Cary Audio SLP-98*
(remote)
https://www.caryaudio.com/products/slp-98/
Erhard-Audio Ella
(n/a remote) - worth mentioning though
http://www.erhard-audio.com/Ella.html
Showing 5 responses by decooney
Keep in mind really-really good 6SN7 tubes are becoming harder to find, just went through this past few years trying several new, multiple NOS collections, adding a few more NOS. Then, bought some boutique 6SN7s no longer made. If you do go with a 6SN7 based preamp, and must buy new tubes, try the Sophia Electric Blue - not cheap but nice. Looking around you see a bit of a paradigm shift by some preamp and amp designers now leaning back to 12AU7, 12AT7s for better tube availability. re: SLP-98*, while It’s well above your price point for a new one, keep any eye out for a good used one. A good friend who bought my prior tube amplifier also demo’d the XA-25 with is SLP-98 and liked it a lot. Has an outboard transformer and decent volume control for a remote preamp. Also, has two sets of pre-outs, kinda rare. I spoke with Nelson a year ago and he told me personally that he has several customers running the SLP-98 with his XA amps, fwiw. I won’t give up my 6SN7 based preamp for a long time, but I’ve managed to hoard away multiple quads of NOS and new boutique 6SN7s as backup just in case - the majority of the new re-issue and new limited production 6SN7s just did not cut it for me. Your results may vary... |
"Bad Boys" have been expensive for a long time, so I get that. NOS Chrome Domes and GEs aren’t so expensive at all (yet) and sound great." True. One can find lower cost tubes. As long as one buys from a reputable tube dealer with good test equipment, it helps. Some noisey tubes out there being sold as matched pair NOS too on auctions. Have you seen what some "good" testing tubes look like on a curve tracer, looking for matched triodes within each tube? My tube sources pass and sell them off as non-matched, non-NOS, lower grade with that disclaimer regardless of brand. Others will say, if it works use it, okay, hope they don’t pay too much for them. Finding good ones that truly test as NOS and balanced triodes on each side of the tube is getting to be harder to find. Best of luck. |
@wolf_garcia Just two years ago I bought multiple matched quads of really good NOS Sylvania Black Long Plate plate 3-hole 6SN7GTB tubes for $200-225 a quad. Sure, there are sources, including Viva below, 3x the price now days. Sure, GEs are available for notably less cost. ------------------------------------------------ Tests NOS Matched Quad (4x) Sylvania 6SN7GT Black 3 Rivet T Bad Boy Plate Tubes Sylvania $617.35 |
Any UPDATES from anyone here on Agon over the past 2 years...??? -checking for a friend with solid state and tube amps considering a 6SN7 preamp. Boutique hand made point-to-point designer-builders too, if you know of them! 6SN7 / 6SL7 Preamps, by:
Thanks in advance for sharing your story if you have 6SN7 preamp updates? |