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In Reply to: RE: SET? Some alternatives of lower cost. posted by morricab on November 12, 2015 at 08:46:57
Morricab, forgive me for asking, but what happened to the L10? Has it broken down in some way? Or have you fallen out of love with it? I thought it was supposed to be a good performer?
Big J
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
Follow Ups:
Good question...I have mixed feelings about this preamp. One the one hand it is dynamic and quite palpable for solo instruments. Reasonably transparent with good rich bass. BUT, the soundstage was not so clear and instruments in the background get somewhat smudged together. I upgraded all the caps in the power supply and that helped a tiny bit but what i think is really holding it back are the output transformers. SO, I will be upgrading them with some Lundahl units to see where that gets me. If that works then it could be totally killer...or not.
I have been playing around now with a Wall Audio Opus 88 (matches with my Wall Audio Opus 50 monos) and it has a truly great linestage in it. Totally transparent, dynamic soundstage. bass etc. All valve rectified and regualted. The phonostage is where I am less sure about the preamp. It is very clear and explicit...especially for a tube phonostage. However, my Silvaweld phono is an amazing machine and it is giving the phono built into the Wall preamp a tough time. It seems to have more inner spark than the Wall. A bit less explicit but seemingly wider dynamic range overall.
I will hopefully be trying some others to see if I can better the Wall for my budget, which won't be easy, but I really don't want to sell off my Silvaweld unless I am sure the other preamp's phono can equal it.
If the lundahl transformer upgrade "transforms" the L10 then it is a moot point and I have my preamp.
I think your tastes in preamps aren't too dissimilar to mine, so it's useful to now your experience with the L10. I had my eye on the L300, bought direct from the OEM through a friend in Asia, but was aware that it is hard to be certain what quality of transformer one would be ordering. This is the whole Bewitch/OEM issue at play, perhaps.
Do you think the Opus 88 phono stage could be tuned with tube rolling? It reminds me of some of the design ideas in my present Audio Innovations L2 and P2.
Big J
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
It can be tuned by rolling. I replaced some new JJ tubes in one stage of it with some other new tubes (ElectroHarmonix) and it was a distinct improvement. One might think then that good NOS will bring it even further.
At least from the pictures the output transformer looks the same in the L10 and L300; however, the measurements I have seen of both indicate that the L300 has a wider bandwidth...the output tubes are different so perhaps if it is the same trafo the matching with the tube is better.
I will do a more in-depth investigation with the Wall next year for a review I am planning.
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