2. amps-preamps
  3. 137268-517

Backert Labs Rhumba preamp

Hello,
I am thinking of going to an active line stage for sometime now. I have a separate thread for that and people have suggested some good choices. The reason for this thread if that, while I have all along said that  don't want tubes in the system, a few have convinced me that I should try tubes in the system, especially with ProAcs.
With that said, I researched a few tube preamps, that have XLR out and the Backert Labs Rhumba is the one that has only 2 tubes, which makes me comfortable to "deal in tubes".

I would like to hear from Backert Labs Rhumba owners who moved from Solid State preamplification to this preamp. What are the differences you heard? Any improvements?

I read a review on the Stevehoffman forum and the user mentioned that there is a "hum" in this preamp. This bothers me and hence I decided to check on this forum, if anyone has experienced this with the Rhumba in their system. One poster on this forum also confirmed the "hiss":
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/backert-preamps-any-users

So I was wondering, if there are any users who have recently purchased this preamp and what is their experience with the hum/hiss issue.

BTW, I blame Ralph of Atma-Sphere, Almarg  and my dealer for making me consider tube amps :-) Can't believe I am creating this thread.

Thanks!
128x128milpai

Showing 1 response by soix

soix
8,853 posts
 
As someone in the same boat as you -- solid state guy looking to add a tubed pre for the first time -- thought I'd chime in FWIW.  My goal is to introduce some of that tube magic into my system with as little or no sense of a loss of transparency or bass control.  The Rhumba is also one of the top three on my list, and given what I've read it's really hard to see going wrong with it.  But the other two on my list are Don Sach's SP14 pre and Ralph's MP3.  The fact that the MP3 does away with coupling capacitors intrigues given my concern about compromised bass.  BTW, there's a very nice, almost new MP3 available now on US Audio Mart that might very well be on its way to me now if I had the scratch. 

Anyway, since we seem to be going down the same road I just thought I'd share what I've been looking at.  Best of luck!
More to discover