Grant,
My upgraded preamp just passed the 120 hour mark. Yes, the voices do seem to appear to be still slightly recessed. The highs are also a bit softer,i.e. cymbals and bells are a tad soft. I used the word subdued with Victor and he calls it soft(You call it "to-ma-to", I call it "to-mah-to"). The soundstage seems to be wider, yet not deeper( overall much larger than life to me). I am going to give it through the weekend and by then, if I'm not satisfied, I'm going to talk with Victor or Joseph to see if I can semi-revert back to the original TP 2.0n version. I have tried many different versions and value sizes of output caps in my previous TP 2.0n version and Joseph said that when he upgraded my preamp he had to repair some traces on the board that had rubbed off somewhat( from all the cap changes I made). Victor "strongly" urged me not to experiment with cap replacements anymore. Still, at this juncture, my ears are missing the "breath of life" sound that the Hovlands were giving me, in spite of Victor's opinion that the Hovlands sound a little compressed and veiled in comparison to the new caps. Since Joseph doesn't give an itemization of all what changes he makes( only a generalization), I'm wondering if my older Hovlands would still be a drop-in replacement for the new output caps. Victor told me that the Hovlands would work in the new unit, but hasn't responded to a follow-up e-mail where I asked him to confirm with Joseph about the Hovlands being a drop-in replacement) You might want to consider communicating with me privately from here on so as not to ruffle some feathers here on this thread.
My upgraded preamp just passed the 120 hour mark. Yes, the voices do seem to appear to be still slightly recessed. The highs are also a bit softer,i.e. cymbals and bells are a tad soft. I used the word subdued with Victor and he calls it soft(You call it "to-ma-to", I call it "to-mah-to"). The soundstage seems to be wider, yet not deeper( overall much larger than life to me). I am going to give it through the weekend and by then, if I'm not satisfied, I'm going to talk with Victor or Joseph to see if I can semi-revert back to the original TP 2.0n version. I have tried many different versions and value sizes of output caps in my previous TP 2.0n version and Joseph said that when he upgraded my preamp he had to repair some traces on the board that had rubbed off somewhat( from all the cap changes I made). Victor "strongly" urged me not to experiment with cap replacements anymore. Still, at this juncture, my ears are missing the "breath of life" sound that the Hovlands were giving me, in spite of Victor's opinion that the Hovlands sound a little compressed and veiled in comparison to the new caps. Since Joseph doesn't give an itemization of all what changes he makes( only a generalization), I'm wondering if my older Hovlands would still be a drop-in replacement for the new output caps. Victor told me that the Hovlands would work in the new unit, but hasn't responded to a follow-up e-mail where I asked him to confirm with Joseph about the Hovlands being a drop-in replacement) You might want to consider communicating with me privately from here on so as not to ruffle some feathers here on this thread.