Tubes Asylum: REVIEW: Electronic Tonalities Foreplay Preamplifier (Tube) by badman

Model:	Foreplay
Category:	Preamplifier (Tube)
Suggested Retail Price:	$99
Description:	DIY dual 12AU7 tube preamplifier.
Manufacturer URL:	Electronic Tonalities
Model Picture:	View

Review by badman on November 10, 2001 at 17:22:23
IP Address: 208.58.106.67

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for the Foreplay

Well, let me start by saying this is not a review of the stock kit. I've never heard the stock kit. This is a review of my experience with the thing, which at this point is a souped up puppy.
When I first got the Foreplay linestage kit, I built it all at once. This means I built "Sweet Whispers" stepped attenuators (boy were they ugly) the Anticipation current sourcing upgrade (still doesn't work) and the rest was essentially stock. Well, I rushed through this initial build, and built something that didn't work, was full of bad solder joints, and generally was a BIG P.O.S. This was MY fault from my impatience.
So, I ordered fancy schmancy parts for a rebuild (gold plated tube sockets, Holco resistors, Kimber Kap coupling capacitors, and I built an outboard power supply. Getting hum and buzz down to appropriate levels took a little work, but it then sounded fantastic, but the volume controls were way too touchy. So I put in some stepped attenuators that a friend had built (mine from the kit were too ugly/sloppy) and this not only enhanced the sound, it made it possible to use the thing and get decent balance.
Then I tried implementing the current sourcing (Anticipation) and realized the boards still weren't right. So, rather than reinstalliing the resistors these boards are designed to replace, I gave Ron Wellborn (good fella) some more of my hard earned dough, and bought some new resistors, teflon sleeving, fancy solder, silver plated sockets,Kimber TCSS hookup wire, tube dampeners, and sorbothane sheeting.
So, I built it again. Some super cool stepped shunt attenuators, a funky layout of my own design, and all of the above stuff, retaining the Kimber Kaps from the second build. I made a nice grounding scheme, and plugged it in. The third times the charm, and it's quiet as all heck (I have to hold my breath and focus to hear the level of noise it puts out) .
Blah blah blah, right? well, here's the important part, the sound. This has permanently replaced my Acurus RL-11 (probably return it for music or another power amp). The Acurus is great. This is better. How? Every way except the tightness of bass and noise floor. Much more transparent, better imaging, better tonality, and all by leaps and bounds. The bass is slightly less tight, but I expect the anticipation to fix this. This is essentially a stock circuit, but with nicer parts (the attenuators in particular make it SO much more detailed and transparent), and an outboard PS, but a well built stock kit would probably sound very good, amazingly good for $149.
This is before I implemented my own version of a Pseudo Dual mono Power supply.
After I implemented it (effectively adding a TON of channel separation, as well as quadrupling the PS capacitance, and getting the voltages closer to where they're meant to be, and adding filtration of sorts) it got much better. Things had a cleanliness to them, and imaging is like nothing I've ever heard in a home system. It sounds much more Dynamic (as it should), and the bass has a "funky" sound I love, with power like I've never heard on my system (which is no bass slouch, being powered towers).
So, this is an amazing product, even though all but the power supply parts (excluding the dual mono scheme I added) are new. It gave me my start in kit building, and circuit design, and I want more. CDs are more involving, and Laser discs.... ooohhh laser discs.....

Product Weakness: Easy to rush and mess up, makes you want more (parts spending builds up fast), hum/buzz troubleshooting's a pain.
Product Strengths: Price, simple circuit which is easy to tweak, product support/tweak ideas via forum, tweaked out it sounds AMAZING.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Acurus A100
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Foreplay
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Marantz CC-67, Pioneer LDP-1090
Speakers:	B&W DM 605 s2
Cables/Interconnects:	Kimber PBJ, DIY
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Classical, Jazz, all kinds of others.
Room Size (LxWxH):	18 x 10 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	Just careful furniture placement
Time Period/Length of Audition:	Working for about 2 weeks now
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	all kinds of stuff/tweaks
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	Easy to rush and mess up, makes you want more (parts spending builds up fast), hum/buzz troubleshooting's a pain.
Product Strengths:	Price, simple circuit which is easy to tweak, product support/tweak ideas via forum, tweaked out it sounds AMAZING.