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In the Forum: Melquiades Amplifier
In the Thread: Valve Preamplifier for Macondo/DSET
Post Subject: My view of the situation.Posted by Romy the Cat on: 8/8/2020
Anthony, I am afraid I do not agree with your assessment of the situation. Let look at what is going on together.
The 10Y preamp is not another league but juts a proper architectural solution for your system configuration. You have a power amp with very complex input, and you need a very current-able preamp to push it through. Most of the preamps are either not powerful enough or juts sonically not good. I have the same power amp and I very much know how it sound what I dive it from frond end. Note that I have more or less powerful front-ends that can push some current, not at the level of a good preamp of cause. When I use to do it, I used between the front-ends and Milq my T-bridge attenuators that maintain constant load impedance but variable output impedance. I do not like how my playback sound with it because with each volume setting it sound very different. Also, it sounds different from source to source. A good preamp stabilizes all of it and a good preamp should make it to sound better, pretty much along the lines that you describe. So, I feel your reaction is just a presents of a good preamp vs driving you playback directly from front ends. At least it is my version of interpreting what you say.
Now, about your 10Y preamp specifically. I am not familiar with the sound of that configuration + you have the autoformer in play. However, I know that all elements at the top of their class performance sound identical: what we note are not the benefits of an element of the chain but the discrepancies the element creates. Your 10Y preamp might be a good and transparent component that rectify the disability of you front end to drive Milq. This is very easy to test. Take an ordinary conventional loudspeaker with an ordinary conventional power amp and drive it from your frond end and from 10Y. You will not see the “another league” situation. The 10Y will be most likely much better but it would be in different way than what you described in case 10Y drives Milq.
I would be very interesting to see your 10Y vs Placette evaluation at the same volume level (this is very critical). I am still a bit skeptical that you have properly functioning Placette as your description of it performance is very much different with what I experience. In my view an active Placette (the older version) operates very much atop of what is possible with preamps. If 10Y is a good pream then it should be very close to what Placette does. It should be different but very close and should not be “another league”. I might be wrong of cause…
About the YO186 in the 10Y preamp. Most likely you will have better and softer bass, in my language “softer bass” is a positive thing. I do not think that YO186 will be able to beat 10Y. It would be very interesting battle but do not forget that 10Y and YO186 have own character of how they react to operation points, power supplies, type of bias and zillion other things. Good lack to spend next year of your life to investigate all of it, I mean nothing negative, I just mean that it all takes time to discover methodologically honestly.
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