Audible Illusions Modulus 3 Audio Research SP-11

"Counterpoint SA-5 and it was far beyond anything Audio
Research ever did."

This is total BS! I was one of the top Counterpoint dealers
in the country. While the SA-5.1 was an excellent preamp
and one of my all time favorites, this statement is crap.
Two totally different flavors of sound. Each had it's pros
and cons, but to have a blanket statement like this is
wrong.

I really liked what Frogman stated: "I think that this
thread proves, once again, that there is no substitute for
listening for oneself and that "better" for one
listener can be a totally different thing than for
another."

Sounds to me like you have already made your decision, so
just move on.

Well based upon what is left in improvement I saw no reason to buy an SP-11. I own four of them! Mk1 -Mk3! two MK1 versions!

I was looking for a bloomy warm sound or if not for a crispy clear neutral sounding amp. While the SP-11 due to its FETS and tubes might need a longer time for warm up to reach its full potential, the AI is simply faster. It lacks a little of the sweetness in the mids and highs, but stil is a little better in transparency.

I also consider a MFA Magus, Bruce Moore preamps and many other did fall in love ith them as well.

Audio Research is a great and is more complex in its circuilt while transistor selection is also more critcial, but it does only achive 5% better sound in my opinion. So I rethink why buying off an expensive preamp when a cheaper one would do the same.

By installing a filter against dirty power, replace the main caps and its power transformer with Piltron you might still get better results than with Audio Research.

I had a discussion with Paul of PS Audio, Bruce Moore and both agreed that they have heared similar stories. The price tag of Aduio Research does not ALWAYS fully give me a reason to buy it when the improvement isn't that high.

Yes, it is generally so with Audio equipment, so I will go ahead and try and see what I like ...I personally see no reasn to threw the AI off.

Say what?!

You could get the same quality with fimilar sound for much less!
The price tag does not qualify its quality!

"bubbled edges"

To me that says you've got a microphonic tube, to do a simple test (without an oscilloscope on a test bench).

Take the lid off turn on the whole system. Turn the volume control up around loud level.

Get someone to listen close at the speakers left and right. While you flick each tube with you finger nail.

If they hear a 'bonk" out of your speaker/s then this tube is getting microphonic.

If it is really bad then it can in the worst case start a continuous feed back bong happening, and you may have to turn the volume down to stop it.

Cheers George