snarkonmars Posted July 29, 2010 Share Posted July 29, 2010 Dear all i need your help :-) My system is: CMP2 + Reimyo dap-777 Leak tl25 plus La Scala2 I used to have Sonic Frontiers line3 but as soon as my system no longer balanced one and i also decided to go with analog source either I decided to change my pre for another one not balanced but with phono on board. I discovered this topic a bit and got AI Modulus 3A. Though I can't say this is what I want to live with. The sound is too much tubie. Liquidity and smoothness are too much. If you listen to some girls singing - it is perfect but for classical music or blues it becomes unnatural to listen to. Do you have any suggestions for me according to this? thx in forward Igor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBryan Posted July 29, 2010 Share Posted July 29, 2010 You may have just gotten used to the sound of the SF. I had a SF-2 preamp and found it to be a bit too sterile in my system. The AI Mod3a sounded completely different but didn't work out when paired with SET amps so I moved on. I've never used a Leak amp but from what I've read, like most gear of that vintage, they run a bit on the lush side so the SF may have been a better match for it than the AI Mod3a. I don't think SF made a full-function preamp (their phono pres are very nice though) and modern pres that lean toward the neutral side don't tend to have phono stages either but I'd suggest offerings from Audio Research and BAT that fall within your budget. Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarkonmars Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 thank you for your reply i do not think this is a question of what i got used to because i still have possibility to run without pre at all straight from reimyo to leaks. And the sound tonnaly is very close to what I had with SF. Of course it lacks bass control and mids are dry a bit but music tonnaly is natural. With AI it becomes TUBE SYSTEM SOUNDS and when I listen to BSO it sounds unnatural and when I listen to let's say Maddy Waters with wide range of dynamic splashes when he plays his guitar with AI it sounds very beautiful and loses brutality and thoise dynamic splashes. You can listen Waters and then Dido with same effect. Hopefully you understand what i mean. i am thinking about old CJ premier two or ARC sp6...but thought there might be some other options... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBryan Posted July 29, 2010 Share Posted July 29, 2010 The AR SP6 may be a good choice but in my experience, Conrad Johnson gear is a bit on the tubey and lush side (certainly more so than Audible Illusions. Still, nothing beats listening to one and deciding for yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 29, 2010 Share Posted July 29, 2010 How about a pic of your Leak? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaiser SET say Posted July 29, 2010 Share Posted July 29, 2010 How about a pic of your Leak? You're such a Leak Ho[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarkonmars Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 pic of my leak? what are u interested of? In Leaks I have got ef86 Mullard Blackburn, ecc81 Telefunken, KT66 GEK smoked glass, GZ34 Mullard Blackburn capasitors are: Sprague Vitamine Q and Dynamicap Electrolits are blue philips Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 29, 2010 Share Posted July 29, 2010 pic of my leak? what are u interested of? In Leaks I have got ef86 Mullard Blackburn, ecc81 Telefunken, KT66 GEK smoked glass, GZ34 Mullard Blackburn capasitors are: Sprague Vitamine Q and Dynamicap Electrolits are blue philips We don't see many Leak amps around so any are good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarkonmars Posted July 30, 2010 Author Share Posted July 30, 2010 i dunno how to add pics here :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted July 30, 2010 Share Posted July 30, 2010 Snark you can email pictures to either myself of Seti and we will post them for you. Might I offer some suggestions before you head down the path of buying different gear. First has the Leak ever been recapped , power supply upgraded and otherwise checked over by a competent technician? After 40 or 50 years or so, these are in need of some basic restoration to sound their best, and who knows what state the tubes may be in. Might I also suggest you try some tube rolling on the 6DJ8's in the Modulus pre. I would suggest Telefunken's or Amperex, and if you are only using the line stage you can buy a pair of each for experimenting rather than four (two of the 4 pre tubes are for the phono section). Tube rolling can make a huge difference in the quality of the sound. For example, in my best preamp, an Anthem Pre1, I found several sets of matched Russian tubes to be too dark, or muddled sounding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarkonmars Posted July 30, 2010 Author Share Posted July 30, 2010 Hi thanx for your post. Yes, my leaks were checked by competent technician. I replaced ac terminals, all capasitors and