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Model: | Blowtorch preamp |
Category: | Preamplifier (SS) |
Suggested Retail Price: | $10,000; w/phono $15,000 |
Description: | SS stereo preamplifier |
Manufacturer URL: | Not Available |
Review by Brian Cheney on January 30, 2000 at 03:59:57 IP Address: 205.188.193.173 |
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If the High End ever returns to its hobbyist/enthusiast roots, where dedicated recluses literally devote their lives to cobbling together the best sounding gear by dint of their own efforts, their own money, and their own labor, then the CTC Blowtorch preamp should lead the way.This is a two piece (outboard power supply) SS preamp. There are seven inputs, two outputs (balanced and unbalanced), a selector switch, polarity switch, and dual volume knobs, one per channel. There are no other features, not even a pilot light. You only know it's working when you plug it in and your line current sags: the unit draws over 300W on turnon and then a steady 130W in use. It gets hot, and it weighs a lot: at least 100 lbs. I lugged it around for a week in its dual airline-style airtight cases and nearly broke both arms. An umbilical connects the two parts and they can be placed quite close together if desired.
The circuit design by John Curl with layout by Carl Thompson and final assembly/burnin/voicing by Bob Crump is a storybook of the best parts working in the simplest symmetrical, direct-coupled configuration. PC boards are teflon, as are the capacitors. It takes three months to build one unit. If you think the price is high, do the math: three guys divide the profits of about $7500 per unit. 90 days work is required. That figures out to $833 per man per month, below-poverty-line wages. There are no dealers, no dealer pricing, no phony discounts. You want one, call Bob Crump at 713-721-4756 and send all the dough in advance, then wait. You'll hear from Bob eventually.
I used John Curl's personal unit at CES for four days this January and my impressions are based on this usage. Maybe you think $15,000 (with MC phono) is too much, maybe you hoot at the very idea that three guys living 1500 miles apart could, in this day and age, compete against the Krells and Levinsons of this world, working by themselves out of their house or apartments. Maybe you think highend gear needs to be sexy, offer remote control, have more than two channels or processors built in. There is none of that here.
What is here is the finest sounding piece of audio gear I have ever run
across. No I can't afford it and will have to wait until next CES to spend time with it again. I speak as a tube aficionado who has had glass audio preamps for over 20 years. To say the Blowtorch scorches them is putting it mildly. In fact, the product's name is no hype. This is an entirely new level of performance.The glory of the preamp is its MC phono section, basically an updated Vendetta pre-preamp. Loading is variable from 47 k Ohms down to 5 Ohms. At the Show I used 47 k with a Benz Glider MC cartridge mounted in an SME IV tonearm riding the never-produced Oakland-CA-made $900 list Onix turntable. I admit I took unusual care setting this up: mounting the cartridge in the headshell, attaching clip leads, checking for parallel tonearm mounting, adjusting antiskate and tracking force occuplied just over six minutes. I played my own vinyl, no superdiscs, just ordinary stuff, original pressings I bought 30 to 40 years ago some of which I had never played on a highend rig before (just my Garrard Lab 80 with its 10g ceramic cartridge). You want musicality? You want accuracy? How about the sound of Joseph Roisman's violin, speaking to us direct sweetly and with passion, from a time gap of 42 years. Or his colleagues plus Walter Trampler limning the five glorious voices of the Brahms first string quintet. You want transient response? How 'bout Dick Shory's Percussion ensemble on stage in Chicago Orchestral Hall in 1958, each instrument razor sharp without edge or harshness. You want SACD? Doesn't sound so super anymore compared to a record, any record, regardless of when recorded, even pre-stereo. One of the highlights of the show was an original Superphon pressing (thanks to estimable vinyl collector Roger Gordon) of the 1955 Talich/Czech Phil "Ma Vlast" which you'd have sworn was both recorded a few years ago and in stereo, to say nothing of the overwhelming emotional impact of the musical performance. "Desert Island" disc, indeed.
Not that CD was in any way a slouch. I played the Solti/Perahia Brahms "Haydn' variations for two pianos for Marty DeWulf, a CD he was familiar with: never before have the "mechanicals" of two pianos been laid out with such penetrating detail and naturalness, to say nothing of the "transients" of this most difficult percussion instrument. Same could be said of Jim Morrison's "LA Woman", Doc Watson/Dave Grisman's "Doc and Dawg", or anything and everything else we played over four days of 10-hour-a-day music.
If you're an equipment hound you'd probably be happier with something flashier like the mlb or Swiss Physics or whatever. If you're a music lover you should own this preamp. That's all there is to it.
I don't know if you'll be reading a lot of magazine reviews on the Blowtorch, and this review will disappear into archives in less than a week. I plan to post these words on our website, www.vmpsaudio.com and leave them there, maybe Carl and John and Bob will sell a unit or two because of them. I certainly hope so.
You don't know what you're missing.
Brian
Product Weakness: | puts everything else to shame |
Product Strengths: | expensive |
Associated Equipment for this Review: | |
Amplifier: | Plinius SA 250 and SA 100 |
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): | Blowtorch |
Sources (CDP/Turntable): | Wadia 27iX/270 |
Speakers: | VMPS FF1 SRE ribbons |
Cables/Interconnects: | Kimber select |
Music Used (Genre/Selections): | LP/CD all types |
Room Size (LxWxH): | 19 x 13 x 8 |
Room Comments/Treatments: | 3" Sonex on back wall |
Time Period/Length of Audition: | 4 days |
Type of Audition/Review: | Product Owner |
....for a piece of equipment. Even worse than Theta's Dreadnaught. Whatever elegance the design may have, the name has diminished it.
