Audio Horizons TP 2.0 Preamplifier

Another vote for keeping the discussion on the thread as I too am interested, knowing that nothing is gospel and that you have to heard for yourself with your room, equipment and set of ears. I mostly use a grand piano in the same room as my reference as I go about changes to my system. Have to say that the original decked out AH 2.0(cca's,BN design) seems pretty darn close to ideal to me with my equipment. But I have not heard a broken in 2.1 yet.

It's interesting that Sherod and I hear the same essential things with the TP2.1, and we are using sister versions of the same VAC amps (Sherod - VAC Auricle Musicblocks/70 wpc KT88, Grant - VAC Standard Musicblocks/160wpc KT88).

There is something to this, IMO.

Well all i dont have a audition 2.1 any longer. I'm not letting this fine preamp go anywhere I'm buying it. It was not a easy decision as my nuforce p-9 is also a very good performer. Very quite, fast, but in the end i have warmed up to the sweet tubed sound of Josephs very fine 2.1 preamp.
This preamp seems to match up exceptionally well with my ref 9 se v2s and linbrook signature system. Along with my jps sc2 ics and speaker cables i am getting sound that i hope to live with for a long while.
Going to leave the explorer in me locked up and enjoy the beautiful sounds of music i am hearing now from my system. My analog front end is certainly providing the source for a clean, sweet, delivery of musical sounds.
I would like to give Joseph and Victor a big thank you for designing, manufacturing, and running a audio company that puts out super fine gear and offers a high level of customer satisfaction.

Grant,
I'm not so sure yet that the issue is with the amp interaction. It might be just a coincidence that we both share sister amps. I am going to take an educated guess that based on my experience(with changing out the output caps, experimenting with different brands and values, as well as with many smaller bypass caps)that there might be a phase anamoly or irregularity with the new output caps and the solen bypass caps. In the TP 2.0 version with upgraded Hovland caps, rated at 4.7uf, I tried different values of the same Hovland cap( 1uf,2uf,3.3uf, and 4uf) None sounded as good as the 4.7uf value which Joseph was using. This lead me to believe that Joseph knew what he was doing and had pretty good ears. I later tried various Audiophile-type caps( Dynamicaps,V-caps) with same and different values and always came back to the 4.7uf value. For some reason, this value worked best with my VAC amps and sounded the best to me. Initially, I preferred the V-caps( 4.7uf oil-impregnated) because they just had more life and dynamics to them. But after a while there was this over-warmth and smoothing effect which robbed the music of proper attack to my ears, so I eventually went back to my trusty Hovland caps. It was when I recently found a new power cord line, Fusion Audio) that these really brought out the life and realism of my system, especially the TP 2.0. Everything finally just "clicked" in. Based on my faith of Joseph's ears and work, I decided to try the new upgraded version and that is where I am now after about 130 hours of burn in. One of the things that I noticed when I was experimenting with different caps and bypasses, the preamp never, and I mean never, sounded right with the bypass caps, no matter what value. Every bypass cap caused some type of phase anamoly which skewed the frequency response in an unnatural way. Depending on the value of the bypass, this skewing ,or plateau-effect, if you will, took away that natural balance and breath of life from the music. My TP 2.0 sounded its best when only one value cap alone was used in the outputs. Ultimately, as imperfect as the Hovland 4.7uf is, it sounded the best in the circuit of the TP 2.0. Joseph got it right the first time around, IMHO.

Sherod, I'll bypass further comment. :)

Stltrains, it does not surprise me you prefer the TP2.1 to the NuForce p-9 preamp.