Wyetech Jade and TRL Dude

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.

Thanks for the responses and the offer for audition (i am in Wash DC area). I ordered the TRL, although with no firm conviction that one is better than the other (i considered the used jade that is listed but it was gone by the time i inquiried). There do not think that there is a bad choice here -- we shall see.

Agear, i recently got some NOS Sylvania 6sn7 Wgt for my amps (description here about 1/3 way down http://www.audiotubes.com/6sn7.htm). They are a military tube i think. Just tremendous dynamics and nice base. FWIIW. My dealer likes the RCAs and i have some of them as well; find the sylvania's a little sweeter, but all is a matter of taste.

gary

That's kool. I used to own the AI L1. Very nice little linestage. I liquidated my previous system and thus the L1 went away. The "just thereness" is a good thing to shoot for IMO as well. The Dude does that (I think) and more in other ways that are hard to describe.

At the end of the day, its about system synergy. If you need tubes in the preamp, so be it. If not, so be it. I know TRL had at one time made a battery powered SS pre-amp which I have not heard.

The hard part about this game is that you need to be able to A+B things in your own rig. I know in Minneapolis there used to be a hi end store that would let you take things home! How ideal and how far we have come from that era of real community. The internet age has its drawbacks....

Gary, keep us posted on your journey.

Agear

Where can a Dude be auditioned in Charlotte? That's where I am and I've been looking at them...