yeo,After weeks of tweaking, I finally concluded that those values that U used in the project is very very near to ideal(best) what a 5687 should sound. Maybe my preference for good sound is quite similar to yours, in expecting what a good, neutral sound on system should have. Or maybe my gear should match with this kind of sound.   Here I would like to kow tow to you as I presumed that u’ve probably tried up quite a number of different values/ config before concluding and sharing this project with us and other diy’ers.   Initially I thought that this humble preamp has’nt reach the full potential yet, hence the word TWEAK comes into my mind. But then, those original values definately has to stay in order for me to really enjoy all my favourite albums/cd. Of course, there is room for improvement, but does it really justify the total cost of the project, or the degree of improvement- branded coupling caps (hovland, multicaps, etc), black gate skz/wkz sound of music power caps, dact stepped attenuators, pure thicko silver hook up cable, lundahl or other expensive choke/ transformer, and much more parts. Ok, I might do that when I am very loaded and doesn’t feel the pain of thrashing/ keeping those that sound unsuitable to me.;-)   Remember the 100u+100u, I just took it off and in place back the 50u+50u. The smoothness, creamy voice has came back, dynamic is a bit slower – u can get to hear the singer voice extension very well. The 100u might sound much dynamic with Mohamad Ali punches in his fancy footwork and that of course, will very soon send u to K.O. (definately ngam those ah beng in honda civic with the windscreen wind down). One words, I can’t take it anymore. Out u go. The opposite of things happen with the 25u+25u, it makes everything slow motion and dull, lifeless.   Anyway, the 390ohm dubilier has found some use in this preamp..I put it in the grid resistor for fun and suprisingly it sound much better than the Riken but different values that I’ve tried (100,150,1K). I can safely said that this resistor ngam ngam roll off those tiring highs and the loss in sonic clarity is negligible. (of course, it cure my power amp shutdown too).   To summarise, the only difference my circuit to you is only this grid resistor, 250K ohm alps pot, some cheap, thick solid core copper hookup cable, S$15 per pair bronze female RCA from Well Audio, pair of Welwyn 20K for the plate(well), others is riken (well) and 1000u cerafine cathode caps that i found it brings more mid and lower bass than the 470u (who knows I might revert bacck to 470 in future??;-), and of course this will varies from system to system.

    Thanks for your input Waily! Well, the circuit has
been optimized by vt4c. I just muck around with the power supply. : ) That said,
glad you like it! I hope you’ll be encouraged to try more DIY projects in
future!

Thanks Mike for your endorsement! 

Xavier Goh, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia   Ha! Another Simple 5687 comes to the fore! I like this. Non-boutique parts at all! Okay, just one Black Gate cap but cheap/common parts everywhere. Well, you can still hear its beauty. This, to me, is the mark of a good design. Kudos to vt4c again. Congrats on a successful project!

Hi Yeo, All parts are non-audiophiles grade except cathode cap (blackgate). I will upgrade it with adding in another choke with FT cap (awaiting your supply). The sound was transparent & the mid was good compared with my existing SS preamp. Source from Marantz CD6000OSE, 5687 preamp, JVC 4-channel power amp & out from Revolver floor standing speaker. I would expect better sound with additional 10H choke & FT cap. The holes beside the transformer & choke are for this purposes. I am using DC filament supply for 5687 tubes & with additional resistor at the grid input. Thanks. BR, Xavier

 

 

 

Billy Florentino, a Filipino lost in Singapore   Well, well, well. This Simple 5687 has a more “modern” aesthetic feel. The handles and plumbing bobs do add a touch of “IKEA” to it. Ha ha! Well done Billy! Well done!

Hi Yeo, Finally, I finished my first ever project 5687 preamp. It’s pretty lovely sound. The look that matches the sound. The Look : Those cabinet handles makes it look very cool. The chokes, I sprayed black to match the chasis. The blue light makes it very high end. The Sound : First, I was bothered about the hummm although it can’t be heard when listening. It did improved when I did the star gounding. It’s true that this machine is very dynamic and fast. The vocal is also great after changing the cathode cap to 1000uF (thanks to Wally for this). The extension of the highs are amazing. There are a lot of little sounds that brings out with this preamp. Further Improvements : I know there still a lot of room for improvement like finding the right value for the grid resistor, DC filament supply, trying tung-sol 5687 etc… Thanks man for all your help.. More power to you.. Regards, Billy

 

 

Come on! If you have built this project, send your pics to me!

