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C4S in Seduction and Non-MQ'ed S.E.X. - Impressions

I finally got around to installing C4S boards in my 6 month-old Seduction and S.E.X. amp, and what a difference the two make over the already-refined sonics of the stock builds! The Seduction boards went in first, and resulted in the reported higher gain with the 6922 tubes and a ~5mV cartridge (AT120E w/microline stylus). Through the S.E.X. amp, the gain results in at least 1/4 of a turn on the pot of extra headroom. Also, the Seduction seems to have a somewhat darker, blacker background and more stable bass. Midrange also seems to pop out or "float" on certain recordings even more than usual, which I attribute to the quieter background. This is especially evident for things like chorused guitars or woodwinds like saxophones and bassoons.

My soldering station conveniently died when I tried to turn it on the next day to do the S.E.X. boards. Once I bought a new iron and popped the boards in the S.E.X., similar changes were evident. I've not yet updated the parafeed or coupling caps, as I may wait until ordering the MQ iron update and do it all at once. However, even without the latter, the amp is definitely improved - even cleaner and smoother sounding, as well as a bit louder. Bass has definitely improved in the lower octaves. Most impressively, percussive sounds are so much more "certain" and have a "snap" to them that wasn't there in the stock amp. Sounds (especially attacks) that previously would push the S.E.X. to its limit now are handled with extra headroom. I think some may mistake this for a more "solid-state" type of sound, but the warmth and presence in the midrange, as well as the lack of hardness/glare in the upper registers clearly identifies as tube.

The changes were definitely worth the $120 for the set of boards. I would recommend that anybody who still has stock amps perform this modification - it's so good, it makes me wonder why the kits don't come this way to begin with (higher cost, I'm assuming).


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Topic - C4S in Seduction and Non-MQ'ed S.E.X. - Impressions - Dr. Toobz 10:37:24 09/13/09 (3)

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