audio valve eklipse or aesthetix calypso

The eclipse is great. I own it and tried many press before settling on the Eclipse.

It is not overly tubey, and has nice extension, etc. Arrange a home audition.

Hi Kabaraka, I just replaced my Eklipse with a Concert Fidelity CF-080 which costs $15000.00 more then the Audio Valve piece! I had auditioned scores of preamps, including the Calypso, and found the Eklipse to be better in its sonic performance or at least as good up to $12000.00 units. For details on the Eklipse and what tubes make it "sing" take a look at my Gon review. Hope this helps.

thanks all, I might go with the eklipse since it's about 4000$ here in thailand while the calypso is about 5000$. anyway I'll go for the audition this weekend. Teejay, do you think the eklipse will blow the vtl2.5 away by a large margin? the vtl is quite good in my system which makes me think what can the eklipse do more? I'm just curious

Not too long ago I read Teajay's review of the Audio Valve Eklipse and ended up purchasing one. Its an outstanding very musical pre-amp. I couldn't be happier with my purchase and, not only does the pre-amp deliver the goods sonically, but its also a nice piece of extremely well built eye-candy. To sound its best, the Eklipse needs after-market tubes.

Kabaraka, I would not use the term, "blow away", to describe what would be the difference sonicly between the VTL2.5 and the Eklipse. When I have auditioned the reference VTL linestage compared to the Eklipse, with the right NOS tubes, the Eklipse was more musical and natural sounding to me. Both the linestages and amps that VTL offers have a house sound to me that just not my taste. They remind me of tube versions of Arye SS gear, which do not sound as real to me as other tube and SS pieces from other companies. So, yes I think the Eklipse would bring your system to a higher level, but you really have to audition it to find out what appeals to you.