Battery Powered Preamps

In my opinion, you are right on. I'm headed to the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival this week-end specifically to listen to the Red Wine Audio SLA battery components. Aside from the Signature amps, they've just released the Isabella preamp - which includes a battery powered DAC (the other component super sensitive to power current issues).

I've been thinking of getting a Sutherland as my phono stage anyway, so if I like what I hear in the Red Wine components, I'll have a lot of expensive power cords and power conditioning to sell. ;)

Yep, I agree. I have been experimenting with battery power as of late, with great success. In addition to the Dodd (which is marvelous), I also have a Musical Surroundings Nova Phenomena phono stage that is also battery powered. It seems that few would argue that clean AC is one of the biggest hurdles to achieving top quality sound. It makes sense to me to avoid the issue altogether whenever possible.

It would be interesting to hear from some designers on the issue, like Ralph Karsten of Atma-sphere and others. Since I know nothing at all about electronics I may be blind to something critical that makes getting on the grid worth the effort. But I do wonder why so much money and expense in preamplfiers center around the power supply, in some lines (e.g. First Sound)the difference in cost, sometimes significant, is almost exclusively centered around the power supply. If the "grid" is such a problem, that needs so much engineering - why not avoid it in the first place -- other than the fact that you have to recharge the batteries evey 6-12 hours (not a problem for me)? Id rather have improved S/N, no power cord issues, no conditioning required. Seems like an elegant solution; and I can attest that the Dodd sounds darn good. I also notice that the BAM on my Merlin Speakers sound better in battery mode than AC mode.

IME batteries sound fantasic powering noise-sensitive CDP, transport, DAC, and other line-level SS & op amp devices. Batteries work really well with low-current applications, but are infeasible in all but the most minimalistic of tube designs. However, not all batteries are strong in the area of dynamics & bass control. Large SLA batteries with lots of filtering capacitance perform well in this regard, but are impractical for most manufacturers due to weight and ROHS lead issues. Other battery types are compromised to one degree or another.

Dgarretson, do you know if the Dodd is a minimalist tube design? It seems to work well on batteries (4 12volt 5 amp SLA batteries - pretty heavy). Not as strong in the bass as the CAT Sl1 but it does seem very balanced. I wonder if Gary Dodd has overcome the inherent problems you describe through good circuit design or not. On my Merlins which only go to 28hz, the bass seems very good and dynamics seem very strong as well (not to the level of the CAT perhaps which is the most dynamic preamp I have heard)but pretty darn good.