Originally Posted by
Macca
We had a passive pre bake off at NEBO a few years ago and the modded Goldpoint in this thread was one of the contenders. I thought the power amp in use masked differences a bit but the Goldpoint still stood out as notably different in its presentation. It did sound 'open' but it also lacked a bit of 'oomph' - Ali's Slagel pre sounded similar but didn't lack the 'oomph'. So correcting the problem by modding the Jolida may not be optimal solution.
I recall there being bugger all difference between them, as expected, (not none at all but barely noticeable and I was wondering if I was kidding myself that I could hear any difference really) apart from the Slagle TVC which was noticeably slightly bright and brought out leading edges of plucked guitar etc... which sounded nice (more impressive) but probably not as accurate as the others.
Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)
Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco