If you are enjoying a VTA tube amp and are feeding it with "da best" solid state preamp, you are missing half the party. By all means, if you can steal a few bux out of the lunch jar, you are in for a huge and very pleasant surprise lashing a Mottram pre-amp into the mix. Roy Mottram designs the finest line and phono pre-amps on the planet. His kits are over my head; he gives you a box of parts and a schematic and expects not to be talking to an idiot on the other end. I was intrigued. After a little haggling and beggaring over the summer months I now posses Roy's superlative SP-13 line pre-amp and PH-15 phono preamp. They were supposed to come in just one box, but Roy was not happy with the results he was getting on his test bench, so he proposed an alternative (which actually SAVED me money; a separate PH-15 box).
After spending a part of this summer building the M-125 monoblocks and realizing the limits of my eyesight and skills, I was in no mood to tackle another kit, and I needed the reloading bench back for hunting season.. .
Enter Troy Madden, recommended by Roy and by Bob Latino. Troy could teach McIntosh a few things about elegant wiring.But electric aesthetics don't carry the day: Sound does. The SP-13 has the feel (without the blue lights) of a Mac C-28, except for that warm tube thing . . . and the recovery of heretofore unheard nuances from some of my 40-year-old vinyl through the PH-15 has blown me away. Troy built both my preamps and his work is nonpariel, and is reasonable. He built the SP-13 for $300 and upgraded some components. By all mwans, if you're daunted by a building a kit to perfect specs, he's your guy.
No, this is not a paid endorsement. It is a thank-you to Roy and to Troy (and Bob, who started this all) for turning my living room into a concert hall.
As Roy emailed me today: "it's real, tubes sound better than whatever you had before !!" And I had some of John Bedeini's very finest.
Can'tgo wrong with these guys, and thank-you to all.
Cheerio
The silver guy,
David
After spending a part of this summer building the M-125 monoblocks and realizing the limits of my eyesight and skills, I was in no mood to tackle another kit, and I needed the reloading bench back for hunting season.. .
Enter Troy Madden, recommended by Roy and by Bob Latino. Troy could teach McIntosh a few things about elegant wiring.But electric aesthetics don't carry the day: Sound does. The SP-13 has the feel (without the blue lights) of a Mac C-28, except for that warm tube thing . . . and the recovery of heretofore unheard nuances from some of my 40-year-old vinyl through the PH-15 has blown me away. Troy built both my preamps and his work is nonpariel, and is reasonable. He built the SP-13 for $300 and upgraded some components. By all mwans, if you're daunted by a building a kit to perfect specs, he's your guy.
No, this is not a paid endorsement. It is a thank-you to Roy and to Troy (and Bob, who started this all) for turning my living room into a concert hall.
As Roy emailed me today: "it's real, tubes sound better than whatever you had before !!" And I had some of John Bedeini's very finest.
Can'tgo wrong with these guys, and thank-you to all.
Cheerio
The silver guy,
David