Ngjockey, could you elaborate on balanced AC? What is that?
My first foray into a Sonic Frontiers Line 2 began alittle less than stellar as well, which i briefly described in a previous posting. BUT.......my recent discovery in how I accidentally connected it to the two pairs of inputs on my Parasound A21 amp with BOTH RCA (Syn. Res.) and XLR (Audio Metallurgy) cables have yield such an open, airy and deep soundstage, it was the moment I decided to keep this preamp as opposed to sell it. It might not have the comparative wamrth of a CJ or Audio Research, but for the type of music I listen to (technical metal/prog rock), its a small trade-off for the amount of detail and instrument placement/depth that this preamp extracs from the music (thanks to its black background). And I haven't done the Parts ConneXion upgrade to this yet. I will be trying that later this year, just to see what more this can do. I am curious to hear what tubes people have had luck with on their SF preamps.
My first foray into a Sonic Frontiers Line 2 began alittle less than stellar as well, which i briefly described in a previous posting. BUT.......my recent discovery in how I accidentally connected it to the two pairs of inputs on my Parasound A21 amp with BOTH RCA (Syn. Res.) and XLR (Audio Metallurgy) cables have yield such an open, airy and deep soundstage, it was the moment I decided to keep this preamp as opposed to sell it. It might not have the comparative wamrth of a CJ or Audio Research, but for the type of music I listen to (technical metal/prog rock), its a small trade-off for the amount of detail and instrument placement/depth that this preamp extracs from the music (thanks to its black background). And I haven't done the Parts ConneXion upgrade to this yet. I will be trying that later this year, just to see what more this can do. I am curious to hear what tubes people have had luck with on their SF preamps.