Preamp Deal of the Century

My Syrah stopped working one day. Mick was amazingly patient and effective, proposing diagnostics (via e-mail), even sending photographs with little arrows pointing to specific junctions.

It turned out that the rectifier tube had shorted, buring out the toiroidal transformer (!). Very rare. But in this case, alas: very true.

Mick sent me a new one. Gratis. Refused my offers of reimbursement. (I ended up sending him several CDs of music I thought he'd like--although I'd have happily, had he permitted, recompensed him more.)

I used a knowledgeable local amp-builder and technician, Michael Franzen, to install the new transformer and do the troubleshooting, under Mick's remote supervision.

This story indeed has a happy ending: Mick stands behind his products as well as anyone I've ever dealt with, if not better.

Sorlowski,

I have found on my Cortese that the preamp has very little dynamics in the low gain position. The high gain position is much better for me. I also keep the gain knob on the back set to one step below full gain.

Mercedes: I have a Grange and have tried EH-300B; RCA 45; and TJ-300B meshplates. A friend has a Cabernet and has tried the PX4's. We both agree that the TJ-300B sounds best by a big margin! The most significant lift with the TJ is the treble response which becomes sugary sweet and extended. The TJ also sounds much more refined than the EH tube which sounds crude in comparison.

Mick has some Western Electric 300B's, so you should ask him via email if it is significantly better than the TJ meshplates ...

Regards,

Steve M.

Just received an e-mail from Mick on the Malbec amps. It seems there are going to be two versions of the amp. One is a low power 30wpc version that Mick says will have a sweet sound to it. He says this amp will work fine for most people. This amp will be capable of using various output tubes. The other version is a more high power 100wpc amp. This version will only take KT-88 tubes. Interesting!

Stevem 1960: thanks for the response...your experience sounds like mine...I did some tube rolling, and sent email to Kevin Covi outlining my results. Here is copy of text sent to him:

"Tried RCA 45's: bigger, rounder, fuller...less focused than PX4's.
Tried Cunningham 45's: but had problem with right channel tube making really weird noises...this must have been my problem before, when I had the Korneff 45 mono amps in the system.
Tried Electro Harmonix 300b: nice. good bass, detail, vocals, better dynamics than PX4 or 45's.
Swapped TJ mesh plates from Welborne 300b's into Grange, and ran EH 300b's in Welborne monos: best yet...best vocals, detail, soundstaging, bass, dynamics etc. May have to pick up another pair at $279 pair new....
Don't know if I will swing the WE300b's...sure would like to try though..."
Based on the above, I went ahead and ordered another pair of TJ premium mesh plates...life is good...