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Hi Thorsten,

I understand what you are saying and with regard to the particular preamp in question and you may well be right as there is no mention by the manufacturer what brand of autoformers are in use (or if they roll their own).  I am curious about the S&B transformers though.  If I were to explore that avenue are the silver ones truly superior to the copper ones or is the difference slight?  Are there better ones to be had than the S&B?

I am not sure what you mean by stressed out because the music to my ears and my experienced listening friends we found the music to be rather effortless with quite lifelike dynamics (perhaps you think of this as stressed??).  I heard the amps twice now, once with a big pair of Odeon Number 32 horns (96db watt) and this sounded particularly effortless.  This year was with the Living Voice Avatar OBX-R speakers (I think around 90db), which to be honest upon seeing them in the room significantly lowered my expectations.  However, the sound was still surprisingly dynamic with really great tonality.  I also had the sensation of hearing everything from the recording.  I did hear the coloration in the speaker but that it was low is as it should be and didn't detract too significantly from the whole experience.  The strengths I heard: transparency (high resolution as well), tonal correctness, and dynamic contrasts were consistent both years even though the overall "flavor" of the sound was a bit different (probably a result of the speakers).  What speakers did you hear them with?

Its a pity they use an inferior pot in such an expensive preamp.  Of course I didn't have the opportunity to dismantle one to look inside . 

What exactly did you find to not be so remarkable?  What do you pay attention to in particular and ignore.  I tend not to ignore any one aspect of reproduction because I think they are all imortant.  
The biggies I am perhaps most interested in and unwilling to compromise about are:

Tone and harmonic correctness including attack and decay
Transparency and noise floor, meaning that there is no sense of the something putting a veil over the music.
Dynamics (particularly dynamic contrast) and how low a volume sound can be reproduced and still sound life-like
Overall neutrality (meaning no wild swings in frequency response) including coloration from speakers and electronics
Resolution, meaning how easily are instruments separated spatially and tonally in a mix of instruments and how life-like a sound is at low levels in the presence of a bigger sound (eg. a light tap on a ride cymbal coming through in a lifelike manner during a high level trumpet blat). 
Even dispersion of sound at all frequencies or restricted but uniform dispersion.

 

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