Posted by Quest (i) on January 08, 2001 at 14:17:46:

In Reply to: I've heard the AE-3... posted by JRutter on January 08, 2001 at 13:45:54:

if you don't mind.

Jim Marter has come a long way in improving his AE0-3 to this current state and seriously, it betters the original AE-3 by huge magnitude. Needless to say it took him many, many endless nights tweaking his C4S'ed AE-3 in order to obtain such super performance.

If you read my VALVE meeting writeups you'll probably noticed me commenting on JimM.'s super AE-3 as a 6SN7 based preamp that does not sound like any 6SN7-based preamp on earth...with well-defined bassline, excellent transcients and very, very smooth sound to boot. Compared to the original stock AE-3 the stock one sounds, just like an conventional 6SN7 based preamp with all the expected sound and such.

Here's what JimM has done to his supermodded AE-3 so far:

(1)Major modifications to the original AE-3 power supply sections,

(2) direct-coupling between the 1st stage of 6SN7 and the second stage,

(3) all capacitor upgrades (Auricaps),

(4) C4S'ed the stages,

(5) major changes to the DC heating part ...

(6) Redesign the stage's operating points (We do not agree with the original operating points that D. Had put into AE-3...)

Compared this supermodded AE-3, the stock ones sounded pale and fluffy. That's all I would like to tell you.

I have no experience with Rosenblizt's (sp) preamp. I do have lots of experience with other tube/hybrid commercial preamps like AR, CJ, etc.

Bottomline: if you are the adventurous type and you have the knowledge to build and tweak amps (we can help you with the tweaking part) then Foreplay is the one for you. If you are the type that constantly in pursuance for "Hi Fi" sound then AE-3 is your bet.

Cheers,

Quest :^>