That kept me thinking for > 24 hours... My tube-stained blood is boiling hot! More and more ideas came up my mind and I just can't stop myself from painting the picture of what it could be... :) Nothing could be more exiciting than this!
This will be the perfect match for my upcoming 300B amp, with the plan of upgrading that to an extreme version as well, named "EXTREMA"! Instead of letting those brain energy go into waste, I shall record it down in this blog. My projects so far are always cost constrained as I and most of my audio buddies live in a real world. :( "Cost no object" phrase always pops up in our mind but none of us could dive into it with our hard earned money. I've been waiting for this call for ages and now it is realized. Way to go mate!
The preamp would be called, "ULTIMA"!
ULTIMA shall have the following features or specifications:
- High input impedances
- Medium + low output impedance outputs
- Ultra wide bandwidth
- Tube based preamp - triodes!
- Tube rectification
- Silver + amorphous transformers
- Cryo-ed parts and chassis
- High quality premium components
An ultimate preamp starts with a good design. You can't go very far the design is crippled in the beginning. Since ULTIMA are designed to drive EXTREMA as well as other power amplifiers, it has to have tonnes of tone but yet not loosing a slightest bit on transparency and neutrality. Sounds difficult isn't it? Well, no worries, Kendo is here to help. :) Let's start cooking!
- Triodes on constant current load - linearity
- Tube rectification - warmth + tone
- Silver transformers + silver wires - extended + smooth highs
- Teflon tube sockets - minimal noise and coloration
- Capacitor instead of transformer coupled - widest bandwidth
- Cryo-ed parts - detail recovery + lower noise floor
- Aluminum, solid and rigid chassis - lower noise floor and vibrations
- Oil + high quality film caps - tone and lower noise floor
- Hand matched components - imaging + soundstaging
- Mains cleaner employment - lower noise floor + dark background
- Amorhpous choke loaded power supply - lower noise floor + detail recovery
- Stepped volume control - imaging + soundstaging
- Input transformer - lower noise floor and detail recovery
- High quality chassis components - minimal coloration and tone pollution
- CMC filtering - lowering noise floor
