Finally made it in to Echo Audio on a relatively quiet afternoon for a listen. He was pushing a giant set of Duntechs with a pair of BAT VK-60's in mono via the Coffman G1-A. All I can vouch for is the preamp section as he didn’t have a turntable setup but man it was what I was hoping for. Dead quiet, built like 50's vintage piece and it sounded fantastic top to bottom. It wasn’t the best setup, as I couldn’t get far enough back for my liking; never the less I was impressed. It's a lot more attractive than what I had seen in the photos. I thought it was a bit strange looking at first but with the power supply unit sitting next to it – it’s a really attractive piece. The detail in the chassis can’t really be seen in a photo. The switches and volume pot are clearly way overbuilt and seem to be of the highest quality. The preamp has the ability to shut off both the input and output sections independently which seems cool to me, as I would like to switch stuff around without having to power down the tubes. I didn’t try out the headphone amp, which is something I am interested in as well.
Kurt told me the full review from Tone was coming out soon and after that, I would be able to take the demo unit home for a while. That will be the key – can it perform on my more modest system? Is it worth the cost of an upgrade and how will it perform next to my Modwright SWL 9.0? I will write up a full review if anyone is interested.