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Pretty new to posting here, but am a long time lurker Name is Paul and I do vintage restoration work on solid state gear, but I listen to tubes.... Don't tell anyone I'm sure some of you know me, but for those that don't, I'm awesome. My system consists of: Bel Canto DAC3.5VB MKII, VBS1 supply, REFLINK, 2009 Mac Mini with SSD and outboard Hynes supply, Snow Leopard, and Amarra Symphony version 4319. Ya, it takes all that for digital to sound good... And it does! Amps are the VRD Monos of course, with resistor/cap upgrade and Jupiter Copper Flat Stacked coupling caps. Speakers are not Klipsch Joseph Audio Perspective's (very recent purchase). Tasteful, minimal room treatments. Last but not least, the NBS. I chose the standard version without the MC phono amp. I went with Jupiter Flat Stacked coupling caps in the pre as well. I have tried several preamps and none of them matched the direct output of the DAC. Not even close. Each time I put a pre in the mix, I lost allot of transparency, or gained here, lost there. No free lunch so to speak..... Then Craig came out with his NBS. After absolutely falling in love with the VRD's, and the price being right, I figured I'd get in on the first batch. Now that it is here, it is here to stay. After inserting the pre, I lost not one little bit of transparency. I actually gained from inserting the NBS, with all the same goodness I got from the DAC direct, with tighter more focused bass. How did he do that? Well, it is a preamp based on the K.I.S.S. principal. Therein lies its beauty my friends. From what I can tell, it does not get much simpler than this preamp. Add to that high quality parts throughout, extreme overkill in all the right places, single ended pure class A operation, no feedback, no phase inverting, and well.... You get the idea. It works, and works extremely well. I also have to mention just how quiet this preamp is. It is a virtual black hole for noise being dead quiet. At idle, there is no noise from the speakers at all! That part Craig will have to tell you about as I am quite sure it took some doing to get this part down... The sound: Here is the easy part of the review. This pre introduces no tonal character, or "color" at all. No extra sibilance for all you worry warts, nothing taken away from transparency, no noise. The only difference I noted from my comparison to the DAC's direct output was tighter more focused bass that comes at you, like live music, and not non-directional so to speak. That and the functionality of a full featured preamp. Win Win... This review is for the line-stage as I do not have my TT hooked up yet. I have all the stuff, just nowhere to put it yet. Sorry about that. You'll have to wait for someone else's review of the phono stage, or check back here from time to time for my update on that. I'll also be taking more pictures for you guys and try to capture what this thing looks like. It is absolutely tough looking and so well turned out. I have not seen a pic yet that does it justice vs. pulling it out of the box and being awestruck at the fit and finish! If you are looking for a preamp that adds more flesh to the music, more color, and all those other things a preamp should not do IMO, pass this one by. If you want what the artists intended for you to hear, and to hear your source for all that it is worth, this is the one to get. I have not heard better at any price. Ya, I've heard a few... To be honest, I didn't expect this thing to match the DAC's direct output in transparency. The Bel Canto is implemented well in that regard, and has been un-beaten by everything else I have tried. The NBS actually bettered it in one single way sonically, and took nothing from the rest. Nothing! This is the best praise I can possibly convey for my tastes in equipment and music, with one reference in mind.... Live music. All this with a cheap ol Sovtek 6H30. For all you guys thinking of buying a super high dollar vintage 6H30 tube for your NBS, I say don't bother. It might be different, but can't be better IMO. The only thing I will recommend is the Jupiter Flat Stacked Coupling caps. They made a profound improvement to the VRD's, so I would expect they perform great in the NBS also. No comparisons for you there. My pre came loaded with the Jupiters. This thing rocks. I don't like it. I love it. Get one before Craig raises the price closer to what this thing is worth. I really enjoy Craig and his sarcasm. We have become great buddy's with a many prods and pokes at each other. However, Craig knows that I tell it like it is, and this review is..... No . He is very in tune to what a modern tube system should sound like. This pre with the VRD's equals completely transparent links. When I bought the amps I felt good about not having to buy any more. The preamp is the same story. It does nothing but justice to the amps and operates at the same very high level. I'm sure I repeated myself here and there. Get past it. I am not a reviewer, just a very enthusiastic music listener, lover of the arts that get us there, and I'm trying to get the word out.

Excellent tip....

You can also run them with no center. In my 2nd system i run them with no center with great results. You would never know their is no center. I would get your surrounds and then just keep a look out for a 3rd corn. Its only the most important speaker if you use one. It can be a weak link if you use one and its not up to par. But if you don't use one and your mains are really nice (like you have) it will be better than if you use one thats not as good as your mains (or really close).

Congrats on the purchase. There isn't a "matching" center per say since the Cornwall was built prior to the surround sound era. Some have used an Academy, others have used a Forte, Chorus II or if you have the space, a single Cornwall would be the best option. As for surrounds, if you have the space, Heresy's would work very well.

Its been a while since I listened to AC/DC, This was one of my favorite rock n roll bands that I listened to when i was a young lad. Nice to go back and listen to every once and awhile. What shall be next.

Sounds to me like your living right!

LOL funny Youth I don't think he is in the market right now.But you never know.

Girl friend left for Georgia leaving me here to fend for myself till Saturday. So after picking out 7 DVDs from the library I came home and decided to change out some equipment. First change was to unplug the horn monos and the JM Blueberry Extreme and hook up the HK A500 integrated amp to the turntable and to the R2R. Haven't put but a couple of hours on the 51 year old amp since Craig fixed it up a year or so ago. Next I hooked up the Pioneer SX950 a friend gave me to the Jolida CDP. Wanted to see if the tubed output of the CDP would mellow the SS sound. The next change will be to hook the Quick Silver Audio preamp up to the horn monos, the turntable, and the second R2R. And you guys said I don't know how to have fun

I was thinking the same thing. The only question is, how do you hook this up? With two centers, using two amp channels and an RCA splitter to feed them makes the best sense. The loss in signal from the RCA split would be made up by doubling the center speaker. This configuration would only work with pre-pro, and not with a regular receiver. If you have a regular receiver, then I'm not sure how you would hook it up. The impedance would be screwed up, and I'm not sure what wiring serial/parallel using speakers with networks does to impedance anyway.