Quote Originally Posted by jandl100 View Post
Yeah, that's fine. Thanks Dave.




Thanks Neil - I do like it a lot. Currently using it via the tape inputs to bypass some of the switchery, and that has focussed the sound up quite nicely. Using the Chord amp's pre-outs at the moment but as soon as I can get round to it I plan to try my Eva2 LDR passive pre.

I've some 83dB/W sensitivity speakers on order, it'll be interesting to see how well the AI drives them. I'm not a headbanger like some folks here and a lot of my listening is to small scale classical, so it might just work!

I'm planning to try a bit of input tube rolling - it started out chez Jerry with a solid line of Mullards (2 ecc88 and 3 ecc83) - I've now swapped out the Mullard ecc83 for a couple of Watford TADs and a Telefunken - the sound was a bit too warm for me with the Mullards - I got on to the Watford site to order a triplet of cryo-ed TAD 12AX7 only to find that I was 5 hours late and they were now on hols til the 23rd Feb!
Waste of time Jerry. The Pre section in the AI 500 is passive. Only the middle ECC83 is a driver, all the other valves are part of the phono stage(worth doing if you are using the phono stage). Your using it through the tape inputs with a better pre proves my point about it being veiled, the pre bit is the weakest element. Better internal cabling (at the time Audio Note Silver was a common option), much better volume pot and source selectors was the only way to improve the pre section. Triode coupling was also popular if you had very sensitive speakers...I myself was not in favour of this...however many did it and loved it. I needed the 25 watts at the time.

I think it will struggle a bit with 83 db speakers...but with all things give it ago.


Regards D S D L