Firebottle MM plus - a modest attempt at a review

[myles]

Francois, some other manufacturers should commission you to comment on their equipment. Excellent stuff.

Now, which kidney will fetch £399?

[Frankyc2003]

Many thanks for the review Francois

You do have an eloquence to your writing and it is very interesting that you include details of your music choice.

One minor point to clarify the situation is the MC/MM version is £499 but doesn't need any expensive SUTs.

Alan

Oouuups, sorry Alan…
I will update right now!

[DarrenHW]

Hi Francois, your mailbox is full. Thanks for sending it, will let you know when I receive it (I won't be home tomorrow but should be able to pick it up on Monday) and post my findings.

Cheers!

[Frankyc2003]

Cheers Darren,

Thanks for letting me know.

Best

ps. inbox has been cleared BTW.

[struth]

Francois, some other manufacturers should commission you to comment on their equipment. Excellent stuff.

Now, which kidney will fetch £399?

My Kidney's wouldn't fetch £3.99 except as a curio

[Gazjam]

Doing some mods on my Firebottle today.
Alan was kind enough to send me what I need to boost the gain in the MC stage.
My Dynavector cart outputs only 0.28 Mv so needed to set volume on my amp pretty high.

New valve, couple of resistors jobs a good 'un.
Looking forward to sitting down tonight and playing some vinyl.

Top notch service and ongoing support from Alan.

[Box13]

Many thanks for the review Francois

You do have an eloquence to your writing and it is very interesting that you include details of your music choice.

One minor point to clarify the situation is the MC/MM version is £499 but doesn't need any expensive SUTs.

Alan

I am intrigued sir.
Could you possibly post a series of photographs showing your range of units along with a price guide.
Or could you post a link to your site please?

[Gazjam]

No SUT required as Alan says, my Dynavector cart worked great with it as is, I just wanted some extra gain as the XX2 cart is extremely low output, less than normal.

[Firebottle]

Box I have no site, see http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...e-phono-preamp, particularly posts 6 and 14.

Alan

[Colin Wonfor]

Good evening all,

Since I have been back on this very forum, I have been contacted by a few of its lovely members, and I would like to say thank you everyone for their support.
Among all, Alan (Firebottle) very kindly offered to send me one of his brand new phonostages. I remember fondly reviewing one of his prototypes a long time ago, so I guess it was high time to catch up with an old friend. It was, at a the time reviewed in direct comparison with a Ming Da 2006 MC, a all singing and dancing Chinese valve phonostage. And it did very, very well against it's Far East competitor.

So, the brand new version turned up yesterday at work. Straight from France. It is very well packed and the delivery was super fast and smooth.

Here we have the FIREBOTTLE PLUS MM. It comes with it's small PSU, a dinky plug that goes directly at the back of the unit from your favorite distribution block.

After chatting with Alan, I decided to review a MM version as I don't own a MC cartridge anymore. One could go for the MM/MC version if required. My preference would be to use a MM with a good quality MC step Up transformers to get the best results from a high end MC, but having the choice of both in the same handy box is very attractive.

A modded Lenco GL69 with a Audio Note Arm One and a MM Audio Note IQ3 will be used. And this time it will be penned against the fantastic Tellurium Q Iridium solid state phonostage. Also new in the system is a Silver Night 300B from Audion (vintage 1996). Speakers used are as per usual the lovely Fostex 206E based horn built by Rob (Puffin). Cables are LAT SS-1000 MKII.





What strikes me first is the very high level of craftsmanship involved in this new iteration. Its feels solid (no pun intended), sturdy and very well designed. I have a black finish version, which looks very understated and will feel at home in any rack I believe. High WAF! The back of the unit is very well laid out, simple and efficient.



You will easily find the input, output, ground and power plug. the valve compliment is as follow.



Not your usual 12AX7 then. It probably doesn't make tube rolling so easy, but knowing Alan, I am sure those valves have been chosen for very specific reasons. Anyway, I am pretty sure that one can find multiple variations on those valves supplied.

Well, it's time to fire those lovely bottles isn't it?
I like to give the a bit of warming up prior to any listening....

(to be continued)

Hi Franky,

Your review was fascinating I enjoyed your flow of writing and the fair and truth filled way you wrote it.

Write some more soon please.

It a shame that TQ are not going to make anymore of the Atom, Listen or Phono mini amps.

Best wishes

Col