Wyetech Jade and TRL Dude

Gary, I have come to strictly accept neutrality in audio. Coloration is acceptable only for coloring books.

You will be hard pressed to find one who has heard both in the same system to be frank. I can say the Dude is vastly superior to every single top rated preamp I have heard in my system. Please read my review of it. I list the many preamps I have gone through. I was most conservative in that review holding back the wide margin in which the Dude out-classed those other preamps. I mean a very wide margin.

It just sounds more like music compared to any other piece of gear I have heard. That good to my ears, mind and senses.

I just finished listening to Van The Man and was once again lost in the music. Great fun.

The Dude must be heard to be believed. No words will ever quite get the whole of it.

Thanks Grannyring. I thought it was a long shot, but does not hurt to ask, and i still learn things from posts like yours

gary

I am a Dude owner as well and will add my two cents.

Vandermeulen, your comments are helpful and stimulating IMO. It is an argument you hear about audio in general. Distortion is a part of audio whether we like it or not. Bob Smith at SpTech (now Aether Audio) told me at length about the levels of distortion in speaker drivers and that no one really likes to measure it since it is so horrific. I have personally battled some level of distortion via cables, the room, digital sources, etc. As far as preamps are concerned, the question is how quiet is it, what is the nature of the power supply (how stable, etc), and do you like first order harmonic distortion via tubes. I confess that I like tubes and have always had a tubed pre in the rig. A lot of older recordings used tubed microphones, etc and smoke a lot of digital offerings of today. As far as the Dude is concerned, it is dead quiet, dynamic, with jumbo sound staging, etc. The power supply is a proprietary tube regulated affair that is very stable. You can alter the sound of the Dude by tube rolling. I have landed in NOS RCAs currently.

Gary, it sounds like you already have a tube bias. Depending on where you are, you could potentially demo a Dude. If you live in NC, you most certainly can.....Charlotte.

I certainly can agree with having a tube pre as a mandatory alternate requirement when a change of heart (sound) is warranted. Lately I have been enjoying my Audible Illusions L2 pre. It still amazes me how inexpensive this little gem is when $ VS. :) ratio is concerned. My Wyetech, on the other hand, just boggles my mind. You cannot even begin to define its signature. It is just...there. The absolute best of every single nuance of sound reproduction possible (IMHO). Silly good.