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WESTLOWER
19-04-2017, 08:19
AD AUDIO 'SATCHMO' Pre Amplifier
I was asked by another member of this parish to give my thoughts on the new Satchmo Pre Amp from AD Audio.
i am not experienced at this sort of Jazz so bear with me...but here it is.

Built by David Coe ('Juancho' on Wam & AoS) has a Considered and professional approach to his work, knows his Onions and is a very likeable chap.

Impressions:

Digital
Dynamics across all frequencies fill the room in startling beauty.
Bass is full, controlled with such depth in each note no flab or bloat and that lovely wood coming through the notes on Acoustic Bass, you can feel the strings being plucked.
Midrange is so open but with richness and depth, it digs into the tune to extract the beauty in strings and both female and male vocals. Sinatra literally had me in bits on 'Autumn Leaves'...
Strings have richness and extension and seem to go deep into the layers of the music.
Top/treble is so sweet, extremely detailed but not edgy and no rolling off. I can listen for hours..Cymbals have a depth of metal being struck, horns float and fade with such air.
The combined presentation has such an image that the dreaded 'Holographic ' bollocks cliche is an unavoidable description. The dynamics and overall musicality
are quite overwhelming. Each tune becomes an experience and demands your attention and holds your involvement.

Vinyl.
With a combination of the 'Satchmo' and Hashimoto HM7 SUT
The whole presentation is quite Astounding. The music simply
moves you emotionally to the point of paralysis!
Details, emotion, instrument imaging and feeling is a real experience.
The over all Flow to the presentation is beautiful.
Music is so engaging, it demands your attention, even at low volume levels.
Phono stage is very quiet.

A quality feel all around to the unit, nice Italian made case, simple to look at, satisfying feel to the knobs, if you know what I mean..

I must be clear I have NO professional connection with AD Audio and David Coe and have No other incentive than to 'Big Up'
his builds and service.

APOLOGIES FOR LACK OF PICTURES...I AM NOT GOOD AT ATTACHING PICS ON THE FORUM POSTS!
A LINK TO THE IMAGE OF THE UNIT IS BELOW (Contact David Coe for under the Hood Pictures)

The Specifications for all Satchmo Preamplifiers are:

The Satchmo is a very high quality preamplifier that uses an SRPP driver stage.
The circuit design incorporates a high voltage regulator that keeps the voltage to the anodes at the optimum value.
DC filament power helps to create an amplifier with low noise and exceptional sonic qualities.



Frequency response 15 HZ to past 25 K HZ +/- .5db

At 1 volt into a 50K ohm load.

S/N in excess of 90 db at 1 volt.

THD under 0.5% at any frequency.

Maximum output into 50K ohms in excess of 20 volts.

The Satchmo can be designed and built to your very own specification. Options include:

remote control
your choice of attenuator
phono stage
number of inputs /outputs
All Satchmos are hand built using point to point wiring with silver wire in the signal path, Kiwame carbon film resistors, LeClanche or Mundorf coupling capacitors, and JJ802s valves.

The base model with Alps volume control, two outputs and four inputs built in the customised Italian case in the photo costs £1,100

https://adaudio.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/the-satchmo/

http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/ii558/WESTLOWER/pre%20amp_zpspegkky5n.jpg

hifinutt
20-04-2017, 14:20
thanks adam , you have written it up beautifully . glad its sounding good . very good vfm too

WESTLOWER
20-04-2017, 15:45
Thanks Phil!
I don't like spending my corn..but I knew this Pre to be Outstanding value along side Outstanding performance.
it was a no brainer.
Very Glad you liked the review.:)

brucew268
20-04-2017, 16:38
Well you've got us wanting to hear it now!

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

WESTLOWER
20-04-2017, 20:13
Well you've got us wanting to hear it now!

Well I'm in Barnet north london if you want to drop by for a coffee and some tunes..or Dalvid is building
A loner / demo unit. (He sells everyone he builds!) I'm sure he will accommodate
Any demo requests.

