Preamp Deal of the Century

Thin skinned maybe. Some of my ideas on this site have gotten me wacked. Some days I lack the skills and the patience to explain some of the methods that I use, some will be applied to real acoustic musical instruments. I try not to dampen anything.I believe in direct coupling.Equipment is direct coupled, speakers, subs ,even the acoustic devices I built to redirect the flow. I think of my room as an aerodynamic vessel not as a room that needs to be tamed and dampened by lotsa sound deadening materials. I killed the music in previous rooms of mine. I try to focus the energy that is trapped along 90degree surfaces. Dynamics speed and resolution are not lost in this method of control and refocusing of the natural energy contained in the room. I am not a engineer I am not a mathematician..These are ideas and concepts that I have am willing to experiment with and ask for the proper help when needed. So when I stated that my soundstage was 180 degrees or more I feel I was not mistating this audible and visual presence. Others who have come by stated the same thing. A few ,before they arrived, said it had to be gross reflections, when they left they said it wasn't reflections after all. Now it does not do this trippy stuff on every recording but the stage is always outside of the box. Some of these ideas came from the use of Argent Room Lenses. Again sound pressure is like fluid in that it can be redirected and refocused. Moving the Room Lenses around I found that the edges of the stage were more defined and sharpened. By doing this, broadens the stage I feel in a natural way. I found in my room that there is a bass suckout. The bass is in the room but it is on the ceiling. I found this out one day while playing music and changing a ceiling lamp. So I built a 5 sided panel of three different angles that is direct coupled to the ceiling that captures and redirects some of this lost bass energy back to my listening chair. The fellow that built the panel said it looks like a space ship. The ship is dual purpose,it also contains my projection screen. So because I state these ideas and describe these devices in vague terms I leave myself open to being wacked. Self fullfilling I guess. These ideas and other concepts are ways I maximise the sound of equipement in my room. These are concepts that I try to design into customers systems as well. Tom

Tom, nice post, thank you. Although I know what you mean by some posts on this site - most sites, actually - it is also true that many times a similar affliction is one of patronizing criticism without rationale, which, ironically, hypocritically, or at least in my book, is of a similar-in-kind offense as the one you cited. I do not think that citing an offense on the latter constitutes being "whacked." But enough of that...

I agree with you completely on your post, but with all the do-dads out there it sometimes takes a lot of experimentation to "see" the fluid thing. You can change a room a lot, but its best to let it breath. In the best of these types of rooms, some people initially call them live rooms, but as you said, its more than that, although, metaphorically, the room does seem more alive, as in organic, symmetrical in how sound "moves" (propagates/dissipates). The mind, on an existential level, is very sentitive to time/space incongruencies and a damped-type room can many times worsen things on that level while, on a level of perception that is less deep (where the mind is not listening as deep) some things may be perceived as improved. Which is why its tough to get a room right. Some rooms are well nigh impossible, but if you have a decent starting place you can have a room that is receptive, as in, one that allows energy to flow (its a vessel, as you say). Or rather, the room allows a simulcrum of the illusion of non-stereo produced music through a stereo instrument. The sound is not the same as heard in an orchestra, BUT the mind's perception of that musical event is catalyzed to similar depths of perception; the sound may be different, but the experience of the mind is similar (that's for you, Rcn...). A good, en-livened room can be a vessel for that message to be heard and experienced.

I remember I once visited the good men at Shun Mook at their homes in CA. The man who owned the company collected violins and when he placed a certain violin hanging by a thread centered in space behind the speakers, the dynamic/spatial nature of the room became a touch more "organic", continuous, etc. Even more strangely, he then put up a very rare and beautiful sounding violin in the same place and the room was utterly transformed, all the above traits seeming to be released and settled into each other, until all you did is fall back into the music and forget those traits at all; the mind was not cued to deep spatial incongruencies of sound movement and so you went deeper. It was an interesting experiment...

Has anyone rolled the regulator tubes (6L6EH's) that come with the Cortese ?

I was told that rolling the 2 regulators does not make much (if any) difference in the sound of the Cortese. Has anyone had great success in changing out the stock 6L6EH's and if so, what sonic changes did you hear and what tube yielded the best results ?

I have had some fantastic results with Neotron (NOS) 6SN7's and a GZ34 in place of the 2 6N6P's & the 5AR4 that Mick included. Both cost a fortune, but what difference. The sound is just spectacular. I loved my Cortese before the addition of these 3 new tubes and now it’s just beyond Heaven to sit down and listen.

Cello, glad you are happy with the pre and, yes, I do think the regulators make a difference. Mick told me he didn't think they would, but most people that own the pre, I would venture, would disagree. I have Tungsol brown-base 5881's in mine and like them quite well. The sound difference is not as dramatic as the 6SN7 sub, but it is of the same kind; once you have the PS rectifier and the 6SN7's about right, or just right like you seem to have, then you can hear it. The sound is more...relaxed, dynamics not quite as jumpy but more of an even rise time, although the scaling itself in terms of energy has not been changed. A bit like the dynamics of a good WE 300B, which ain't bad. Not quite that good, but in the same way. It was worth it; about $120 for a good matched NOS set off of ebay.

I balked at the regs too for a while, but bwhite talked me into it. He also has the Cortese (I have have Syrah) so his comments might be more relevant. Also, Ecclectique here says, with wisened ears, that the sin qua non is the WE350B's, which feels right, real right, to me, although I haven't heard them in the pre (very pricey). There's some talk about them above if you scan.

BTW, I'm not familiar with the Neotrons (Tungsol round plates marked that?)...

Asa, Thanks for your quick answer. - It's a big help.

Any clues on the best place to hunt up a pair of NOS WE350B's, WE 300VB's or Tungsol Brown Base 5881's ? If you were going to pick one of the group to start with, which one would you pick ?

I was told that the Neotron's are TungSol round plates. They are a French labeled product with the word Neotron & 6SN7 printed in red letters on the blackened glass. The base is black plastic like.