French_fries: I figured I might help clarify things a bit.
The darTZeel preamplifier comes as it does, with phonostage because most people who use darTZeel equipment also have a vinyl rig in their systems. Reality is that if darTZeel made a separate phonostage and a separate linestage the set would be quite a bit more costly for those who wanted to use vinyl. Think of the added expense of the extra chassis, power supply, etc.
Also the phono section is relatively inexpensive to incorporate once the linestage and it's chassis and power supply are already built. Simply, you are just adding the boards and connectors that are necessary for those inputs.
As the distributor, how I wanted the preamplifiers configured was my call. I looked at the cost of with and without phonostage and considered how many customers I know use vinyl and I still feel that the correct choice was made.
As far as your statement: "perhaps way to much ink is being spilled about them while other companies are making components that are just as good...hell, you could buy an old pass aleph amplifier and go nuts over how tubelike it sounds (couldn't you??)"
That statement would most probably be much different if you actually heard the darTZeel amp and preamp with your VR9's. :)
All the best to you!
Jonathan Tinn
Blue Light Audio
Proud Distributor of darTZeel
The darTZeel preamplifier comes as it does, with phonostage because most people who use darTZeel equipment also have a vinyl rig in their systems. Reality is that if darTZeel made a separate phonostage and a separate linestage the set would be quite a bit more costly for those who wanted to use vinyl. Think of the added expense of the extra chassis, power supply, etc.
Also the phono section is relatively inexpensive to incorporate once the linestage and it's chassis and power supply are already built. Simply, you are just adding the boards and connectors that are necessary for those inputs.
As the distributor, how I wanted the preamplifiers configured was my call. I looked at the cost of with and without phonostage and considered how many customers I know use vinyl and I still feel that the correct choice was made.
As far as your statement: "perhaps way to much ink is being spilled about them while other companies are making components that are just as good...hell, you could buy an old pass aleph amplifier and go nuts over how tubelike it sounds (couldn't you??)"
That statement would most probably be much different if you actually heard the darTZeel amp and preamp with your VR9's. :)
All the best to you!
Jonathan Tinn
Blue Light Audio
Proud Distributor of darTZeel