Amp/Preamp Asylum

Posted by Luminator (A) on January 06, 2025 at 20:08:12

In Reply to: RE: Independently from you, my experience was similar posted by Mick Wolfe on January 06, 2025 at 09:40:08

In the 1990s, I would frequent San Francisco's Ultimate Sound. In time, you'd recognize other repeat customers. And sometimes, you'd exchange numbers, and invite one another over.

I *think* it was in 1996, when one such customer lived across the Bay in Oakland, somewhere off of Highway 13. I do not recall his name. But I do recall him and his partner having a Rega Planar 3 with Sumiko BPS; CAL Ikon Mk. II CD player; Conrad-Johnson PV-10A preamp; some Adcom power amp, possibly the GFA-545II; Kimber cabling; and a choice of NHT and PSB speakers. Most of these had been purchased from Ultimate Sound.

I don't recall the music, but the three of us were yapping. Because of that, the guy turned the knob of the PV-10A to around 8:30, and he remarked that they had never turned it that high. So it looks Iike we can add the PV-10A to the three CJ preamps you owned, as having not enough volume control range :-)

Ultimate Sound also carried Audible Illusions, which, at the time, was a "local" Bay Area company, at the intersection of 580 and 680. In the late-90s, BART would extend from Bayfair in San Leandro to Dublin/Pleasanton. But anyway, Ultimate Sound just could not sell any Audible Illusions products. The Modulus 3A preamp inconveniently had two volume controls, one for each channel. But, as was the #1 audio problem, the sound was quite loud, even when those pots were around the 7:00 position.

Interestingly, Conrad-Johnson's sister company, Sonographe, made a line-level preamp, called the SC26. This model had a volume control range of a 100db, in half-decibel steps. I'm not sure why this system wasn't incorporated in CJ's own preamps.