The Odyssey

[Mike Adams]

One of the nice/bad things about all the forums is you can see who has bought the very thing you wanted!

I also realized that this pre was a bit of a one off being based on 6H30Pi and other than the steel case very much a Model 2, so once I knew who had it I messaged them to ensure I had first dibs…Well I didn’t have to wait long…

I also had the opportunity to try some other Power amps and this confirmed that I still very much liked the 300b sound. In fact I was shocked when 8w of SE300b provided more extension with the RAs (both bass/treble) than almost everything else I had to hand, including PP 845s…



One of the problems of buying second hand is that you cant pick and chose when it suits you financially, so 3 days after the SJS pre arrived when a Border Patrol P20 came up I went for it!

This had bass but was missing much of what I had heard with the SE300b. I guessed something wasn't quite right, and so it seemed prudent to have it looked at. Once I had the case off it was apparent that a number of components that had been very hot.

I decided to have it overhauled and typically got a bit carried away which ended up with a rebuild most of the audio section. This made a huge difference and now I have a better balance, close to 'right' in my room....