Anyone famaliar with the manufacturer,and in particular this pre amp.The credentials and testimonials seem impressive.The advertised 10 day audition is appealing.
Hi guys, Not to take this thread in a different direction,I just want to canvass opinions on Josephs new product,the RTS coupler. Flip me a pm if you're so inclined.Enjoy the holiday weekend.
Glad your back in music again Sherod the cold solder joint strikes again. Was a common problem with Westinghouse Elevator controllers the old relay type every connection was soldered a real nightmare for troubleshooting.
Those early 60s CCAs sound great in our favorite line stage but for a lot lower price the cryoed 6h23s are a bargain. You get most of what the CCA delivers not quite the micro detail but most all else. Looking at them its hard to tell the difference in them and a Siemans E88CC tube. Our Russian friends seem to have coped that fine Siemans tube.
Thats weird for sure Sherod. I m sure you checked both of those switches for continuity with a meter strange that the new switch was bad. I can understand yours going bad with all of the use it has. I would unplug the unit and use the ohms setting on a meter to see where the problem lies.
I was being conservative on those hours and this time with the nos ccas i m marking the time in a log.
I wish either Joseph or Victor would respond to some of these technical questions. I think they are hesitant in posting for fear of the moderators deleting this thread. I don't know how many hours my original cca had on them, but I'm guessing that they had quite a bit more than 2000 hours. I have a new problem now with my preamp. Last week, before I went to bed, I turned the system off, including my preamp, which is the standard evening procedure after listening. The next morning the preamp was on. I knew I had turned the switch to off and sure enough it was off, yet the preamp stayed on. I had to unplug it to turn it off. I emailed Joseph and he told me either a switch wire was shorted or the switch went bad. He sent me a new switch and I went ahead and changed out the wiring, but guess what? new switch doesn't work. Same problem. I tried to call Joseph, but apparently he doesn't return calls on the weekend.
Sherod when i checked my CCAs triode 1 tested ok on all 4 tubes but triode 2 was low on all 4 tubes i dont know about circuitry but i m guessing Joseph is leaning on the 2nd triode side of the tube. I m guessing i had over 2000hrs on them and there slow decay does lead to your ears adjusting to sound thats not as good IMO. The CCAs i was using were of the 70s version and i was able to bite the bullet and pick up 2 here on the Gon from the early 60s etching and all. Yes they sound fantastic in slots 1&3 using 70s CCAs in 2&4. I wonder if Josephs upgrade will have any effect on the drain of the 2nd triode.
My AH 2.0 unit arrived back in good condition via Fed Ex from the works upgrade to 2.2 status (Power supply, Vishays, Clarity caps, g upgrade, fuse holder and tuning fuse.) As always Victor and Joseph were a delight to deal with. Here is a first impression report. Context: I had avoided the upgrade for a long time due to my years of satisfaction with the 2.0. In my opinion the 2.0 is an excellent unit with departures from live music mostly benignly ommissive versus distorted. Both the old and the new units were set up on Hyperion Magnetic decouplers and mass loaded.
Well. I am thrilled with the upgrade even before break in is complete. The overall impression is that whereas the 2.0 eloquently spoke the music, the upgraded unit beautifully signs the music. Yet nothing is softened that should be sharp or edgy. There is distinct improvement in many areas and no downside that I can hear.
I notice a much improved three dimensionality to the sound stage, particularly front to back layering, less congealedness in complex passages and ability to sense small movements. For example with someone in the background clapping you can sense the swing in their body to the beat. The lower bass is more present and weighty without being louder or boomy. The most wonderful thing is an enhancement in the decay of notes: more natural, going on forever, second and third order harmonics more organically present and beautifully interacting with the leading edge of the next note with all timbral differences remaining intact through such transitions as one note faded and another begins.
I find myself lifted in spirit and heart while listening and eagerly wanting to hear all my recordings once again not so much for increase detail as for increased beauty, emotional impact and naturalness. Thanks to all on the thread that experimented where the meek to not tread to suggest many of these improvements to Joseph.
