Amp/Preamp Asylum

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RE: I found an Aesthetix Calypso for under $600. What's a reasonable price for this line stage?

Posted by AbeCollins on March 13, 2017 at 08:00:04:

I just didn't care for the way they sound. I heard early Brystons in the 1990's and decided on Classe instead. It seemed that these two Canadian makes competed head to head back then, maybe even today. I don't know.

Back then the Brystons I auditioned were grainy and harsh sounding. The newer ones, or at least the ones I had (7BSST2) were not grainy or harsh. They were much improved but sounded too lean and clinical to me. The midrange had zero warmth, lower mids and bass lacked that robust full-bodied sound that I prefer in tubes, etc.

I tried 'fixing it' first with the ARC LS-25mkII then the Aesthethix Calypso which was much better IMHO. For me, the real 'fix' was to replace the amps. However, the Aesthetix was a very nice sounding preamp that responded well to tube rolling. Something I can't say for the ARC since there aren't any (or many) 6H30 tubes around to roll.