The post Update: Simple 5687-based preamp appeared first on diyparadise.

Yeah, folks. Let my friend, BS Lee, here temp you with some “foreplay” before he presents his serious stuff later… he he he…

Yeo,

Not sure if you’re interested to publish this on your website although it’s not the 5687, as others have done..but anyway..here goes.

Attached herewith are some pics of the final up & running Foreplay preamp. The amp consists of the main stuff listed below.

1 pc Ultron gold pin 6CA4/EZ81 rectifier tube

2 pcs JJ ECC82

3 Custom specified local tranny: 135-0-135V, 3.15 – 0 – 3.15V, 6.3 – 0 – 6.3V windings.

4. Resistors are Welwyn 1% metal films in main circuitry.

5. Short length Pasar Rd interconnects used for signal path interfacing.

6. Solen MKP 1uF coupling caps

7. 23step attenuator 100K c/w Philips MRS resistors.

8. Vintage Mcmurdo 9pin tube sockets.

9. Chassis is 16g GI steel fabricated to custom design.

Possible Upgrade path:

1. Better quality or PIO coupling caps.

2. 3 different coupling caps selectable via switch.

3. Goldpoint or DACT attenuator

4. Hammond mains tranny.

5. Holco or Vishay/Dale resistors.

The Foreplay core circuit is not different from the original Bottlehead design except for an over specified transformer, tube rectification circuit, 23step attenuator, smaller value signal coupling cap and some minor tweaks embedded within the circuit to suit my personal preferences.

On initial use with RCA clear top 12AU7A and minimum value of coupling cap, (because that’s only what I have in hand – Russian Military MKP 0.1uF.) it does not perform to my personal expectation in terms of correct bass weight, some muddy bass lines, questionable depth and uncertain sound staging, and edgy, just to name a few. The character and massive signal
gain of the Foreplay is quite apparent it appeared un-involving and not entirely musical.

Now comes the JJ tubes, loaned from a fellow Klanner plus a pair of Solen 1uF MKP’s. In it goes and after half hour of warm-up, the music now comes together with correct the correct thickness, weight and fullness in the bass department. Bass now sounds right as far as this pre-amp is concerned. Music is now smoothen out by some noticeable which to me is acceptable.
Digital edginess is almost gone and more analog in character.

Any further shortcoming in this area would be blamed on the rest of the chain, mainly the Power amps insufficient to drive the speakers to potential. As the hours trod on, playing anything from Norah Jones, Teresa Teng, to some Telarc’s Eric Kunzel and various personal test tracks, I seem to be quite satisfied at my personal achievement. I think I’ll stick to the JJ tubes which again, amazes me with sonics that I enjoy in the wee hours of the night.

For now, I think I’ve achieved what I want in this Pre-amp, in line with the budget that my pocket could stretch. Next week, will be tinkering on 2 sets of DIY Leak TL25+ monoblocks…long, long overdue for construction.

BS Lee

www.diyparadise.com

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The Etude Preamp

Okay, I’ve said before I’m bad with names but this preamp, I can’t help but naming it something more unique than just “Simple 12B4”. So Etude it is as when it was first playing, the first name that came to mind was a piano etude. Err, please don’t ask me why…

Okay, what’s so great about this preamp? Nothing much except that I have already had a 12B4 based preamp in the Projects page much earlier. Except this time, I’ve built the circuit. But I changed a few things. The plate resistor is 12kohm, cathode is 500ohm and B+ of 260VDC. Power supply circuity is as exactly that of the Simple 5687. The 12B4 is running at ~15mA. I haven’t bothered to optimize it yet as the sound is so good, I’m keen to let it keep on playing.

Okay, I did a few things differently. No fun doing the same thing over and over again! The BIG MACHO black caps beside the choke is 2 pieces of 51uF/400V Solen metalized polypropylene. The yellow coupling caps aren’t my de facto Auricaps but some out-of-production polystyrene (this guy takes a long time to run in!). Other than this, nothing exotic nor different at all. See that I’m not even using wirewound resistor on the plate but some “white coffin” as I haven’t even began optimizing this circuit yet. Construction warning: I had some oscillation problem, but cured easily by some grid stoppers of 220ohm. You may want to try a higher value in your circuit.

Okay, what’s the sonics like and why the hell are you so excited about?