Sherod I'll be interested in the test results of old versus new. There seems to be quite a variety in sound between cca's - your new ones appear to be some of the great ones, congratulations.
Well, I finally found a deal on a tube tester on Ebay. It should arrive soon. In the meantime, I changed out my Siemens cca in location 1 and 3 with nos Siemens cca and the sound is so much more present and alive. I'm anxious to see what my old ones read at.
I wish i would have had better luck with my CCAs. I had them tested and 3 of the 4 were not even close. One of the 4 is acceptable barely. I ve had those in since early 08 and play a lot of music daily. Talking to Heinz he was surprised that my tubes had gone down that low in that amount of time. For now i m using 6H23 cryoed and for new they aint bad. I have about 50hrs now and music is sounding real nice. After day by day of listening i guess our brain gets accustomed to what we are hearing. I knew at the end that something was going because i know my system can sound better that it was. So if you havent checked those tubes lately you may be in for a surprise.
Joe, That's good to know. I've often wondered how easy or hard the preamp was on tubes. I'll rest easier now until I can get my own tubes checked. I just missed out on a tube tester on Ebay, but still enjoying the music. (o:
Sherod - I tested my cca's as I took my AH unit part for shipping for upgrades this week. On my B&K 606 tester scores from 65 to 120 are Good. When the cca's were inserted in the AH in April of 2007, they averaged a score of 105. Now over three years later they are reading and average of 102.8. So it looks like we still have much life left on the tubes and the AH appears to be exceptionally easy on them. Joe
Joseph has been spending a lot of time improving his interconnects and power cord offerings. On Friday, when I purchased a digital cable from him, I asked about the power amplifiers.
He has been listening to the 845 amplifier in his system for many weeks now. He is playing with the other tubes in the 845 complement. I didn't get definite information; I did not listen to 845 amp when I saw him that day. Rather, he demonstrated the improvement in the digital cable, which led to the purchase I mentioned above.
My impression is that he is pleased by the 845 amplifier but not satisfied with the development yet. The other two power amps use EL 34 and 811 power tubes, respectively. The EL34 development work is finished. Joseph indicates that he does not plan to make any more changes to it. The 811 power amp is the furthest from completion. My impression is that Joseph will finish the 845 before returning to the 811.
I don't know when Joseph will offer to sell his power amplifiers.
I don't pay any more attention to the motherhood statement "sounds better than pre amps costing several thousand dollars more" than I do "he's the best man for the job" without disclosing who the other candidates were. No Sherod I did not sell my original AH,it was a second unit that I had acquired for comparison purposes.I have since sold that unit to a member who has the AH DAC and he's loving it. Does anyone have any more information on Josephs' development of an amplifier line?
My preamp is still as it was. Current output caps are Duelund VSF coppers. I highly recommend the Claritycap MR for the outputs. I still have a back-up pair I'm hanging on to.
Jamesgarvin, I understand that it would help you form a point of reference had the reviewer made specific comparisons, but they didn't. Maybe you should take Audio Horizons up on their free trial offer and report back on your impressions of how their preamp compares with those you have heard?
But what are those pieces which "costs several thousands more?" And why are they not mentioned in the review? I am not suggesting the review is wrong, but it certainly helps his credibility, the consumer's pool of information, to write "the Audio Horizons pre-amp sounded like.....compared to the .....preamp which I have heard in my system for ....months/years. Overall, I liked ......preamp better."
Rather than ask me why I don't contact the reviewer to ask him to tell me what should be, but is not, contained in the review, perhaps you can provide me reasons the information is not is not in the review in the first place?
Because its not my job to contact the reviewer and ask him what he thought "between the lines." Its the reviewers job to write an informative review that includes comparisons with other similarly priced components. When those comparisons are not in the review I begin to think nasty thoughts like the reviewer did not want to offend the manufacturer of the previously prized piece. Why should I ask him for something he should have included in the review in the first place?
