Preamp Possibilities

[prepress]

Something interesting. I was listening to the new ELP remaster of Brain Salad Surgery, which was quite good, but what I noticed most was how much better the bass was over the original CD. I'd had the bass set to +3, but was prompted to turn it down to 0, or "flat." It still sounded good.

I watched the blu-ray of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and did the same thing. Not sure what happened, but it remained satisfying. Last weekend I turned the bass down for the tuner as well while listening to NPR; same result. Does this mean I'm getting used to the 2300's sound, or are my new production Mullard tubes still settling in after all this time? I don't know, but this bears watching.

[prepress]

Another nice touch occurred last night. I pulled out a laserdisc I hadn't watched in a long time, a Neville Brothers performance. I played this often enough that I remember the sound well. I hadn't played it through my current configuration, however.

As I listened, I noted that while it was a bit less dynamic than I recall (my principal complaint about the 2300), there was greater detail in the midrange. I heard keyboard parts I didn't hear previously. That was a nice touch. Instruments were a bit more separate from one another in the mix. I suppose this is part of what people are referring to when they talk about tubes and midrange magic.

Maybe I should, as part of evaluating the 2300 more, go back through to the older music and videos I'm most familiar with, and play more of them.

[2fastdriving]

Originally Posted by prepress

Another nice touch occurred last night. I pulled out a laserdisc I hadn't watched in a long time, a Neville Brothers performance. I played this often enough that I remember the sound well. I hadn't played it through my current configuration, however.

As I listened, I noted that while it was a bit less dynamic than I recall (my principal complaint about the 2300), there was greater detail in the midrange. I heard keyboard parts I didn't hear previously. That was a nice touch. Instruments were a bit more separate from one another in the mix. I suppose this is part of what people are referring to when they talk about tubes and midrange magic.

Maybe I should, as part of evaluating the 2300 more, go back through to the older music and videos I'm most familiar with, and play more of them.

Since you like to play around, try Psvanes. They are the best tube I found with the 2300 when I had one.

[prepress]

Originally Posted by 2fastdriving

Since you like to play around, try Psvanes. They are the best tube I found with the 2300 when I had one.

Actually, I'd rather not play around much as far as tube rolling. I thought I'd found a sweet spot with the Mullards, and it's because of them that the 2 pair of Gold Lions I bought haven't seen the inside of the 2300. But the powerful bass I experienced when the Mullards first went in back in May has abated some.

The Psvanes are said to be warm and dynamic, from what I gather. One fellow on another site preferred them to the Mullards he was using, though it was close. What did you like about these tubes, and will they work for home theater as well as audio? Since I have a double-duty system I need a tube that can hang with both applications.

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I have to take seriously this long-percolating idea of going back to solid-state. It has resurfaced yet again in the last week. And again, it's due to the less-than full sound with DVDs and BDs; I don't notice this so much with music, what with that magic middle tubes have, but the sound lacks some weight at times with video.

One idea is to go back to the Kimber Hero ICs I used in the past, at least with the BD player; I haven't tried the Kimbers with the current Mullard tubes. I have two unused pair of Gold Lions I could substitute for the Mullards. If neither of those steps yields improvement, I may go back to the Audio Research LS3 I used previously for a few weeks and contemplate things. Worst case, I sell or trade in the 2300 and get a C48 (which I was headed to the store to get in the beginning, actually). The C50 looks cool, but I'm not sure the extra features are worth $2000 more for me.

First up is the Kimbers.

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Yesterday I replaced the AQ King Cobra interconnects on my Pioneer Elite BDP-09FD with the previously installed Kimber Hero; they had never been used with the Mullard tubes. I did this in hopes of some improvement in the weight of the sound when playing DVDs. To test this move, I pulled out what have become my reference discs for such evaluations: Yes Live at Montreaux 2003; The Moody Blues Hall of Fame: Live from the Royal Albert Hall; and Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood Live from Madison Square Garden.

Lo and behold, with the Hero some of the missing weight returned to the sound. On the Yes disc, Heart of the Sunrise, Awaken and I've Seen All Good People are the tracks I use. During a keyboard run toward the end of Awaken there's a sustained low note underneath a run up the keyboard by Rick Wakeman, which was always fully evident with my Audio Research LS3 but had been pretty much missing with the C2300. Until now. I don't think that low note is quite as solid as with the LS3, but what an improvement! Both keyboards and bass benefitted from the new configuration. Chris Squire's bass had more weight on Heart of the Sunrise and the organ chords just prior to I've Seen All Good People morphing into Your Move were fuller and richer.

Them Changes from the Clapton/Winwood DVD has a similar story, as the drums in general and the kick drum in particular had more impact than before. But something I noticed with both this and the Yes disc was a more glaring-type sound. Not brightness per se, but something like that which was mitigated by turning the volume down (my "concert" level is 42; I went down to 36). I don't remember that happening with the LS3. I do remember the 2300 audition, where I listened to an LS27 also and noted it was darker, not as bright-sounding (for lack of a better term) as the 2300. I went for the C2300 because it sounded as if it had a bit more "oomph," plus it was a demo unit and less expensive.

Finally, the Moody Blues DVD was somewhat disappointing, as there are sounds I remember from the LS3 and was used to hearing that were flat missing. During English Sunset John Lodge hums briefly (or whatever that is he's doing) into the mic; easily audible with the LS3, but almost not there with the 2300. The kettle drum in the opening orchestral fanfare didn't sound as dynamic as with the LS3 either. The orchestra in the background is, in general, more audible in the mix than with the LS3, but the subdued low-end punch offsets that. Again, the C2300 sound misses some weight compared to the LS3. The interconnect change didn't help this disc.

