Compare: Modwright LS 36.5 & Audio Research LS26

Dan makes a separate, standalone tubed phono stage, the SWP 9.0SE, which you could use in conjunction with the 36.5 for your vinyl. I have no direct experience with that piece. I'd concur with Rydenfan regarding the 36.5 - superb resolution, linear, fast, and uncolored. The only other pre I've had that provided as black a background was a passive pre (I much prefer the Modwright for putting meat on the bones). If you are looking for a tubey sound, look elsewhere. I'd describe Dan's pre very clean and pure. Sorry, no experience with the ARC Ref 3 to compare.

Whoops, obviously I missed your response as it had not been posted as I wrote mine. Also, I missed that you were considering an LS26 and not a Ref 3 - still, no experience there either. The only ARC piece I've owned is a GNS modified LS2B, which only shared what I'd the same uncolored and neutral character with the 36.5, but that's where the resemblance ends. The ARC I owned could not hold a candle to the resolution and remarkable spatial soundstage the 36.5 renders (I forgot to mention that - it is definitely one of the 36.5 strong qualities).

Just give'em a link. $6500. No relation to the seller whatsoever. Good luck.

Jwarmbrand said:

This is my favorite preamp and I have a friend who now owns one and is also smitten over the sound. He has owned many preamps over the years, including the Modwright 36.5 - the Isabella is so far his favorite by far as well.

Red Wine Audio HAS to be one of your favorites since it's literally all you've deemed worthy to post about since joining Audiogon one year ago. You have one thread initiated yourself(about the Isabella) and 14 answers in other to other threads - every single one of your 14 responses over the course of a year recommends a Red Wine Audio product...without exception. You have made no posts here that do not contain some recommendation of a Red Wine Audio product...not one...in 12 months. You must be Vinnie's biggest fan!!!! :-)

I am not questioning that Vinnie makes fine products, and that the Isabella is worth this poster's consideration, but I find your record of posts here....well, also worth consideration.

Vinnie makes fine sounding products and has given me the best customer service and i feel good supporting RWA and most of all I enjoy listening. I do not mean for my posts to bother you.

Thanks for clarifying that, Jeff. No, your posts do not 'bother' me on face value, but I do find it noteworthy and extraordinary that in a year of posting here that is the only subject you've chosen to post about to the exclusion of the rest of the chain of components in a system, and of music itself, and, in fact, of anything else at all outside of RWA. Why it's downright odd to be that myopic about ones devotion to a company, IMO. In addition you've never asked any questions at all - only made statements of support for RWA. I just thought others reading your posts might want to take that into account and put it into perspective - they can form their own opinions, of course. Perhaps others won't feel as I do, but I'd consider your participation here to resemble that of a shill for RWA. As I said, I'm sure Vinnie's gear can speak for itself, and I'm not suggesting anyone curb their enthusiasm for anything, but, to be honest, I find your contributions highly suspect simply from your record. I've had some correspondence with Vinnie years ago and he seemed like a fine fellow with a passion for what he's doing. I, of course, don't know you from Adam, so I only have your contributions and your record here to go on. Someone else can chime in with an opinion, but those are my impressions. At the very least, I certainly consider your record of contributions here noteworthy. If you are not a shill, well, perhaps Vinnie should consider putting you on the payroll :-) I always try to get familiar with folks posting here through their previous contributions whenever considering what they have to say. There are many in the community I've come to respect from their contributions and my connections to what they have to say and recommend, their musical preferences, comments, questions, etc. It's a great feature of a forum like this to be able to look back to the archives to become familiar with where someone is coming from. Apologies, to Jdolgin for hijacking the thread, but I thought I should mention this when I looked at where you were coming from.

Rydenfan - Point taken. Which tubes are you running in your 36.5? I've only tried the stock 6h30's - are your using the supertube version and if so, is it worth the high cost? I did find replacing the rectifier with an NOS Mullard gave me some added resolution, but I haven't done much back and forth there.

You must replace the stock 6H30's with the 6H30 DR's! This is a no-brainer and will make a profound impact, especially in bass.

Interesting. As I understand it the DR's are the military-spec'd version of the 6H30 - can you elaborate on the differences between the stock version? Is there a difference in materials and or construction of the tube, or are they just culled from stock 6H30's using higher standards of tolerances? Which amp(s) are you using? I'm using Quicksilver 300B SET mono amps in a relatively small-midsize room in nearfield. Do you have a good resource for DR's? I know Conus sells'em.

...Good detective work on your part,...

I honestly was not intending to be Columbo or anything like that. If I don't know where someone is coming from when they make claims or recommendations here I routinely take a quick peak at things they've said in the past to get some sense of where they're coming from, what their preferences are, what kind of music they listen to, etc. There are so many different varieties and flavors of preferences here and I do believe (contrary to some) that all of this stuff is entirely subjective. There is no 'right' answer, or 'best' component/system. The only thing most of us know about each other are these words on a screen. I'm not convinced as to whether or not Jwarmbrand is a shill or not, but he certainly could be Vinnie's poster boy. Whether he is or not really doesn't matter one wit to me. Based on his record of posts here I'm left with no idea where he's coming from, nor what his experience is beyond the glory of RWA and various word of mouth testimonies from so many friends who also happen to prefer RWA over the various components they've compared it to. To me this just strikes as rhetoric and I am left with no sense of who this poster is or where he's coming from (shill or not). If he does have no interest, beyond saving all of us from the mediocrity of products not conceived and built by RWA, I guess my suggestion would be that he share more of himself and his experience than does the myopic posts he's thus far made here. In doing so he might paint a clearer picture of where he's coming from and give others a sense of perspective. Some may take him more seriously with that to go on. As it is he just occurs to me, at best, like a skipping record. Just my opinion...