Amp/Preamp Asylum: REVIEW: Spectral DMC30 "S" update Preamplifier (SS) by rp1@surfnetusa.com

Model:	DMC30 "S" update
Category:	Preamplifier (SS)
Suggested Retail Price:	$1200 for update
Description:	Solid State Line-level preamp with balanced modules.
Manufacturer URL:	Spectral
Manufacturer URL:	Spectral

Review by rp1@surfnetusa.com on September 10, 2003 at 00:52:00
IP Address: 66.248.83.189

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Well, I finally got my unit back. I was told that the improvement would be amazing. Well,as far as I was concerned there was not much that they could have done except to improve the bass some. Wrong again Transistor Breath. What a strange hobby; we think we are at the peak, that there is no where else to go, then the bloomin' factory shows you that there is more yet to achieve.
In the first half-hour of listening I was mildly disappointed; sure it was quiet and fast sounding but there was no magic. Even though the factory told me not to even listen until it had an hour warm up on it, I could not help jumping the gun. At the half-hour mark it was opening up and relaxing. It was really starting to show me something, vocals were getting more intimate and the bass was filling in. At the 1hour and 10minute mark it all just suddenly "snapped" in. Now it was really worth listening to. Here is what I heard:
Patricia Barbers voice on "Ode to Billy-Joe" was real, with inflection and shaping to the vowels and consonants that I never before heard on either tubed or SS gear. I still have the shivers from just thinking about it.
Accustic bass instruments on the same album were now more coherent in placement and harmonic make-up. Tonality is now there (bass tonality was where the DMC30 was originally quite a bit weaker than the Bryston BP25). The upright bass on the Red Rose disk had the right height,depth, and weight. The strings sounded like real strings with rich overtones and the accustic decay into the accustic space was spot on. Drum sets on my Louie Bellson disc could dynamically explode into the room. There was plenty of "jump factor".
Violins were sweet yet had rich overtones with again that extention into the accustic space. The ability of this preamp to unravel complex mid-range and high-frequency information while complex bass is also happening, is nothing short of amazing. Music with crashing cymbals and sawing fiddles is easily laid out on the soundstage with no apparent effort. At no point does this pre ever sound like it is straining. And yes, the highs, the place I thought that there could be no improvement, were vastly improved. I almost felt that I could freeze the note and turn it around to look at it from all angles.
The pacing of music was light and agile, to the point that I was afraid that the bass was compromised. But uppon putting in my bass standards I found the DMC30S to be deep and even explosive in the lower reaches. This is more of a taut bass, but one that carries the tension of music well. If you like your bass to "bloom" into the room this is probably not your cup of tea.
The background is utterly silent (the original version had a sort of slight HF "dither" sound to it on complex passages) but not in the way that the Bryston is silent; the Bryston presents the music from a "black" background, but the Spectral now presents it from a...best way I can put it is a "clear" background. The music seems to come from a background of open air, neither black nor white, just open. Never heard the like before.
The DMC30S doesn't sound "fast", just utterly effortless all through the range. The minor harmonic problems are gone, it no longer sounds like it favors the highs over the lows; it is all coherent now. The 645's ribbons and cones sounds totally integrated when using this preamp (neat trick).
This is a great preamp by any measure and should work well with most any amp. But it seems to be a marriage made in heaven for the Spectron amp. I personally think that the DMC30S sounds better with the Spectron than it does with its own stable-mate Spectral amps. Imagine getting the Spectral sound (only with bass and warmth)for thousands of dollars less! It also mates very well with the Bryston 4BSST, raising the performance of that amp to a new level. (It is still shy of the Spectron in defenition and dynamics though, but very, very nice to listen to.)

Product Weakness: Balanced control works backwards by design. Really. Runs quite warm. No Phono.(damn!)
Product Strengths: Built like a piece of aerospace gear. Zero phase shift out to low RF. A SOTA piece of SS gear.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Spectron Musician II 600wpc
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Under Review
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Levinson390S CD-Player
Speakers:	Nearform Research 645 Ribbon Hybrid Fully modded 91db/watt
Cables/Interconnects:	JPS,Goertz, Sense-Cable,Empiricle Audio Holophonic Silver
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Jazz,Big-Band, Rock, Celtic, Choir, Southern Gothic
Room Size (LxWxH):	27foot x 13foot x 8foot
Room Comments/Treatments:	"Furniture" , "Drapes" and "Carpet"
Time Period/Length of Audition:	Ongoing
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Exact Power SP15, Various power cords HSU VT3 sub set to 30hz
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	Balanced control works backwards by design. Really. Runs quite warm. No Phono.(damn!)
Product Strengths:	Built like a piece of aerospace gear. Zero phase shift out to low RF. A SOTA piece of SS gear.