Solid State Preamp Reviews

Sidebar 1: TJN's System

Associated equipment used in auditioning the Athena included the Well-Tempered Arm on a VPI turntable, Grado MCX and Dynavector 17D pickups (a vintage, but little-used sample, this particular pickup chosen primarily for its very flat high end and otherwise good overall performance in the Well-Tempered Arm), PS Audio 200Cx and Sumo Polaris amplifiers (and, briefly, the Motif MS100), Epos ES 14 (primarily) and VMPS Tower II/R (briefly—to fill in for the low-end limits of the Epos) loudspeakers, and Monster M-1 loudspeaker cables and M-1000 interconnects.

Preamps used for comparison included the Klyne SK-5A and PS Audio 4.6 (with and without the optional M-500 heavy-duty power supply).—Thomas J. Norton