Ohm Walsh Micro Talls: who's actually heard 'em?

Rebbi,

Don't sweat it. There are lots of tube pre-amps with lowish OI. If you're nervous, compile a list and shop from it. (You might want to start with Quicksilver, they will drive anything.) Tube pre-amps with buffered output stages are sometimes designed with just this issue in mind, you can always look there. Finally, even though tubes may well be appealling, they are hardly a requirement. Why dismiss a good ss preamp? The Bel Canto instantly comes to mind!

Marty

Marty

Yeah... I saw on Audio Asylum a thread on "good preamps for the Bel Canto S300," which seemed to include some tube preamp suggestions, so I'll try and calm down, now.

The Unico sold in just over a day, so that bridge is burned... but it will fund the preamp, so I'm okay with it! :-)

Marty,

Thanks a lot for the reassurance! :-)

Somebody has a Blue Circle BC21 on 'gon right now at a good price. I called BC and got Gilbert, the designer! (Gotta love small audio companies!) He told me that the impedance matching thing was often "bullsh*t" and that the BC21, with an output impedance of 2.2K ohms, would drive the Bel Canto and anything else I could throw at it.

BTW, it occurred to me later that Blue Circle markets the Penny, an Ohm CLS-based speaker.... so maybe that's a good omen. ;-)
So, there you go.

This is so not an audiophile moment…

Last night I was playing along with my bass to a Black Sabbath re-master of N.I.B from the ‘Symptom of the Universe; compilation. Before the Ohm’s, I didn’t really pay much attention to re-masters. With my Deftechs, recording or mastering quality didn’t matter all that much: they made everything sound OK. The Ohm’s are a different matter entirely. If the recording is crap, they seem to faithfully reproduce the crap.

Anyway, I find my old release of the first Black Sabbath CD un-listenable. So, I gave this version a shot. All I can say is that it reminded me of my days as a kid listening to vinyl on dad’s Sansui stereo through old Wharfdale speakers. The sound was so full and rich, from Bill Ward’s drums to Geezers bass that I stopped playing along and just listened. But it was when I turned my back to the speakers that I noticed that the whole room seemed to by charged with the sound with an in-tact soundstage to my rear. No other speakers I’ve owned have come even close to that kind of presentation.

Another re-master I whole-heartedly recommend is the new King Crimson ‘Red’ DVD-A re-master by Steve Wilson and Fripp.

The Ohm Micro-Walsh Talls continue to impress, as long as I have a decent source.

Next up I’m considering a tube pre-amp. Probably next year after we move to Virginia. As usual, the recent subject of this thread has my attention…

Spoke to Matt at Bel Canto today. He says that what's called for is a preamp with an impedance output of between 50 and 100 ohms. At least I have a ballpark figure to look at, now. Question is, is there a tube preamp like that, or will I need to go with SS? Any ideas?