Tube Preamp Reviews
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Nagra Jazz line preamplifier
Audacious Audio, Tube Preamp Reviews
Robert J. Reina • Apr 05, 2013 • Published: Apr 01, 2013 • 2 comments
Branding can be powerful—a well-developed brand connotes strong images in the consumer's mind. Apple means ergonomics, elegance, ego. Fremer means analog, exuberance, fastidiousness. Rolex means Swiss-made, precision, expensive. Nagra means Swiss-made, precision, expensive.
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Jadis JPL line preamplifier
Audacious Audio, Tube Preamp Reviews
Dick Olsher • Nov 21, 2012 • Published: Jan 01, 1993 • 0 comments
In its comparatively few years in the marketplace, the line-level preamplifier appears to have established commercial parity with its full-function big brother. That this was inevitable was clear as far back as the mid-'80s. The advent of the CD and the proliferation of digital sources argued for a modular approach to preamp design. In such an environment, line-level sources (eg, DAT, CD, even analog tape) deserve special attention.
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Audio Research Reference 5 SE line preamplifier
Audacious Audio, Tube Preamp Reviews
Brian Damkroger • Nov 09, 2012 • 6 comments
I've heard a lot of great audio components over the years, but even in that steady stream of excellence, a few have stood out as something special. These are the products that, in their day, set a new standard for performance, and many of them are ones I wish I'd hung on to. Among these products are three preamps from Audio Research: the SP3A, the SP6B, and the SP10 (footnote 1). I know I'm not alone in viewing these models as classics.
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Conrad-Johnson PV11 preamplifier
Tube Preamp Reviews
Robert Deutsch • Dec 27, 2011 • Published: Dec 01, 1991 • 3 comments
I must admit that, for a long time, I found it difficult to accept the idea that a major portion of one's audio budget should be spent on the preamplifier. Speakers, yes—they produce the sound; amps drive the speakers, so they're important. And source components? Well, everyone knows it's garbage in/garbage out. But a preamp? Even the name suggests something that's not quite the real thing, like pre-school, pre-med, or premature. Unlike amplifiers, they don't have to contend with loads that sometimes approach a short circuit, and heat dissipation is not normally a problem. What's the big deal?
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PrimaLuna DiaLogue Three preamplifier
Tube Preamp Reviews
Art Dudley • Aug 12, 2011 • 5 comments
At what point does a domestic audio product cease to be an appliance and assume a loftier place in one's home and heart?

We all can agree that a Bose Wave CD player sits at one end of that continuum, a Koetsu Jade Platinum phono cartridge at the other—but what of all the products in between? Scarcity, mode of manufacture, appearance, even sentimentality ("This is just like the one my father used to have!")—each plays a role, but there's no doubt that price tops the list: The more we pay, the more we love (footnote 1).

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Ypsilon PST-100 Mk.II line preamplifier
Audacious Audio, Tube Preamp Reviews
Michael Fremer • Jul 22, 2011 • 0 comments
Though essentially a two-man operation based in Athens, Greece, Ypsilon Electronics has been, since 1995, turning ears and eyes throughout the audiophile world with purist, hand-crafted electronics whose sound seems to defy characterization. Even under audio-show conditions in difficult hotel rooms, and often driving unfamiliar loudspeakers, the sound of Ypsilon electronics seems to evaporate in ways that few products manage, leaving behind less residue and more music.
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Audio Research LS8 line preamplifier
Tube Preamp Reviews
Martin Colloms • Jan 02, 2011 • Published: Mar 02, 1999 • 0 comments
While high-priced equipment can easily acquire stature on grounds of outright performance and physical appearance, we critics have more admiration for genuine achievement at lower price levels. One such product was the all-triode SP8 preamplifier from Audio Research, launched back in 1982 and priced at $1400. This classically tasteful preamplifier came equipped with a medium-sensitivity phono equalizer and the usual tape and line inputs.
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Audio Research SP14 preamplifier
Tube Preamp Reviews
Guy Lemcoe • Nov 29, 2010 • Published: Jun 15, 1990 • 0 comments
The name "Audio Research" will be familiar to many readers of this magazine. It belongs on the list of that select group of manufacturers who continue to offer the audiophile and music lover equipment which enables him or her to truly enjoy the muse. With equipment of this caliber, one is no longer caught up in the anxiety-inducing process of listening to (evaluating) the equipment used in the presentation of the music. Instead, the listener can focus attention on the much more important message uncovered in the music via the performance and conveyed through the network of transducers, cables, tubes or FETs, more cables, more tubes or FETs, and more transducers, to the brain. If this process has been successful and our sensitivities heightened, our souls will be touched.
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Einstein Audio Components The Tube Mk.II preamplifier
Audacious Audio, Tube Preamp Reviews
Michael Fremer • Nov 09, 2010 • Published: Oct 18, 2010 • 0 comments

