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Ok, mass confusion has set in, as I am moving toward territory that I have no experience.I am needing a phono preamp. About 2 months ago, I stumbled upon a really nice pair of ALtec 604 8G speakers in factory cabinets and they followed me home. I have been running them with a Marantz 2252B receiver. Older SS receivers is all I have ever owned.
Due to a small restrictive budget, I am awaiting arrival (Monday or Tuesday) of a Jolida 1301 hybrid amp. I have nothing to audition in this small Missouri town, so I hope this will be a move up the audio chain. Any feedback on this purchase is appreciated. It does come with 3 sets of tubes for me to try. This will be my first taste of anything tube.
I am almost exclusively a certifiable analog nut. I need a budget phono pre that will mate well with my Jolida Hybrid and my Altecs. I don't have a clue as to what I need and what will work well with my equiptment. Should I look at a tube or SS preamp? Help me make sense of all of this. And if you could tell me the best place to look to purchase. I would like to keep my budget around $200.
Jolida 1301 Hybrid Amp (30 watts)
Altec 604 8G speakers
Thorens TD160 with Linn arm
Carts used- Denon 110, Goldring 1042, AT440ML, Shure IIII know this is an important purchases and things I have been considering are-
Hagerman Bugle (kit)
Gramamp 2
Bottlehead Seduction Kit (I have NEVER built anything electronic in my life and this is a little intimidating)
Nad PP2Help me!!
Steve
Follow Ups:
I have heard nothing but good things about it. And it appears pretty simple to build, I think. Like I said, I haven't ever built anything electronic. My best friend builds high quality computers, and he would gladly assist me in this small project.John, thanks for your battery suggestions. Good advice.
Thank you all for your suggestions. I always pay close attention to all 3 of yours suggestions to folks.
I have built two now, one for my brother and one for a friend.The next one will be for me to keep!
It is a really great beginner project that comes with good instructions and is a very simple build.
Go For It!
The Bugle was my first electronics project...before that I had never picked up a soldering iron. Can't say I did a terrific job on all my soldering joints, but the thing works and sounds very good.I owned both the Bugle and the NAD PP-2 at the same time. The Bugle beat the PP-2 in a head-to-head comparison, so I got rid of the PP-2.
I recommend giving the Bugle a try. For a complete electronics moron such as myself, there are only a few things I would add to the Bugle's terse instruction manual:
1. don't install the opamps backwards (the opamps are the parts that look like little computer chips).
2. be careful to install correctly those capacitors which have polarity (i.e. + and - leads).
3. when you order the parts from digikey you may also want to buy the little plastic standoff feet for the Bugle--for some reason this wasn't listed in my manual's parts list.If you're going to be doing the soldering yourself, there are plenty of soldering tutorials on-line...just do an Internet search.
I have a friend that's owned a lot of Jolida gear, he's very knowledgeable has had all kins of high end gear, buys sells ans trades audio equipment to finance his speaker designing and building
He finds the Jolida stuff very high value, fine sound for the money
after the SS Reciever I think you'll be quite amazed.On the stages I think the DIY kit stuff is going to smoke any comparably priced new Stages, I don't believe the Bugle or the Seduction require any electronics knowledge or experience, but you
would need to be patient and deliberate, I believe there is quite a
bit of support here on the Asylum and elsewhere, and you should aquire some soldering skill, there ios a good soldering FAQ here.
and decent gear is quite cheap.
If a person is relatively handy, patient, and can follow instructions, the Bugle or Seduction kits are totally doable. The Bugle kit was actually my very first electronics project, and the Bottlehead Foreplay my second. Both are still in my system. (I have since added a power supply to the Bugle, but for about a year I just used it with the stock 9V batteries.)As you as you have something else to listen to records with (i.e. your old receiver), it'd be a good way to go.
If you use 9-V batteries, I would recommend using 9-V lithium batteries. You can buy them fairly reasonably on eBay and they will last 3 or 4 times as long as ordinary alkaline batteries, plus they have lower internal resistance so they will maintain their voltage much longer.Better still; use 12-V lead-acid rechargeable batteries for even greater performance. You can also buy these on eBay fairly reasonably along with a battery charger.
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