Tube Preamp for Dynaco ST 70

*Sonic

What do you think of the Sony Frontier 1? Will it work well with my tube amp? Thnk you for your responses

Good suggestions, Dekay. I would also like to add the MFA Magus to the list. Also, the Counterpoint preamps. They are very good preamps w/ phono sections. The MFA can be had used, of course, for under $600, and sometimes the Counterpoints are seen for under $400. Even though both these companies are out of business, they have repair and upgrade support by the previous owners/distributors. Both of these brands were considered to be some of the best units made at their time, and even now they compete with some fairly high-end stuff. Particularly if you are going analog, these units have great phono sections and will get you a great preamp/phono section for about the price of a mediocre new SS phono section alone. And you won't get a tube phono section new for anywhere near their price. They are very good value for the money spent.

SF: I just popped over to the tube forum @ Audio Asylum and Joe Curcio has a new board (upgrade) for the old Dynaco PAS preamps (a recent thread towards the top of the page). Don't know how much the board is, but this might be something to look into (often see "minty" PAS's on Ebay for well under $200)? You could use it stock and then do the mod later on. Again, if you want a vintage preamp that is.

Two inexpensive, but nice sounding preamps are the Bottlehead Foreplay and the Consonance T-99 (listed in the classifieds). The Foreplay is not "tuby" with the GE 12at7's that came with it, but I like the sound (will probably try Mullards next). The T-99 can be "tubey" if softer 6922 type tubes are used (Mullard/Philips/and some Amperex), or it can be more linear with Siemens/Russian 6h23-EB's or Amperex 7308's. Both preamps use a matched pair of tubes, each, and neither has a phono section.

I own both of these (just listened to the Foreplay last night for the first time). Both have rather high gain (similar to the old Dynaco PAS series) which means that you will rarely go beyond 10:00-10:30 on the volume pot(s) with the Stereo 70, if this makes a difference to you.

The old matching Dynaco preamps sound "foggy" with sloppy bass compared to these modern pieces (I have owned 2 PAS's and five Stereo 70's in the past) , but I think that there are upgrades available for them (if you want to go vintage and have an on board phono section to boot).

The DIY company that offeres the Billie 300B amps kits (can't remember their name off the top of my head) has a preamp kit available that is getting good feedback (they are also coming out with a version that adds a phono section). This tube preamp is tube rectified (the other two mentioned are not) which can be a good thing.

On the way cheap you could build a SS passive volume control yourself. Bob Bundas @ this sight has some good info on these if you do a search. One of these would get you up and running, giving you more time to research something else (or you may end up sticking with the passive).