New preamp in-bound: First Sound

**Kingrex** · July 10, 2020, 08:58 PM

Jack has a good point. What is your gear again. Lets PM. I can send you a pair of Tele to try.

**Puma Cat** · July 10, 2020, 11:54 PM

Originally Posted by joeinid

That First Sound preamp looks awesome! I bet it's wonderful.

It's the best-sounding preamp I've ever heard...

**Puma Cat** · July 10, 2020, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by Jack

Stephan

I would suggest that before you blindly pay Uncle Kevin over $700 for new tubes that you pick up the phone and talk to Andy Bowman at Vintage Tube Services. He will discuss the equipment mix in your system and find out what sort of sound you are looking for. He will give you options that fit your criteria and the Tele's may or may not be one of them but I doubt they will cost what Kevin is charging if they are a suggestion.

Thanks for the tip, Jack.

**Puma Cat** · July 11, 2020, 01:16 AM

A pic inside one of the external power supplies for each channel...wowza.

**Randy Myers** · July 11, 2020, 01:31 AM

Really nice looking piece. Maybe sometime I will pull the top off mine and send up a photo. Extreme opposite end of the design spectrum. Almost nothing in the box.

Then again, besides the gain stages and buffers there are probably more similarities than differences

.

**Puma Cat** · July 11, 2020, 02:13 AM

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

Really nice looking piece. Maybe sometime I will pull the top off mine and send up a photo. Extreme opposite end of the design spectrum. Almost nothing in the box.

Then again, besides the gain stages and buffers there are probably more similarities than differences

.

Go for it, Randy!

**Randy Myers** · July 11, 2020, 02:24 AM

Man I got to unhook everything and pull it out of the rack

.

Pretty much like this

.

Attachment 28503

Maybe at some point I will add the tube active gain stage

.

**aKnyght** · July 11, 2020, 06:53 AM

wow -- beautiful gear!! almost tempts me to swear off integrateds

**Kingrex** · July 11, 2020, 11:51 AM

The only similarity is the stepped ladder attenuator. Outside that, totally different. Your Hattor is a strait wire with a resistor inline. The First Sound is an active unit that I think does some singnal boosting.

**Mikado463** · July 11, 2020, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

That is great. I think I like the black better then the white one! I definitely see the MBL vibe

....

agreed with Randy, super sexy looking. Best of luck with it Stephen !

**Kingrex** · July 11, 2020, 12:29 PM

I also mark my volume knob in 3 spots with a pencil. It makes setting the volume between the two much easier. Pencil rubs off if you dont like the spot.

**Randy Myers** · July 11, 2020, 12:52 PM

Originally Posted by Kingrex

The only similarity is the stepped ladder attenuator. Outside that, totally different. Your Hattor is a strait wire with a resistor inline. The First Sound is an active unit that I think does some singnal boosting.

I know that... it was a tongue in cheek post

. That is what I meant, similar attenuator designs (Arek's is rather famous) but "besides the gain stages and buffers" was meaning exactly what you said

.

**Kingrex** · July 11, 2020, 01:02 PM

I'm slow today. Had 42 fluoroscopy guided injection yesterday. Then ate a couple oxy.

First Sound actually started out building passive devices. Somewhere along the line he went active.

**Kingrex** · July 11, 2020, 01:03 PM

I wish he would make a phono pre

**Randy Myers** · July 11, 2020, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by Kingrex

I'm slow today. Had 42 fluoroscopy guided injection yesterday. Then ate a couple oxy.

First Sound actually started out building passive devices. Somewhere along the line he went active.

Ouch, that doesn't sound good.

**Kingrex** · July 11, 2020, 03:00 PM

It's amazing. 2 friends are paralyzed and other still in a lot of pain from surgery. I get injections of PRP that keep me petty mobile for about 1 to 1.5 years before I need another round. Cost about $3,300 a round. I don't get why people go under the knife.

**Randy Myers** · July 11, 2020, 03:12 PM

Hang in there Rex. Sorry to hear about that issue. It does not sound good at all.

Hattor does offer a SS built in active gain stage or a Tube active gain stage as an option. Who knows, maybe some day they will go the same route. I kind of like it as a passive. It just sounds so good, so natural. I do not see any need to get the active gain, but who knows. I can always add it on if I want to.

If I understand it correctly, buffering is also a petty big difference. Without buffering there are two spots where the impedance changes and the volume is not linier. This is as expected. (I do not understand it completely but Arek described it to me. He was talking way above my understanding though.) This is one of the reasons why some people claim that the Wyred 4 Sound STP-SEs (and Stage 2's) are not true passive (I am not sure I concur with that sentiment). Even though they do not ad gain until the volume is extremely loud, they are using buffering.

Anyway, back on subject. The First Sound looks like a beautiful unit. It must sound amazing. I do admit that I like the looks of the black one a bit better.

**Ritmo** · July 15, 2020, 09:51 AM

Stephen - Great looking pre. I like the color combination and simplicity. And, the internal design and construction looks very well done and executed. Enjoy the music in good health my friend.

**Puma Cat** · February 9, 2022, 02:59 PM

Just heard from Emmanuel Go at First Sound today; he's completed the updates to the latest Shunyata Research CCI-X noise filter technology for the dual external mono power supplies for my First Sound Presence Deluxe preamp, and is shipping the power supplies back to me today. I should have them back in a week or so, and they'll require about 3-4 days of burn-in and will be good to go. I also had him install ground posts to chassis ground on my power supply chassis, so I can run a Shunyata CGC cable from the power supply chassis' to the GP-NR ground terminals of my Everest power distributor, so I can make use of it's way cool ground-plane noise reduction system. If you have a Shunyata PD, you should be using this system, and if you're not...why not? 😜

The Shunyata GP-NR system is quite impressive in the benefits it brings.

I'll post an update here once power supplies are here, and they're up to speed, but my understanding is this is a notable upgrade to the First Sound preamp. 👍😉

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