tube upgrade for first sound

Rayhall- they do mate very very well together. In fact, I received an email from Emmanuel last week letting me know he had heard his preamp with a Berning amp, and to his ears, it was "fabulous." To be more specific, they're both very accurate, very neutral, soundstage and image well - yet perhaps most important to me is that they are pure of timbre and really allow an emotional conection to the music. I can't say enough about the Berning. I found about about it when I discivered that Sonus Faber use it in their factory test room, where they developed their $40K Stratavari. If you read my (longwinded) virtual system info intro, you'll see the rather extensive road i travelled before falling hard for OTL's, and the Berning in particular.

I am sure that the Berning mates well with many good preamps, and have heard great things from people using it with Supratek, Joule Electra and CAT preamps. I wouldnt be able to comment on comparisons amongst them, but it's a very versatile amp. Similarly, I am positive people have mated the FS with many amps, and have corresponded with people who love theirs with Jeff Rowland, MLevinson and Clayton M100's.

Bottom line - as biased as I obviously am, i cant recommend either component more highly, and together (esp w/ NOS tubes) they are magical!

I could just scream! I was expecting delivery of the Frist Sound, yesterday 3/18. I looked up on the UPS tracking site, and lo and behold.....the "RESCHEDULED" delivery date is now 3/24! How does that happen? The unit was obviously shipped - then UPS decides to delay delivery by 6 days? Any ideas?

Sorry for sidetracking this otherwise very enjoyable thread :-)

Paul

Paul, it could be that Emmanuel created the shipment at his facility by entering the billing info (weight, address, etc), and didn't actually give the preamp to UPS until 6 days later. This would cause the shipment to be rescheduled and thus delayed six days. I am personally familiar with this scenario though not specifically with Emmanuel.

Hmm. Thanks Tvad. I hadn't considered that. I suppose, if Emmanuel entered the info, that would generate a tracking # automatically. 5 more days, can't wait. Hope I'm not letting my expectations be too high.

:-)

relax. BTW, I was underwhelmed when i plugged my brand new unit into my system. The thing takes TIME to break in, so be patient. Also, follow Emmanuel's recommendation for breaking it in, and dont tweak it (Power cords, tubes, etc) for 1 month! all good things come to those who wait!