Paul and I want to thank Raul for taking the time (and expense) to travel all the way from Laredo TX to CT, on very short notice. His visit was a great joy and he is a wonderful person to know and have as a guest. He loved Paul's cooking, which is easy to do, and he laughed at my jokes, which isn't.
We are still collating our impressions but one thing should be stressed. We did not perform any extensive A/B between our Nick Doshi Alaap and Raul/Jose's Essential. There was no playing of the same track through one preamp and then the other. For Raul, the only reference that matters is the memory of live music. We listened to the Alaap for an hour or so to let him get a handle on our sytem, then switched to the Essential until it was time for him to pack up.
Sonically we'll not be contradicting anything written above. We'll put some flesh on the bones but the short version is easy: when properly installed the Essential and the Alaap come closer to reproducing the experience of live music than any other preamps we've heard. The Essential does it with transistors. The Alaap does it with transistors in the MC stage and tubes thereafter. This gives them different strengths and weaknesses, but their strengths are manifold while their weaknesses are few. Many other preamps seem unlistenable after hearing these two. Either of these two provide enough of the illusion of live music to satisfy our ears and priorities.
Most of you know I'm not shy about saying what I dislike about a component. There won't be much of that. When Paul says of a component, "I could live with this", we've reached pretty rarified levels of performance. There are only two cartridges and two tonearms about which he has ever said that, and until this weekend there was only one preamp. Now there are two.
Thanks again to Raul for joining us and expanding our horizons,
Doug
We are still collating our impressions but one thing should be stressed. We did not perform any extensive A/B between our Nick Doshi Alaap and Raul/Jose's Essential. There was no playing of the same track through one preamp and then the other. For Raul, the only reference that matters is the memory of live music. We listened to the Alaap for an hour or so to let him get a handle on our sytem, then switched to the Essential until it was time for him to pack up.
Sonically we'll not be contradicting anything written above. We'll put some flesh on the bones but the short version is easy: when properly installed the Essential and the Alaap come closer to reproducing the experience of live music than any other preamps we've heard. The Essential does it with transistors. The Alaap does it with transistors in the MC stage and tubes thereafter. This gives them different strengths and weaknesses, but their strengths are manifold while their weaknesses are few. Many other preamps seem unlistenable after hearing these two. Either of these two provide enough of the illusion of live music to satisfy our ears and priorities.
Most of you know I'm not shy about saying what I dislike about a component. There won't be much of that. When Paul says of a component, "I could live with this", we've reached pretty rarified levels of performance. There are only two cartridges and two tonearms about which he has ever said that, and until this weekend there was only one preamp. Now there are two.
Thanks again to Raul for joining us and expanding our horizons,
Doug