Hi,
I had the Clarity and can say all I had was trouble with it. Could be a fluke? I don't know but I returned it for a full refund including shipping.
Highlights of the problems are as follows:
1: Cold solder joints on the volume PCB
2: Stains/dings on the casing
3: Could not make the phono work with my Benz Micro M2 (0.8mV) due to excessive hissing. Tried NOS Tele. and Amperex still to hissy. Even used the line gain switch in different positions (internal) with no luck. My tubes are tested for low noise/microphonics and are quite in my other phono (hi gain) preamp.
4: Mute only worked on remote. The rear remote cover needed to be pulled out slightly to make it work (internal short?). I do believe someone knew about this problem because the rear cover screws where not screwed in all the way. Once I screwed them in ( I thought the battery was located here) it do not work at all.
5: I microphonic 12AT7 tube (it would ring everytime I switched inputs, for about 1 second) and one 12AX7 tube half was below minimum gm on my Hickock 752 tester.
There are other issues as well (Manual was for Doge 8, no description regarding gain switch, different caps then shown on web site, ground for phono on opposite side of phono RCA jacks (~8" away), took over a month to get my refund by check (I paid by credit card), charged credit card before shipping).
And believe it or not I still want one since I hear so much good news about them. But I think I will hold off for now.
Alx
I had the Clarity and can say all I had was trouble with it. Could be a fluke? I don't know but I returned it for a full refund including shipping.
Highlights of the problems are as follows:
1: Cold solder joints on the volume PCB
2: Stains/dings on the casing
3: Could not make the phono work with my Benz Micro M2 (0.8mV) due to excessive hissing. Tried NOS Tele. and Amperex still to hissy. Even used the line gain switch in different positions (internal) with no luck. My tubes are tested for low noise/microphonics and are quite in my other phono (hi gain) preamp.
4: Mute only worked on remote. The rear remote cover needed to be pulled out slightly to make it work (internal short?). I do believe someone knew about this problem because the rear cover screws where not screwed in all the way. Once I screwed them in ( I thought the battery was located here) it do not work at all.
5: I microphonic 12AT7 tube (it would ring everytime I switched inputs, for about 1 second) and one 12AX7 tube half was below minimum gm on my Hickock 752 tester.
There are other issues as well (Manual was for Doge 8, no description regarding gain switch, different caps then shown on web site, ground for phono on opposite side of phono RCA jacks (~8" away), took over a month to get my refund by check (I paid by credit card), charged credit card before shipping).
And believe it or not I still want one since I hear so much good news about them. But I think I will hold off for now.
Alx