It doesn't take a genius to appreciate the audacity of naming a company after Albert Einstein, the iconic science and math whiz. Clearly, company founder and owner Volker Bohlmeier knew what he was doing—this German brand of boutique electronics has enjoyed worldwide critical and marketplace success since its founding more than 20 years ago.
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Listening #94
Art Dudley Listening, Audacious Audio, Tube Preamp Reviews
Art Dudley • Oct 18, 2010 • 0 comments
If you've followed their story here and elsewhere, you probably know that Tokyo's Shindo Laboratory (footnote 1) has a reputation for defying the two most monolithic of all high-end audio commandments.
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NAT Symmetrical line preamplifier
Tube Preamp Reviews
Robert J. Reina • Aug 26, 2010 • 0 comments
Sometimes, a product review in Stereophile can breed additional reviews. Shortly after I reviewed the Audio Valve Conductor line stage in the July 2009 issue (Vol.32 No.7), I was contacted by NAT's US distributor, Musical Sounds: "Hey, if you liked the Audio Valve Conductor [$13,995], you'll love the NAT Symmetrical line stage at $8000! Would you like to review it?" Aside from Michael Fremer's review of the battery-powered NAT Signature Phono stage in the July 2007 issue, I was unfamiliar with this Serbian maker of tube electronics. But "Sure," I replied; "why not?"
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Listening #91
Art Dudley Listening, Tube Preamp Reviews
Art Dudley • Jul 19, 2010 • 1 comments
At our best, audiophiles are the selfless and generous custodians of a thousand small libraries, keeping alive not only music's greatest recorded moments but the art of listening itself. At our worst, we are self-absorbed, superannuated rich kids, locked in an endless turd-hurl over who has the best toys.
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Musical Fidelity AMS Primo line preamplifier
Audacious Audio, Tube Preamp Reviews
Michael Fremer • May 15, 2010 • 0 comments
Musical Fidelity's Tri-Vista kWP, introduced in 2003, was an impressive, high-tech, "statement" audiophile preamplifier. Its outboard power supply weighed almost 56 lbs—more than most power amplifiers—and its hybrid circuitry included miniature military-grade vacuum tubes. As I said in my review of it in the January 2004 Stereophile, the kWP's chassis and innards were overbuilt, the measured performance impressive, and any sonic signature imposed on the signal was subtle and, essentially, inconsequential.
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Listening #88 / Tempo Electric Arthur Loesch 1.1 Control Preamplifier
Art Dudley Listening, Tube Preamp Reviews
Art Dudley • Apr 20, 2010 • 0 comments
I am not in the mood for whirling.—the Beatles, "Revolution 9"
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Convergent Audio Technology SL1 Renaissance preamplifier
Tube Preamp Reviews
Robert Deutsch • Nov 30, 2009 • 0 comments
"Are You a Sharpener or a Leveler?" was the title of my "As We See It" in the February 2009 issue. The terms sharpening and leveling come from work in the field of perception by the early Gestalt psychologists, sharpening referring to the exaggeration of perceived differences, leveling to the minimization of those differences.
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