Ha ha. Sonics is like a GIANT filter! First, let’s start with the tube. 12B4 is an old old pre-WWII tube, built in those days when feedback technique wasn’t invented yet and our poor engineers have to make the tubes as linear as possible. Also, it has very low plate resistance of only 1kohm (not far from standard of 600ohm), can take lots of current, can even function as power stage of 1.5W! Surely it has no problem masquerading preamp duties? It also has low mu of ~6, which is more than adequate for line level.

 

With this preamp, I gained clarity, width, depth, height, focus… in short, everything! No, if you are looking for a warm sweet sound, you are wasting your time here, but if transparency, neutrality is what you are after, this preamp has in spades. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Yes, I gained more weight, width, depth and height but I attribute this more to a preamp in the chain compared to just an integrated amp before this but what is unmistakenbly 12B4 is the ooooo-sooooo-neutrallllll character. Or lack of character! Ha! Ha!

 

 

 

All this while I’ve been using the Simple EL84 without a preamp as after spending months on getting the natural sound from the Simple EL84, it’s a heartbreaker when your tube preamp just takes control of EVERYTHING. Okay, I haven’t tried a lot of preamps but in a chain, for some reasons, the preamp dominates the sound more than the power amp. The FIRST stage is the dominating one. But finally the Etude allows the naturalness of the Simple EL84 to come through, unhindered, and gaining some here and there.

But please be forewarned that this is a very revealing preamp. Also, the highs seem to be more prominent than before. Which makes it a good match for those with the non-oversampling DAC. But in systems, where the emphasis is on zing, bing and ting, stay away! But for me, this is a “keeper”.

 

 

 

diyparadise.com

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How to build your own tube preamp

Alright, I have introduced a few simple projects. Now, let me show you step-by-step (almost) how I built one. I’m refering to the circuit explained on 5687-based Simple Preamp. Schematics is repeated here.

Okay, before class begins, pre-requisite knowledge is:
1. You got to know your resistors and capacitors. Yes, if you can’t tell a resistor from a capacitor, ask knowledgeable friends or pay a visit to Jalan Pasar.
2. Know what is a choke and what is a transformer.
3. Directly related to 1 and 2. Know what the symbols mean on the schematics below.
4. Know how to solder.
5. Able to follow simple instructions. Once your preamp is singing, you can mod to your heart’s content, but for now, let’s follow instructions, okay?

Okay! Let’s start!

We begin by first drawing the layout on paper, how are we going to lay the components out. We need to decide where does signal come in, and where does it go out. For simplicity, I’m using a piece of metal, folded at the ends, so it forms a huge upper case ‘C’. Components will be layed on the top plate. Back plate holds RCA jacks and IEC socket. Front plate is left blank. Click on preamp picture to open up this power point file.

Okay, study time. Please go through the schematics, wiring drawing and tube base configuration in the ppt file. Print it out if you have to. Can you understand how is this preamp wired? It’s important to understand the ‘whys’ now. Please be accountable for every wire there!

If you now understand the wiring, then comes the implementation.

Step by step we’ll go…
The power transformer is specified as one primary and three secondary tappings. Primary is 240-0V and secondaries are 350-0-350V@100mA and two secondaries of 3.15-0-3.15V@2A. The 3.15-0-3.15V secondary is to provide 6.3V to the heaters but there is an option to use the ‘0’ tapping to either reference it to ground or reference it to some elevated voltage. You want to do this as there is a limit to the potential difference between tube cathode and heater. If you exceed this limit, unneccessary stress is placed on the tube and it’ll fail in a shorter lifetime. Thus, if your cathode sits at 100V, then it’s a good idea to reference your heater to ~100V. In this preamp, I have referenced both heaters for 5687 and 6X4 to ground as cathode of 5687 is only 5V and though cathode of 6X4 is at ~250V, the datasheet says that it can take up to 450V, so that’s okay. You can of course, choose to reference the heaters to some other voltage.

Boring eh? Well, you need some photos! Read on!
 

How to build your own tube preamp Part 2

If you have done your homework, you should understand how it’s wired up by now. Nevermind, here are some photos to help you.

You start by laying out the ground path. I used the same wire as the rest here, but you could opt for the better option of using thick copper, say awg 12. A good and cheap option is those copper rods used for gas welding, available from your local hardware store.

