2. amps-preamps
  3. 1077115034

Reference quality line stage?

I'm planning the purchase of the last line stage I'll ever need (as distinct from the last one I'll ever buy...). It's going to be used for two-channel stereo only. It will sit between my Audio Note 4.1x Balanced Signature and a pair of Wavelength Triton Blue monoblocks driving Coincident Total Victory speakers. My opportunities for auditioning units in the price range I'm looking at are severely limited, which is why I'm asking for thoughts here.

My musical tastes run the gamut: orchestral, chamber, jazz, rock, folk, blues, even some alt country. My audio tastes are decidedly single ended triode: I like music that's palpable, fleshy, detailed, open, dynamic, extended and just plain real.

I'm looking for a line stage that's going to give me everything with as little fuss and attention as possible. My mechanical requirements are simple. My minimum configuration would be: single ended, three inputs, one output. I need about 10db of gain. Remote volume control would be nice but not essential. Anything beyond that (balanced operation, remote source selection, tape outputs, HT capability etc.) is OK if it doesn't compromise the fundamental quality of the unit.

The price range I'm looking at is $10K to $15K USD. I have no preference for new or used. The short list at the moment includes the Blowtorch, the VTL 7.5 and the Aesthetix Callisto Signature. I'm a bit hesitant about the Callisto, frankly, because of the number of tubes - it looks to me like there's too much potential for care and feeding problems down the road.

Any thoughts on my three candidates or suggestions for others I should consider are welcome.
gliderguider

Showing 3 responses by sean

sean
6,231 posts
 
If you're considering the Blowtorch, make sure that your sources have a relatively high level of output. From what i can remember, the Blowtorch doesn't have as much gain and you may have a hard time driving an insensitive amp to full ouptut with a weak source or very quiet recording. This would be something to talk to Bob Crump or John Curl about. It is a worthy contender so long as you can meet the above criteria. Sean
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sean
6,231 posts
 
Bob: First of all, i had no idea what the rating of the Blowtorch was in terms of gain.

I based my statements on the interaction between a Blowtorch and an amp rated at 200 / 400 with a factory rated input impedance of 24K. Using a one box CD player as a source, the volume control on the Blowtorch had to be cranked near maximum to obtain "reasonable" spl levels. Even at this volume setting, the sound was not punchy or dynamic. I didn't pass judgment on the Blowtorch in terms of sonics as the rest of the system was not of the same calibre as the Blowtorch itself. Having said that, the lack of gain was apparent in this specific set-up, so i thought that i would pass this information on based on this experience.

While i know that you guys / CTC would bend over backwards to take care of a customer based on past experiences dealing with you, $10K+ is a lot of money to spend on something that could be initially quite disappointing. That's why i suggested talking to either you or John PRIOR to purchasing one of these units to get the low-down. NO offense to you or your product, just trying to be helpful and honest. If i thought it wasn't worthy, i wouldn't have bothered to suggest such things. Hope you and any others interested in a Blowtorch understand where i'm coming from. I was NOT "knocking" the Blowtorch.

Having said that, I appreciate your honesty in terms of clarifying that your product ( like all others ) should be electrically compatible with those connected to it. Many other manufacturers would simply sell a product knowing that it wouldn't work well in a given situation and then tell the customer that they must have a cable based problem. I'm glad that CTC acknowledges component / system diversity and offer a suitable "real world" solution to such problems based on proper engineering. Sean
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sean
6,231 posts
 
Bob: Yes, that was where i heard the Blowtorch. Personally, i didn't think that the room there was phenomenally large or that an amp that was rated at 200 / 400 would be too small to fill the room with sound. Obviously, one would need reasonably efficient speakers to achieve this but i don't think that high spl's in a room that size is out of the question.

Given that the spl level was far from being "loud" at any point in time, and i was sitting very close to the speakers, i have to wonder how much output was actually coming out of the preamp. Given that i am QUITE familiar with the specific make / model of the amp in question, i know that the lack of gain or output didn't have anything to do with it. To be quite honest though, the CD player being used was somewhat on the low side of output. With a gain rating on the Blowtorch of 8 dB's, even a 1 volt signal from the CD player should have resulted in 6+ volts of output capability. Given that the amp has an input sensitivity rating of 1.3 volts through the RCA's and 0.65 volts in balanced mode, we could not understand why the gain control on the Blowtorch had to be "cranked" way up.

As a side note, i can't remember if the Blowtorch was being run in balanced or single-ended mode. The amp in question has an input impedance of 15K per leg as measured to ground in balanced mode compared to a factory rating of 24K with RCA's. I do know that other preamps that i've used with the same make / model of amplifier were able to drive the amp into saturation quite easily, but at the same time, they too required slightly higher volume settings than with some other amps. Sean
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