electrolitics and tubes. Now they are in perfect condition. As for tube rolling I also tried different options. In AI M3A there are 2 tubes in linestage and 2 tubes in phono. After my SF Line3 I got a lot of ecc88 tubes left: telefunken (my fav), mullard Blackburn, mullar Mitchem, Philips SQ, casual Philips Heerlen, Siemens... It did not help though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarkonmars Posted July 30, 2010 Author Share Posted July 30, 2010 I've read that arc sp6b is very close to AI M3A tonallyis that true? Does it mean I have no way to love arc? :-))) And what do you think about CJ Premier two for example? I auditioned CJ CT-6 yesterday and today in my system and it seemed too warm for me in midrange though overall not so bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 30, 2010 Share Posted July 30, 2010 Thebes may be on to something. This is not unusual. There are techs and than there are TECHS. I have spent more money than I care to think about on techs that have turned out to be complete BS and I would have been better off wiping my but with the money.. I'd find a tech that truly loves these Leak amps and knows how to take them to the next level. As an American I drool over vintage Lowther or Quad or Leak tube tube gear. Perhaps I over romanticize this gear the way Japanese over romanticize Altec and Western Electric but it makes it no less special. This Leak gear is totally going to go up in value and importance over the years. If I had a Leak power amp I would ask what preamps make the most of the Leak power amp? What is the best fit? I'd go that route if I had the Leak tube power amp. Good luck. Listen to many pick what you like best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarkonmars Posted July 31, 2010 Author Share Posted July 31, 2010 I have no doubts in competence of my tech. Although I have couple of people to help me with technical questions. As for capasitors, resistors and electrolitics which have had to be replaced i went step by step and chose myself what changes I like or dislike. By the way it took more than 6 month for me to complete capasitors choice. So i know how important this tech question is. For now i am fully satisfied with Leaks. I had possibility to compare them in my system with also very nice pieces of gear and the result was quite impressive. As for pre that should match leaks....if i got right there are not such many preamps with phono which recieved good feedbacks for linestage and phono. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBryan Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Tube rolling in most gear offers interesting results - sometimes it makes a noticeable difference, sometimes not. The problem I had with the AI Mod3a was that it pushes the tubes pretty hard and some tubes that may sound great won't hold up as well or as long as others. In my experience, the Siemens E188CC/7308 and Amperex ECC88 sounded very nice in the preamp but the Siemens only lasted about 9 months before they became noisy while the Amperex only lasted a few weeks. Telefunkens were expensive and I honestly didn't hear much improvement over the stock tubes (Sovtek, I think) while Sylvania and RCA tubes sounded rather dull and were noisy (I tried several NOS pairs). On another owner's suggestion, I found some Tungsram 7308s and they became my favorites - very clean and detailed with no noise. I used them in the preamp for a year or so and sold it to my bother-in-law who has been using it daily for the last 5 or 6 years and hasn't needed to switch out any of the 7308s yet. That's pretty impressive considering the AL's reputation for eating tubes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarkonmars Posted July 31, 2010 Author Share Posted July 31, 2010 Yes it is true. AI is real tube eater because there are only 1 tube per channel with crazy output impedance -1.2 kOhms. I tried tube rolling in AI. Telefunkens became very noisy. philips sq heerlen (which is the same to what you mentioned as amperex) was better but microphonic feedback (which is a REAL problem of AI) also became much more listenable. The best match was with Mullard Mitcham. Anyway what I personnaly did not like with AI are twi main things: 1. It adds a lot from himself to music (not only to sound) presentation. And some musical accents change 2. At my taste it sounds too dark and closed at highs and unnaturally exaggerated at low mids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 Snark was kind enough to sen dme some pics of the Leaks etc. So herein they are provided for your drolling perusal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 And another: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebes Posted July 31, 2010 Share Posted July 31, 2010 And one more: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarkonmars Posted August 1, 2010 Author Share Posted August 1, 2010 thank you thebes! i will work on leaks cabinets pretty soon - promise :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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