@ricky64 , my Makua arrived, and yes the holographic presentation is truly great. All issues addressed and there are major improvements on every performance dimension I can think of over the Tambaqui feeding the Essence directly. I really wasn’t expecting this degree of improvement. And this was right from the first cold power-up of the Makua on Saturday night. It’s early days but I really don’t feel the need to look at other preamps now. Yes, it’s very transparent but as I mentioned before my speakers are warmer and more relaxed, so the sound is very, very easy to listen to for extended periods. The sound is much more dynamic and incisive, but is also very full-bodied, and the images within the soundstage are specifically placed yet fully fleshed out into a natural presentation. And the bass is fantastic too - very energetic, defined and palpable.
I expect the sound and my perceptions to change over the next 4 weeks or so, but right now I feel like I’m getting way more performance than I anticipated. And that performance is in service to the music and not for the sake of performance which is fantastic. I’m not typically one to convince myself that I like something simply because I bought it. More times than not I am more like “ah crap, this wasn’t right….”, even to a fault. But not this time, at least at this point. The gamble seems to have paid off. In musical enjoyment that is; most certainly not financially!