An experiment in amplification

[antonio]

Talk to Ant at BTE, he makes passive pre's. He's a member on HFS, if you cannot contact him I would be be happy to contact him with your details.

Just remembered he advertises on ebay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bte-desig...wAAOSw1i5bsgIG

[Haselsh1]

Regarding the use of RCA attenuators and my Croft pre/power combo from 2009, I must add that I intially used them on the preamp CD inputs. It was only when i switched them to the power amp inputs that the huge change in sound occured. In that system and to my ears there was a huge improvement in sound quality.

One thing that this amp journey has taught me though is that I now have around 640 quids worth of amplification against the 2,500 quids worth I did have and neither were or are very satisfactory. Both have/had significant issues. Perfection has such a high price lol.

[Haselsh1]

Talk to Ant at BTE, he makes passive pre's. He's a member on HFS, if you cannot contact him I would be be happy to contact him with your details.

Just remembered he advertises on ebay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bte-desig...wAAOSw1i5bsgIG

David, just spotted his work. I shall be in touch with him.

[Haselsh1]

Sod it..! I have just bought a secondhand Usher R1.5 ! Slightly diverted this thread I guess but it will be nice to hear what it is about when it arrives.

[Macca]

Serious amplifier that.

[walpurgis]

Very nice Shaun. That's a serious amplifier.

(I see Martin just said the same )

[Macca]

I read that it is a copy of the old Threshold Stasis.

[Haselsh1]

Thank you Geoff. Martin, I believe that is true and that it is/was available in three flavours: R1.3, R1.5 and R2.5

More than that and the media summaries, I haven't a clue.

[Haselsh1]

It is due for delivery on Thursday and will probably take thirty seconds to connect up so that I can give it a warm up and watch the meter spinning around. This is hi-fi's last chance with me. If this doesn't work out it will be a Sony digital Walkman and a naff pair of 'phones.

[Firebottle]

I cannot recommend this highly enough. Plus it's cheap as chips. Remote control as well.

If you are after a 'passive' pre then get one of these. I put 'passive' in italics as it is an active device with no gain to speak of. (+3dB max)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hiend-PGA...97.m4902.l9144

It has active drive on the outputs so you won't have any problem with impedance matching into any amp.

it is based on the PGA2310/11 volume control chip, choose the PGA2311 version.
The specs on the PGA2311 are quite phenominal, as bought this unit is very good. With a couple of modifications to provide the best environment for the chip the performance is astoundingly transparent.

I use a similar unit using the same chip.