I kind of like the name, but then I also like 47Labs' product names. At least Curl/Thompson/Crump didn't name their new company CurThump.
a great name for a phono stage!anyone ever try to play a really warped record...?
curthump
curthump
curthumpby the way, I love the name "Blowtorch"
it's so machoafter all, who would spend $15000 on a piece of gear called "Pussyfoot"?
"Hey Jack, call the guys and tell them to come over and see my Pussyfoot preamp."
or"Get your lame ass over here and check out this Blowtorch, motherf*****."
It almost sounds illegal--forbidden, "Hey Sweetheart, go over there and turn up the gain on that Blowtorch--go ahead--I DARE you!" "Don't worry, it's direct coupled, zero feedback, and made by a couple of zellots in a garage out of parts stolen from a classified spy satelite--it's probably safe, those are rubber-soled shoes, aren't they?"
"No, I don't know why they call it the "Blowtorch". I heard it was a nickname given by widows of the Beta testers."Really, if they don't have a story behind that name, I'd be happy to make one up for them. I think I would go with the classified military satelite theme: codename for a clandestine particle-beam weapon that required incredibly close-tolerance parts...I can't believe they just chose it at random, unless they were smoking crack in that garage...
....and listening to Throbbing Gristle.Ignatz
Our motto is:'Blowtorch by CTC. Better than sex, almost as good as Bar-B-Q'
We have buttons with our motto printed on it, and passed them out at the CES.
The amp that I designed 15 years ago for Brian Cheney is called the: 4-Q-2.
I am told that our own Myles Astor coined the term 'Blowtorch' Apparently, at a CES a few years ago, he noticed me arguing with someone. He told Bob Crump something like: "He sure gave that guy the BLOWTORCH!" Thanks Myles! Brian Cheney coined the name 'Vendetta Research' He was in my lab some years ago, when I was complaining about some individuals who refused to pay me for my efforts. We had worked with a company called 'Mendota Research' and Brian came up with 'Vendetta Research'. He tried to talk me out of it, later. It must be remembered that all of the nice names are copywrited already. We must create new ones, in order to not face a lawsuit.
I knew it. Thanks for that post Mr. Curl.Now all my gear with letters and numbers, signifying a desgin configuration or interation...seems so...common
(I can't help this: I once worked for a specialty chemical company that supplied lubricants to the sheet steel rolling industry. The coils of steel had to be "cold rolled" down to the thickness required for the order, and so were run through massive rollers at intense pressures. The name of the company I worked for began with a "Q", so the uniforms we wore in the field had four "Q symbols in a configuration like the rollers in the steel rolling mills.So people would come up to me, point at the symbol on my company jacket, and say, "What's that suppos'ta be?"
"Four Q's."
That logo was dropped shortly thereafter.
The owner of the company is a huge supporter of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and a fine gentleman to work for.
And what would YOU name it.... Ignatz?
...or perhaps potrzebie patented preamp(ppp)?
Ignatz is a well-respected name in Germany. Mr. Schwinn's first name was Ignatz, for instance, and look how many bicycles he sold!!However, the "potzrebie patented preamp" DOES have a great deal of flair. It rolls off the tongue so nicely. Bravo!! Blowtorch is well, clumsy and crude-sounding.
Gosh, I cannot choose!!
Began my hunt this weekend for a preamp. As I have decided to deckout my source and preamp then buy a place and speakers will follow. Anywhere else I can read about this piece or see a picture?
there must be a story behind that name:
"here, let me pass my priceless vinyl through the BLOWTORCH..."what could it be? all the circuits are made of pure gold?
Wow Brian, great scoop review! I got all warm and runny just reading about it. The guy I bought my used AHT-P Non-Signature from said he was selling it and his TAG to buy a Blowtorch. There are very few products on the market that have parts at that level of quality. Now if only I could persuade one of my relatives in Japan to send me one of those Connoisseur 3.0 preamps.
I don't know if you'll be reading a lot of magazine reviews on the Blowtorch, and this review will disappear into archives in less than a week. I plan to post these words on our website, www.vmpsaudio.com and leave them there, maybe Carl and John and Bob will sell a unit or two because of them. I certainly hope so.Brian:
The CRC Blowtorch was featured in our new products section this fall and Bob Krump has promised us a unit for review (and possibly a "new" Vendetta phono section even earlier), by this summer.
Myles B. Astor
Publisher
Ultimate Audio
Thanks Brian for a great review.
Nice post. I can't afford it either, but like the Ferrari F360, it's nice to know that it's out there.
it's true, I sleep better knowing someone is hand-building audio gear my wife would never allow in the house."Hon, is it alright with you if I buy a Blowtorch?"
"Why do you need a blow torch?
"I need it to burn-in my new Sony CD player." (the SCD-1)
"You mean you spend $500 on a CD player that doesn't even work?"
"Nevermind."
Jeez, if I wanted humiliation, I'd call my ex-wife!
-But then...I don't have to ASK permission to bring in audio gear!!
Now I'm LOL....
> > You mean you spend $500 on a CD player that doesn't even work?Is that a new trick pete or a typo?
Yeah, I'll take two at that price!
Get over, Rod.Don't forget, no one reveals
the true price of the upgrade
to their SO.You do know that, don't you?
æ
I kind of figured that was the deal. So that Jota is only $800, right?
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