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Rare find Blowtorch Audio Preamp

Went to one of my local dealers today to buy some used records and on the used audio shelf was a Blowtorch Audio Preamp in excellent condition. This was built by 3 people back around 1997 by John Curl, Carl Thompson and Bob Crump. John designed the circuit and power supply. Carl Thompson created the optimal board and Bob Crump selected the parts. The Preamp and power supply were housed in billets os Aero-Space grade aluminum. Some build features include teflon insulated silver wire. A fully symmetrical circuit. Gold plated circuit boards. Toshiba NOS Jefets and Hitachi NOS Mosfets. It's all hand soldered w/silver solder.. It has 2 separate volume controls and a phase reversal switch. John Curl called this preamp his finest effort. New in 1997 it was $20,000. The production number on the unit was 0004. Dopey me I forgot to ask the price. Very impressive and rare.
luxmancl38

Showing 6 responses by geoffkait

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geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
“The circuit design by John Curl with layout by Carl Thompson and final assembly/burnin/voicing by Bob Crump is a storybook of the best parts working in the simplest symmetrical, direct-coupled configuration. PC boards are teflon, as are the capacitors. It takes three months to build one unit. If you think the price is high, do the math: three guys divide the profits of about $7500 per unit. 90 days work is required. That figures out to $833 per man per month, below-poverty-line wages. There are no dealers, no dealer pricing, no phony discounts. You want one, call Bob Crump at 713-721-4756 and send all the dough in advance, then wait. You'll hear from Bob eventually.”

>>>>>>Well, actually you won’t hear from Bob Crump since he passed away around 15 years ago.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Same general family. Extremely low noise, very high channel separation and realistic sounding.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Uh, your friend’s system must have had some problems, I’ve heard the Blowtorch on really good systems for the duration of two CES. That’s what, six days? 🤗
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geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Artificial atoms did him in? I could believe antimatter. 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Hard to believe it was 14 years ago. RIP. At least he got to hear the Intelligent Chip in Vegas that year 2005, which I demo’d for him and Curl. 🤗
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
I was in CES 2001 with Curl and Crump and the Blowtorch and their Bar B Q amp. I isolated the Blowtorch on my sub Hertz Nimbus platform. 🤗 The next year Curl debuted his JC-1s, scaled down Bar B Qs, at CES; I isolated four count em JC-1s on Prometheans in a biamped Wisdom Audio Speaker system. Also Number Cruncher DAC. The high started its downward spiral this year. 😬

“This room used the DDR Digital System Prototype ($12,500) and the CTC Blowtorch Line stage preamp ($12,500). The digital front end and preamp sat on a unique stand using a floating counter weight from Machina Dynamica. The Wisdom Audio M-50 loudspeakers ($23,500) were driven by four of the previously mentioned Parasound JC-1 amps ($3,000 each). Cables and interconnects were all from TG Audio.”
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