Review: Quicksilver Line Tube preamp

Category: Preamps

My listening tastes run the field. My test CD's include:

Rose Consort of Viols *Purcell's Fantazias*
Hogwood * Beethoven's 3rd Symphony*
Coltrane *Ole*
Hayden et al *Etudes*
Aceton *York Blvd.*
Tom Petty *She's the One*
Jayhawks *Sound of Lies*

Most important things: image depth and breadth, full spectrum of tones with nothing dominating unless it's in the recording, consistency at various volumes, able to reproduce instrumental textures, e.g. reverb, string plucks, etc.

Worst: Boomy bass.

I had the Quicksilver for a year, replacing the Bryston, replaced it with the MF.

Predictably, the Quicksilver brought marvelous mids and silky highs, e.g. the viols were excruciatingly resonant and Coltrane's soprano sax full of feeling. For some reasons, not as nuanced with background vocals, e.g. Jayhaws many parts, as the SF. Image depth was good though not as good as with the Bryston or the MF. Image breadth was fine but again not as good as the Bryston or the MF; Gerri Allen's piano a bit scrunched, maybe, on "Lonely Woman." Handled the lows better than the Sonic Frontiers, e.g. the two basses on "Ole" or the focused bass parts on "York Blvd," and offered richer though not tighter lows than the Bryston, although the MF wins the race here on both scores. It brought the stage forward a bit, bringing dynamism to the system on both the Beethoven and the Petty (compared to the SF, Bryston, and the MF). Overall I preferred it to the SF and the Bryston, but preferred the MF to all three.

My only complaint with the Quicksilver is that it did not handle loud loads well enough for those times when I really want to rock out, i.e. complex passages lost resolution, like in the distinct layers in the Petty recording. Nothing I've owned or heard could touch the mids on it, however.

If money were no object, I would keep on looking, but that's part of the problem, isn't it, even if money is an object?

Associated gear
Magnepan IIIA; Bryston 4bst; Arcam Alpha 9; BEL IC's; R Gray power conditioner; Yamaha CT-7000 tuner; Tara Labs RSC Prime 5000 Sp. wire

Similar products
Bryston BP-20, Sonic Frontiers SFL-1, Musical Fidelity A3cr