Any info on Tesserac Audio TAADA MM/MC preamp?

[djentreat11]

Hello

I got a Tesserac Audio TAADA preamp from a good buddy and I was wondering if there is anyone who knows anything about it? From what limited info I could find it is a British audio company from 1994. But other than that nothing else!

I also found pics here of the inside.
Tesserac Audio TAADA preamplifier phonoHiEnd MM/MC

Thank you
Michael

 

[Mark Tillotson]

The label says "Manufactured by Tesserac Reseach Limited" - interesting, nothing found on the web, what datecodes are on the devices?

 

[djentreat11]

Hello Mark,

Thanks for your reply, no date code that I can see, I did not open the unit up but I am guessing it seems around early 90s? I posted this on steve hoffman forum and someone found a thread here on DIYAudio that a member James D had started it. I wanted to reach out to him but for some reason I get an error when pulling up his username and cant message him directly! So i started this thread.

I was interested in the idea behind it and what carts it could best handle and such?

Thank you
Michael

Here is the reply from steve hoffaman and my pics are below.

 

[Mark Tillotson]

The idea behind it? Looks like a phono preamp!

From the internal photos the build-quality looks convincingly UK original of that kind of era. Only oddity is the mains earth is suspect, it must be bombproof and direct to the chassis, not to the internal PSU case.

 

[djentreat11]

@Mark Tillotson yes you are correct it is a phono preamp.
The bolts on the top are not regular screws, maybe hex or something so i did not try to open it and it also does not look like there are any user settings with it. I just ordered a hana sl cart and was hoping to use it with that. I was hoping to contact James D and maybe he would have more info on it. As far as the mains earth that should be ok though?

 

[Mark Tillotson]

The bolts on the top are not regular screws, maybe hex or something

Probably just standard M3 or M4 button head? You can tell its "engineered" if all the screws are hex

 

[djentreat11]

I took some photos of it, it seems there are a lot of them all around it so probably not mean to be opened. I will try to use with a Hana SL cartridge that i ordered. Hopefully it is good!

 

[Mark Tillotson]

Absolutely they are meant to be opened, hex heads are standard in "engineering", they will be metric so all you need is a metric Allen key set.

 

[djentreat11]

Maybe i will take a look and see, but checking the photos online in that original ad it does not look like there is anything for me to change or set on the boards. thanks for your help.

 

[Mark Tillotson]

Check the earth bonding, improve it even? Remove dust and visual check for issues?

 

[djentreat11]

makes sense.