AD Audio
27-04-2017, 18:39
Hi All,
Firstly, thanks Adam for that great write up. A few words about the Satchmo pre and phono. The preamp is designed to offer the best possible sound quality at an affordable price as well as offering solid state levels of signal /noise ratio. It also includes the best possible components such as Takman or Kiwame carbon film resistors, JJ valves, Mundorf or Leclanche capacitors and silver signal wiring. In other words, there is nothing worth upgrading as it's all been done!

It is also entirely configurable from a basic line level pre to a top of the line dual mono pre with attenuator. Steps in between include:

1. Remote control volume
2. Shunt or stepped ladder attenuators
3. Dual mono version
4. Three levels of phono stage from budget but great sounding through a mid price offer and the top of the range phono stage (the one Adam's got).

Adam and I hope to hold a bake off at some point where folk can come and hear a couple of the versions, including Adam's, and I'm also busy building my first dem unit, but so far, as Adam says they've all been snapped up.

I also offer the Cannonballs, 50 watt Class A mono blocks using KT150s with no feedback, and switchable between triode and pentode modes and will shortly be offering a valve output stage version of the DDDac. All these will also be on display at the bake off. Do have a look at my Website https://adaudio.wordpress.com for further information or ask any questions!
David

hifinutt
16-06-2018, 15:21
how are things going with the satchmo ? anyone else tried one recently ?

tapid
16-06-2018, 20:14
Is David a fan of Louise A.

AD Audio
23-06-2018, 10:20
I am a fan of Louis A! But wanted to name my products after Jazz Musicians hence Satchmo, Cannonballs, Little Gate etc. Most of my Satchmos have been built for folk who don't participate in Fora-or even live in the UK, some have gone to Italy, Belgium etc. Westlower has kindly offered his as a demo point, where Tom (Montesquieu heard it) and my own demo unit is going to MikeyB next week.

But I'm a small producer and all these units are handmade and point to point wired and equally I do restorations, upgrades and servicing for other equipment so production is always bespoke and small scale
David

mikeyb
23-06-2018, 10:40
I am a fan of Louis A! But wanted to name my products after Jazz Musicians hence Satchmo, Cannonballs, Little Gate etc. Most of my Satchmos have been built for folk who don't participate in Fora-or even live in Italy, Belgium etc. Westlower has kindly offered his as a demo point, where Tom (Montesquieu heard it) and my own demo unit is going to MikeyB next week.

But I'm a small producer and all these units are handmade and point to point wired and equally I do restorations, upgrades and servicing for other equipment so production is always bespoke an small scale
DavidLooking forward to listening to Satchmo [emoji6]

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

montesquieu
23-06-2018, 10:44
how are things going with the satchmo ? anyone else tried one recently ?

I heard Adam's at his place ... the rest of the system was pretty 'known' to me, Tannoy Golds in RFC enclosures quite similar to mine, a Radford STA25 which I've been using this past year while Will restores my STA100, and a Hashimoto HM7 that used to belong to me, plus the fact I had brought round a few of my cartridges for Adam to listen to on his 401/3012 combo ... consequently I was able to hear pretty well what the Satchmo was doing in isolation from everything else.

I must say I was very impressed, and was actually rather surprised at the relatively modest price David is charging for a new one. It's a nice piece of kit, transparent as you'd expect from a decent valve preamp but also with the requisite amount of drive to keep the music flowing really nicely. The soundstaging was superb and very 3D. We listened mainly to the phono section and there's no doubt for me that this is a vinyl-lover's preamp, the phono section (from what I heard anyway) is no afterthought but really nicely integrated into the whole.

I have my EAR 912 and I think that's a settled feature now but if I were in the market for a pre I'd certainly be giving it a full dem in my system and serious consideration.

hifinutt
25-06-2018, 18:02
brilliant thanks , hope to try one sometime