Here, the filament wires have been wired. This is simple as there’s only 2 tubes to consider. Note that I have wired 5687 heaters in PARALLEL. That means shorting pins 4 & 5 and wiring heater to 8 and 5. All filament ‘0’ tap refered to ground.

Next, I wired up the power supply section. It’s easy with this double capacitor. The pink wires are 350V. The red wire coming out from the capacitor is my B+. Note that I have wired in a resistor on the capacitor. This goes from +ve to Gnd. This is a bleeder resistor, meant to discharge your capacitor’s charge, lest it discharges on YOU with dire (some find it fun though) consequences. Aim to bleed about 1mA, so for B+ of ~280VDC, a bleeder resistor of 270kohm/2W is fine.

Ahem, signal circuitry. Remember signal circuitry consists of only 2 resistors? One on the plate and one on the cathode? Here the plate resistor is a paralled combo of two 20kohm 2W resistor to give me a 10kohm 4W resistor. The cathode resistor is 470ohm, paralleled with a 470uF electrolytic. It’s better if I could place the electrolytic lower but this makes it easier for modifications later. Being DIYers, this is important! Err, shown here is only signal circuitry for Left channel. Yellow wire is for filament heater.

While you are enjoying the pictures (and waiting eternally for them to download…), I have finished wiring up the other channel! Click for higher resolution (and more waiting) picture.

Okay, the urgency to power on is high now but hang on! First thing first, before you plug in your IEC cable, change the fuse in the plug to a lower current rating. I have 2A here as I can’t find 0.5A. Preamps don’t need high current so 0.5A is good enough. The last thing you want is for some fault to occur and your nicely built preamp go up to smoke just because the current isn’t high enough to break the 13A fuse. You have been forewarned!

Another use of a wire spool… This way, I could test the voltage points with a multimeter. It’s important to make sure voltages are correct within 10% tolerance before plugging into your system. Check with voltage points on the schematics.

Finito! Bathed in warm light as well! No wonder it sounds warm?

Plays music with the rest of the system. It worked right the first time!

There you have it! Hope you enjoyed the music, err the ride. Sorry for the long download time.

Done yet? Not yet!

How to build your own tube preamp Part 3

This is basically an options page.

The fun of this preamp doesn’t end with its completion. In fact the fun has just begun!

Even if you haven’t built this preamp, it’s good to take a look here to see the options ahead of you.

Power supply. You don’t have to follow my power supply circuit. I like chokes but it’s okay if you hate them. You can build it ala Audio Note or your own design. Your own design? Yeah, why not? It’s not that difficult. You can use Duncan Amp’s excellent Power Supply Designer. This simulator is highly recommended. Includes tube rectifier as well! Only snag is: you don’t know how it sounds. Anyway, with some idea what is the B+ needed, try different combinations and build different circuits and see which sounds better to you. There’s solid state diodes to play with, different tube rectifiers, capacitor input power supply filter, choke input…

Operating point. This 5687 has plate voltage of ~140V at 11mA. You can go higher, or lower with just a change of resistors here and there. You’ll get different sound, for better, for worse, try it and tell me!

Coupling capacitor. There are choices here rather than just the 0.1uF of Audio Note’s circuit or 0.47uF of vt4c’s circuit. The function of this capacitor is to block out DC voltage and allow AC signal to pass through. With the succeeding resistor to ground, it forms a high pass filter. Knowing the input impedance of your power amplifier that you are going to connect to this preamp helps you determine which coupling capacitor you can get by.

freq = 1/[2*pi*R*C]

Remember the above formula. Because taking R as input impedance of the subsequent stage, then… nah, this is too much to explain. Look at the table below. I have calculated the bass frequency cut-off using a combination of R and C. The R refers to input impedance of the next stage paralleled with your 1M resistor (which would come up pretty close to the next stage input resistance anyway). The C refers to coupling capacitor at output of the preamp.

What’s the point of knowing all this? So that you can be cheap! If your power amp has input impedance of 100kohm and you find coupling capacitor of 0.47uF to be too expensive, look at the table… this combo gives a cut-off of 3.39Hz. Well, if you don’t mind the cutoff at 7.23Hz, then you could use 0.1uF! After all, can your speakers produce THAT low? The point being 0.1uF is cheaper than 0.47uF of the same voltage rating. Okay, enough talk, try your hand at being ‘cheap’.