So all in all, two of the three DVD sounded better. Just like me to notice what I don't hear as much as what I hear. I've begun to consider a C48 actively, but since I've gained some improvement by re-inserting the Hero interconnects on the 09 BDP, I wonder if I might not try re-inserting the JJ Electric tubes I used before (which are warmer than the Mullards in use now) or even break out those unused Gold Lions to see what that does.

[prepress]

I think I have a problem.

As another tweak, I took my one pair of Transparent MusicLink Plus off the pre/power connection and put them on the Pioneer Elite BDP-09FD; I put a pair of AQ King Cobras on the pre/power connection. What I heard with my usual reference DVDs was as close to the LS3's sound I've yet gotten as far as low-end response (and yes, more dynamic impact). Transparent advertises this IC (now simply "Plus") as having more impact in the low frequencies than regular MusicLink "due to heavier solid OFHC conductors and more substantial gold plated connectors and more effective network design." After trying it out, I believe it! In fact, the difference was noticeable vs. the Kimber Hero. Granted, this is a 2m cable rather than the 1m of the Hero, but STILL! I turned the bass trim back down to zero from +3 as a result.

There were still things I remember hearing with the LS3 I don't hear now, even with the Transparent, which I'll attribute to either the 2300's presentation or the tubes in it, currently Mullards; I think it's the former.

My next move is to put the MLP back on the pre/power connection and either try another tube (back to the JJs, or get to the Gold Lions I haven't used) or get a 1m Transparent Plus to use in place of the Kimber Hero. But the Transparent Plus is $400 for 1m, rather steep for a test. A 2m pair is $530. If I go Transparent, I'd better be sure that's what I want. The regular MusicLink is $200 for 1m; I don' t know how much drop-off there is with that, but I wonder how it compares to the Hero.

[prepress]

Update: ^ ^ ^

Wondering why I was hearing things the way I was with the Moody Blues DVD when my other tests went well, I called McIntosh yesterday and spoke to Ron Cornelius, who hadn't heard of the situation I was having before. Always something new, I think. But that conversation started me thinking.

Having the Pioneer 09 output set to "2 Channel" already, today I went into the speaker setup and found that the L/R, center and surrounds were all set to "Large." I turned off everything but the L/R setting and tried the Moody Blues disc again. No changes I could hear. Then it hit me that the Pioneer's "DTS Downmix" feature is set to "2 Channel"; I'd been selecting Dolby Digital 2.0 in the disc's menu. So I set the disc to play at DTS 5.0, which meant the player would downmix to two channels. Immediately, the sound was louder and fuller, with even more bottom. The musical details I wasn't hearing before were more audible. And the hall ambience was back; it sounded like the Moodies are playing in a concert hall again (which the Royal Albert Hall is).

I intend to put things back the way they were, with the Transparent ICs doing preamp-to-power amp duty and re-installing the Kimber Hero on the Pioneer. I may put the JJ tubes back into the 2300 just to see what happens. I want to pull the second pair of Mullards out of the MM section to keep as backups and re-insert the stock tubes there. This means the return of the Aragon 47k phono stage to the system. And that would mean I'd need five pairs of Transparent ICs if I go that route. The question would be the Plus or the MusicLink. I may consider a system reconfigure so I can use shorter runs if I go for the more expensive Transparent Plus, assuming I'm no longer satisfied with the Kimber Hero and +3 on the 2300's bass trim. I could probably put the Pioneer's speaker setup back to "Stereo" as well.

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Tuesday I indeed re-installed the JJ ECC803s tubes in the 2300's line section; I also replaced the Mullards in the MM section with the stock tubes.

I pulled out again what has become my main test disc, the Moody Blues' Royal Albert Hall concert DVD. With the Mullards and the Kimber Hero, I'd get a headache after several numbers because of the hard, bright sound on top with crashing gongs, cymbals and orchestral crescendos. What I got last night was a smoother sound on top, still with good detail and satisfying bottom. So much so that this mitigates the interest in going to all Transparent ICs for now.

It seems to me that I'm better able to hear differences in interconnects with the 2300. The difference between the King Cobra and the Hero is more obvious than with the LS3, with the Hero showing the strong bass it's known for and being a bit more dimensional. I didn't think there was that much of a difference before. And with the 2300 it's become a case of changing ICs to accommodate a tube and vice versa. I didn't have that hard, bright sound from the Hero with the KC, using the same Mullards.

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In addition to the JJ tubes I also purchased two pairs of Transparent Plus interconnect, which replaced Kimber Hero on my BD player and on my SACD player, my main sources. Hero ICs remain on other sources.

With this combination, I will say that my concern about the light low end and lack of dynamics with the 2300 relative to its SS predecessor has disappeared pretty much. I also replaced the Aurora 5.2 PC with an Electra 7 PC, which has made a subtle difference as well (a mild surprise, yet not totally unexpected). The sound is smoother overall on the main sources and most enjoyable. Listening to the Berliner Philharmoniker on Pictures at an Exhibition or Yes go through Heart of the Sunrise (BD and DVD respectively) is ample evidence my setup is in good shape sound-wise. I haven't tried my other sources yet (LP, LD, tuner) but should. I'd say my blu-ray gets the most play, followed by SACD, tuner, LP, and LD in that order.

As far as dynamics, would I have felt the need to make these changes with a C48 or C50 solid-state preamp? I don't know, but I don't think so. However, I like what I hear. I think it a good idea to move on to play less familiar material, or familiar material that hasn't been played in a while. If any of that doesn't sound right, well . . .