Battery Powered Preamps


I notice that the more expensive preamps get within a line, or in general, the more complexity and expense seems ot be applied to the power supply and regualtion; sometimes with the addition of a second box for the power supply.

I conclude power supply is important. If this is so, why not go the simpler route of battery power for pure DC? My Dodd Battery Pre works very well indeed (for context -I've owned CAT, Lamm, ARC, Joule, Placette Active, Atma-sphere (still own), Bent TAP). Am I missing something, or doesn't battery power just make the most sense for a preamp - off the grid and all that? Seem much simpler than most highend approaches, and much less expensive to implement.
pubul57

Showing 2 responses by cruz123

Yep, I agree. I have been experimenting with battery power as of late, with great success. In addition to the Dodd (which is marvelous), I also have a Musical Surroundings Nova Phenomena phono stage that is also battery powered. It seems that few would argue that clean AC is one of the biggest hurdles to achieving top quality sound. It makes sense to me to avoid the issue altogether whenever possible.
While I'm not an engineer, i believe you can call the Dodd a minimalist tube design in that it only employees two 6922 variety tubes and, in fact, only one of the twin triodes in each tube is employed at a time. In other words, you could burn the tubes for say 10,000 hours and then swap their positions and go another 10,000 hours. Certainly, this is a cool benefit given the cost of NOS tubes. (Please don't ask me how this works, I'm just referencing what I've read in reviews :).