Resistors. Try any type you like! Carbon, metal, Kiwame, Holco, Vishay, Caddock, Chinese firecracker, cap parang… see I told you you could mod to your heart’s content. Just observe power ratings. Plate resistor of 10kohm has to be rated for at least 2.5W while you can get by with cathode resistor 470ohm of 1/2W.

Electrolytics. In the power supply, and cathode bypass of 5687. Use whatever you like.

Actually, my parts philosophy is very simple. Build it with whatever cheap components you have. Build it first, get it working first THEN mod it and substitute with whatever audiophile-approved, boutique, space-age, friends-claim-to-be-best-sounding part. Blindly using audiophile parts without regard is like cooking without knowing what spices you are using.

Wire. Yeah, some say solid core sounds better, some swear by stranded Litz, some prefer copper, some silver, Teflon insulated blah blah blah… Take your pick. For simplicity, I’m using cheap 600V solid core tinned copper of 22-23AWG. Try whatever you like. Just be sure to observe voltage ratings.

What next? How about a hint? This is a tube preamp… Yeah! Tubes! Here are some choices.

RCA, Tungsol (sold out), GE & Raytheon.

Tungsol, RCA, GE, Mullard (not avail) & Philips JAN.

Okay, I’ve done enough. It’s time to enjoy my music!

I said that too soon. Here is a FAQ page.

The post How to build YOUR own tube preamp appeared first on diyparadise.

Okay, I’ve said before I’m bad with names but this preamp, I can’t help but naming it something more unique than just "Simple 12B4". So Etude it is as when it was first playing, the first name that came to mind was a piano etude. Err, please don’t ask me why…

Okay, what’s so great about this preamp? Nothing much except that I have already had a 12B4 based preamp in the Projects page much earlier. Except this time, I’ve built the circuit. But I changed a few things. The plate resistor is 12kohm, cathode is 500ohm and B+ of 260VDC. Power supply circuity is as exactly that of the Simple 5687. The 12B4 is running at ~15mA. I haven’t bothered to optimize it yet as the sound is so good, I’m keen to let it keep on playing.  

Actually this preamp was completed much earlier but I had some power trans disasters along the way. Read about my misfortune here. But that is all in the past and let’s look forward to the present.

Okay, I did a few things differently. No fun doing the same thing over and over again! The BIG MACHO black caps beside the choke is 2 pieces of 51uF/400V Solen metalized polypropylene. The yellow coupling caps aren’t my de facto Auricaps but some out-of-production polystyrene (this guy takes a long time to run in!). Other than this, nothing exotic nor different at all. See that I’m not even using wirewound resistor on the plate but some "white coffin" as I haven’t even began optimizing this circuit yet. Construction warning: I had some oscillation problem, but cured easily by some grid stoppers of 220ohm. You may want to try a higher value in your circuit.

Okay, what’s the sonics like and why the hell are you so excited about?
Ha ha. Sonics is like a GIANT filter! First, let’s start with the tube. 12B4 is an old old pre-WWII tube, built in those days when feedback technique wasn’t invented yet and our poor engineers have to make the tubes as linear as possible. Also, it has very low plate resistance of only 1kohm (not far from standard of 600ohm), can take lots of current, can even function as power stage of 1.5W! Surely it has no problem masquerading preamp duties? It also has low mu of ~6, which is more than adequate for line level.

With this preamp, I gained clarity, width, depth, height, focus… in short, everything! No, if you are looking for a warm sweet sound, you are wasting your time here, but if transparency, neutrality is what you are after, this preamp has in spades. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Yes, I gained more weight, width, depth and height but I attribute this more to a preamp in the chain compared to just an integrated amp before this but what is unmistakenbly 12B4 is the ooooo-sooooo-neutrallllll character. Or lack of character! Ha! Ha!

All this while I’ve been using the Simple EL84 without a preamp as after spending months on getting the natural sound from the Simple EL84, it’s a heartbreaker when your tube preamp just takes control of EVERYTHING. Okay, I haven’t tried a lot of preamps but in a chain, for some reasons, the preamp dominates the sound more than the power amp. The FIRST stage is the dominating one. But finally the Etude allows the naturalness of the Simple EL84 to come through, unhindered, and gaining some here and there.

But please be forewarned that this is a very revealing preamp. Also, the highs seem to be more prominent than before. Which makes it a good match for those with the non-oversampling DAC. But in systems, where the emphasis is on zing, bing and ting, stay away! But for me, this is a "keeper".

The post The Etude Preamp appeared first on diyparadise.