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Reviews (1)
08 Jan, 2019
Great little amp. Set it up with care and it will reward you.
2 of 2 found this helpful So this little preamp comes well packed, with a PSU and slightly weedy ground lead, and two Chinese 6J1 valves (plus an unmatched spare).
Very, very simple to set up. Some helpful hints:
1) Watch where you place the amp. If it's too close to a mains transformer, it'll hum like mad. Move it away and you've really got to crank the power amp up to 11 to hear any hum.
2) Use the ground lead (or a less weedy one!) as recommended. It *will* make a difference.
3) It's well worth upgrading the supplied valves with something better. I've changed mine for vintage Mullard M8100's (they're compatible and available from e.g. Watford Valves)
4) Whatever you do with the valves, they will need a fair few "hot" hours to burn in and sound their best. Don't switch it on and expect the sound to be perfect immediately.
I have a Stanton M500 cartridge and no problem with overdrive or distortion. If you're getting distorted sound, the chances are your turntable already has a preamp in (a lot of modern ones do) and is overdriving the tube amp. If this is the case, try feeding it in via the "aux" connector on the front (you'll need a phono to 3.5mm stereo jack converter) which expects the higher output.
So what does it sound like? Well, with the Mullards in place there's a well-defined bass line and the higher octaves definitely sing. No muddiness in the stereo spacing, no harshness, this is what valves can sound like. Got to say though that the supplied 6J1's were pretty good too, and if run in for a while I think they'll work well for an awful lot of people.
There are a lot of comments elsewhere that the valves on this little box are for show only. That's rubbish, but bear in mind there's a little orange LED underneath each valve socket which doesn't help the "decorative" stigma. Ignore them, and this is a real hybrid semiconductor / valve preamp doing a great, and very musical, job.
You really can't go wrong for this sort of money. I think you'll be surprised just how good valves can sound. Just take care setting up, and I mean it about careful placement. It makes all the difference.