Hi,
Been lurking on the forum and doing some builds for a couple of years. I have built a B1 (no korg) and a pair of ACA amps. I am currently looking to upgrade my preamp and am struggling to find good comparisons between the B3, B1 Korg, and wayne's linestage and the ACP+. I like the idea of a headphone amp too, so the ACP+ and/or a wayne's linestage with Whammy sound intriguing. Reading between the lines it sounds as if the very best would be the wayne's linestage and a whammy. How does that compare to an ACP+? How does the ACP+ compare to my B1? I realize it is my ears that are the final judge, but would be curious what other people think. I am currently using a pretty good class D amp (250W a channel, Red Dragon) and some Spendor speakers. i have also kicked around the idea of getting an old Threshold PRE (SL10) and recapping it. My mind is running around in circles.....thank you for your help.
Tim in Seattle.
Been lurking on the forum and doing some builds for a couple of years. I have built a B1 (no korg) and a pair of ACA amps. I am currently looking to upgrade my preamp and am struggling to find good comparisons between the B3, B1 Korg, and wayne's linestage and the ACP+. I like the idea of a headphone amp too, so the ACP+ and/or a wayne's linestage with Whammy sound intriguing. Reading between the lines it sounds as if the very best would be the wayne's linestage and a whammy. How does that compare to an ACP+? How does the ACP+ compare to my B1? I realize it is my ears that are the final judge, but would be curious what other people think. I am currently using a pretty good class D amp (250W a channel, Red Dragon) and some Spendor speakers. i have also kicked around the idea of getting an old Threshold PRE (SL10) and recapping it. My mind is running around in circles.....thank you for your help.
Tim in Seattle.
There are a couple of factors.
1. Do you need gain?
2. Do you want to add some second harmonic.
The B1 is very neutral and accurate. Almost perfect, but no gain.
If you need gain, but no color, The BA3 or Wayne's would both be good choices.
If you are looking for a bit of color, The Krog B1 or the ACP+ would be the 2 to look at.
The SL10 is inferior in one major way. You didn't build it 🙂
There is no right answer here.
My choice might be the ACP+.
HTH
Doug
1. Do you need gain?
2. Do you want to add some second harmonic.
The B1 is very neutral and accurate. Almost perfect, but no gain.
If you need gain, but no color, The BA3 or Wayne's would both be good choices.
If you are looking for a bit of color, The Krog B1 or the ACP+ would be the 2 to look at.
The SL10 is inferior in one major way. You didn't build it 🙂
There is no right answer here.
My choice might be the ACP+.
HTH
Doug
Hi Doug, thanks for the reply. Right now with the high powered digital amp i dont need any gain, but i assume if i ever change my amp (or when) i will be heading towards a lower powered first watt or tube setup. I think i am looking for more color/harmonics as the digital amp and the B1 are so clean. I dont have any complaints about the B1, just am assuming better things are out there that i may be able to build and would love to then have them to compare. The ACP+ seems to have sorted flashed on and off the scene, i would love to hear more information on it. I have not yet focused hard on its build thread yet, just skipped through it. It appears to be 2 inputs, with option to use as a preamp or headphone amp, based on a headphone jack being installed? I do like the overall looks of it, as building power supplies still makes me nervous and building a chassis is something i can do.
So how would the SL10 compare to something current?
Enjoy the weekend
So how would the SL10 compare to something current?
Enjoy the weekend
I’ve built the regular issue B1, BA3, and most recently, Wayne’s linestage. I really love them all. I honestly felt that I would never need another pre after the BA3, but I’m really smitten with Wayne’s linestage. It just does an exceptional job across the entire frequency spectrum. Specifically, it brought improved timing and clarity to the lower end. That said, the benefit of the BA3 is the P3 adjustment, which allows you to adjust the amount and relationship of lower harmonics. You can go clean and lean, or more sugary and lush. Also worth noting that Wayne’s linestage can serve as a HPA too, so long as you use the larger output devices (see thread.) All in all, you can’t go wrong. In fact, I have a single preamp chassis and simply switch boards out depending on mood. Get a nice chassis and an adjustable bipolar reg - you’re in business.
Thanks, i assume hpa is headphone amp. So, since these preamps all generally run on 24volts, i could generally roll these different preamps through just by switching the boards? Sort of like using one chassis for multiple first watt amps. Sounds like i need to learn my power supplies better. Here's a question to display my power supply ignorance. Could you have one power supply at 24v and use it to supply a preamp, headphone amp and phono amp? As long as they all needed the same volts and the supply could supply the amperage needed? Sort of like a naim supercap for first watt products? I guess i am still thinking too hard. Thanks for the additional insight, i need to do some more forum reading now.
I’m sure you could have a central power supply for all of those pieces, but you’d be opening a can of worms (IMO). You’d be dealing with ground issues; would probably need some local capacitance for each piece; etc. I’m sure there’s a way, but I’m not sure it’s worth going there.
For the preamp swapping, having a regulated, bipolar supply that offers some adjustment is ideal. I use the Salas UltraBIB, but there are many great options. I’ll try and post some pictures of my setup later.
Good luck on your preamp endeavor! You can’t go wrong with any of those options you mentioned.
For the preamp swapping, having a regulated, bipolar supply that offers some adjustment is ideal. I use the Salas UltraBIB, but there are many great options. I’ll try and post some pictures of my setup later.
Good luck on your preamp endeavor! You can’t go wrong with any of those options you mentioned.
thanks for the information, this is helping me to look at fewer ideas and focus a bit.... I like the idea of Wayne's line stage with the headphone option a lot and if i can successfully do that, i will have gotten a power supply figured out and would then give me the courage to do a M2x or F6, or ...
This does leave me wondering is there anyone who has heard waynes linestage and an acp+, that could compare the two? Seems they both can do preamp and headphone dutieaand are top shelf designs, but how do they differ?
Et, here’s a quick pic of my preamp box. I was limited on space and stacked the UltraBIB (top is positive rail, bottom is negative). I use two ac/ac wall warts to get the correct AC voltage to the regs. Obviously with a bigger enclosure you could include a transformer in the box. You could also build yourself a dedicated external PSU, then use it to power whichever pre you want. Many ways to do it - just comes down to your preferences.
If you want to really embrace the modular approach, check out the Yarra.
If you want to really embrace the modular approach, check out the Yarra.
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