Goldpoint SA4M-47 passive 'preamp' winging its way to Marco Towers...

[Marco]

Just a small update to this thread... I've been enjoying the Goldpoint for some time now, and regularly swap between it and the Croft. Both have their respective sonic attributes, with the advantage of the Goldpoint being it not wasting the life of expensive NOS valves or using any electricity!

However, being a hard-wired, point-to-point kind of guy, it's bugged me for a while that the Goldpoint was fitted with a PCB (albeit a good one), so I asked Duncan to remove that and hard-wire the circuit using HGC 99.999% silver solid-core wire, and also fit some WBT 0210Cu Nextgen RCA sockets onto the critical inputs and outputs. These were chosen for their complete lack of metal parts, other than in the signal contact points, which are constructed of solid high-quality copper.

I've also moved from using 15K to 12K series resistors, in order to achieve more volume on the early steps of the switches. The result has turned out rather good:










Z-Foil resistors clearly seen above, soldered directly to the outputs.

Not had a chance to listen yet and compare the 'before & after', but will do later!

Marco.

[walpurgis]

It looks a very neat and high quality item Marco. Your findings should be interesting.

Can't say I've got on particularly well with the various pot and stepped attenuator passives I've tried, but then, I've not tried them all.

Did you ever get around to trying an LDR type? I can't remember.

[CageyH]

Looks good, but surely it's no longer a "Goldpoint" product?

[Marco]

Nope, other than the case and switches - and the latter may be getting replaced too, rewired with Z-Foil resistors throughout (series and shunts, as opposed to just the former at present)...

Yup, the project has served well as a learning curve, in order to ascertain which way for me, in the context of my system, is best to build a passive preamp

Marco.

[Marco]

It looks a very neat and high quality item Marco. Your findings should be interesting.

Can't say I've got on particularly well with the various pot and stepped attenuator passives I've tried, but then, I've not tried them all.

Yup, Geoff, I love it. Before these mods were carried out, it was 80% as good as my Croft, which is a £3k preamp (and has seen off many much more expensive items in its day), and the Goldpoint has cost me less than £500 so far, so that should tell its own story in terms of where it's at sonically, and in terms of SPPV...

I'll be taking it along to the forthcoming Liverpool bake-off (at Oldius towers), so it'll be interesting what folks there think of it.

Did you ever get around to trying an LDR type? I can't remember.

Yes, it's currently with Chris, receiving some further updates, so it'll be interesting how that sounds when it comes back. In stock form it was very good indeed

Marco.

[The Black Adder]

Looks good, but surely it's no longer a "Goldpoint" product?

Haha.. nope... it's better than the original...

[Marco]

Yes, just a tad!

Marco.

[CageyH]

So the thread should be renamed to something like "modifying the Goldpoint beyond all recognition" or "modding the **** out of a Goldpoint passive".

I would like to hear what a good passive is capable of one day.

[brian2957]

Looks very good indeed Marco . Are you bringing it to NEBO . It sounded excellent the last time round

[Marco]

Hi Brian,

Yup, no reason why not, as it's only small

Marco.