Curiously missing from the latest review was any comparison to any other pre-amp, despite the fact the reviewer had two EAR pre-amps in his system. Given the price point of the EAR pre-amps, and the piece under review, a direct comparison would have been appropriate. I understand the reviewer purchased the unit, but people buy components for different reasons, not all to replace an existing piece. A comparison would have been helpful, and was curiously missing.
Here's a tip, after reading in the last review that mass loading was helpful, I put three heavy marble bookends on top of my AH2.0, which sits on top of three Hyperion Magnetic floater discs. It worked! The sound is more relaxed,natural, and focused. After years of satisfaction, and a bit reluctant to change since I was so pleased already, I am sending in my unit for a full upgrade (power supply, Clarity Caps, Vishay, fuses and fuse holder, Furmen IEC etc. to bring my unit up to the level of a 2.2nBcvg. as always Victor was great at helping me decide. Wish me luck! Joe
It has happened twice! Positive-Feedback has published a second review of the Audio Horizons TP2.2 preamplifier.
Something else happened twice! Both reviewers liked the preamplifier so much that they bought it.
I think the reviews are interesting because they come at the preamp from different perspectives. The review published last month focused on the engineering qualities of the preamp. The review this month focuses on the user experience.
Here is the link to the latest review: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue50/audio_horizons.htm
It's interesting to me to note that recent comments on this thread concern tube rolling.
One of the attributes of the TP 2.2 that most enthused the PositiveFeedback reviewer (see my 6/5 post for link) is the responsiveness of the TP 2.2 to tube selection.
Hi guys,it's been awhile.Recently acquired a quad of 6H23 Russian military tubes.Manufactured in a collective factory in Kaluga,not Kahula(joke)they are a drop-in replacement for the 6922 tube.Sonically they are as good as my Siemens ECC88's but do not have the finesse of a CCa.For something different and everyday use they're a perfect fit.
Joe, Yes, I recall us both putting in the cca's. I also turn my preamp off at night and the average daily use is also about 6 hours. They do still sound very good. I'll look into a used, calibrated B&K 606.
Sherod I put in my CCa's about the same time you did, turn the preamp off when not using and have it on about 6 hours per day and the cca's still test very well on my tester and best I can tell no degrading of the sound. I picked up a B&K Model 606 tester for about $100 on ebay in excellent condition at the time I got the cca's and find it perfect for my purposes and easy to use. Hope this helps Joe
I had the privilege of beta testing a new product from Audio Horizons a while back. It is the RTS coupler which has just been listed on Agon last Sunday.
As a long time user of Audio Horizons products (2.0 preamp upgraded to 2.2 and 3.0 DAC upgraded to 3.1) I have always been so impressed with what Joseph and Victor have created. Of course we all know that their customer service is second to none.
I would encourage all of you to go to the ad for the RTS coupler and check it out. I wont reiterate my comments about the product here as they are clearly elucidated in the ad. IMO, it is an amazing product that warrants an audition. I know that I could not be without it (actually I have several in the system).
A review of the new TP 2.2 preamplifier has been published at Positive Feedback Online. Here is the link: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue49/tp2.htm
The review is very favorable. Here is the thesis of it.
"I've not come across a product that challenges my notion of what one is paying for, and what one is paying extra for. And let me cut to the chase: this may be the best value in all of high-end audio."
Has anyone who has had an early 2.0 model had to change out the four E88cc tubes yet? Mine are still original Siemens Cca and I don't have a clue how many hours I have on them. I'm curious what to listen for when the tubes are showing their age and need replaced. I'm trying to get the most out of my tubes because they are rare NOS and expensive.
I just installed the Hifi-tuning fuse on the power supply board. Already I hear I nice improvement with cleaner delineation of notes. Music just sounds more natural. Excellent for just a $40.00 investment. By the way, I noticed that Victor is selling a like-new 2.2 preamp for someone who lost their job. It is at a bargain price for someone who wants to save almost 50% off retail.
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