Pre-amp of choice for 2a3 - kind of lost

[richieb]

Thinking of taking the leap into the flea-powered world of 2a3 tubes

for my Belles and Corns. Found what appears to be a quality unit

in both design and parts. Solens, Blackgates, Teflon film caps, a

6C45Pi driver tube, 5AR4 rectifier, CLC filtered B+ supply, hum balance

pots, dual chokes and cathode biased tubes. Now, for those in the know,

what pre-amp will work best, tube or SS. With the 2a3, will a

tube pre put forth too much of or too soft a sound. Will SS give the

2a3 a bit more bite or ruin the whole SET effect. Kind of lost and out

of my realm.

Thanks

Rich

[Z4!]

I'd go with a tube preamp for sure. There are several great options at many price levels. Off the top of my head I'd check out Juicy Music (natch), Wright Sound, Welborne Labs, Transcendent Sound, or Doc Bottlehead.

[Erik Mandaville]

Rich/Z4!

I also used to use an old Dynaco PAT 4 SS preamp, that really worked pretty well. It developed some very bad hiss, and soon became almost painful to listen to. At $25, it sure wasn't anything near the $2k point.

I really wonder what the new Doc B. Foreplay sounds like! I built the very first one (and some variations on the same theme) years ago, and I know there have been changes since then. Price there is pretty good too.

Erik

[Daddy Dee]

I'd suggest a Merlin by JM.

[WmR]

I use a Botthead foreplay (tube) and I cannot be happier with the performance. You can mod them as you have the time and wits. The only "real" caveat is the stock volume controls. The stepped attenuators are not of high quality and should be tossed in favor of something worthy of the unit. They function really well as far as tracking the L/R balance but the contacts get very noisy after a while. I think their is now a shunt mode to keep this from happening. I have compared it to my older Audio Research SP15 and the Fplay simply has more mojo, sounds better to me. That is putting it out there in high end territory. You will never run out of drive. I think it will go close to 20V output before clipping. The McIntosh C26 was another good preamp I owned for S/S.

[Colin]

The <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />ASL Wave and AQ 1003 amplifiers impressed me enough to think that their pre-amplifier might be worth serious consideration too.

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I heard the Juicy Music Blueberry briefly at preacherman Daddydees May 2004 Klipsch gathering in Little Rock, Arkansas. It sounded good, but I did NOT hear much different difference between the Blueberry with custom JFL 2A3 amplifiers and the copper-faced Cayin TA30 integrated tube amplifier on Khorns. I do know that if mDeneen has 50 hours into building, selling and shipping ONE Blueberry, then he has to charge something like $2,500 to make it worthwhile.

Therefore, just like the rediscovered Scott, Eico and Fisher amplifiers, I believe that there are forgotten bargains drifting aimlessly out in yard sale land that, with a little bit of restoration, can be impressive 70s muscle cars. The vintage Dynaco PAS 3 pre-amplifier is certainly one of them. The solid-state versions are only worth a few bucks, but the tube ones go for a few hundred. Before I listened to it though, I would ship it off to somebody like frequent forum poster NOSvalves (at his web site of the same name) to have him invest another 2 hundred in updates and refurbishments. Tube amplifiers dont give up completely; they wear out slowly. [H]

[Painful Reality]

Found what appears to be a quality unit in both design and parts. Solens, Blackgates, Teflon film caps, a 6C45Pi driver tube, 5AR4 rectifier, CLC filtered B+ supply, hum balance pots, dual chokes and cathode biased tubes.

From my experience the 6C45-Pi will prefer a preamp with a low impedance. In my case best results were achieved with an output impedance of 600 ohms or lower.