doshi tape pre users?

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I've a used earlier generation doshi tape pre incoming from nick and wondering if there are other doshi tape pre owners on the forum. Nick has been generous with his efforts to wire up and align the headblock of my nagra t and install a int/ext switch to operate his tape pre or the internal nagra electronics. Super excited to try it out. Couple of pics of Nick's excellent wiring job!
Chris
headblock wiring.jpegswitch to xlr wiring.jpeg
 
Chris,

To my knowledge, there aren't any Doshi tape preamp users over here. (Nick has threatened to bring it up my way but he still hasn't materialized.) There are at least three, if not more, users though over at WBF.
 
Chris - I spoke with Nick before purchasing my tape preamp. He has a fundamental difference of opinion to the rest of the R2R tape preamp guys like deHavilland and others.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Mike could you elaborate?
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Yes. He believes the tape preamp should be a balanced design with balanced connectors. In contrast, the person that built your tape preamp (forgot the name) and the one who built mine, and several others I spoke with, disagree. In addition, Jeff Jacobs also believes its best to stick with single ended since the internal wiring from the tape head itself is single ended.


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Every pro deck in the world has balanced outputs. My Ampex 350s from the 1950s have balanced inputs and outputs. Ditto for my Otari MX-55.
 
Mike said:
Yes. He believes the tape preamp should be a balanced design with balanced connectors. In contrast, the person that built your tape preamp (forgot the name) and the one who built mine, and several others I spoke with, disagree. In addition, Jeff Jacobs also believes its best to stick with single ended since the internal wiring from the tape head itself is single ended.


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Click to expand...

I don't consider that major. The Bottlehead Repro offers both balanced and SE; I think the SE sounds better but that's in part because the balanced goes through on more gain stage. I think most studio decks are balanced. But there may be different demands for playback (or playback only) and record as there can be miles and miles of cable used at a recording session. Ergo, balanced eliminates most issues with noise and hum issues.

IIRC, most heads are inherently, like cartridges, balanced.
 
No doubt tape preamp design is as varied as any other preamp design. Beauty and luxury of the hobby is that there are great choices available - king cello, bottlehead, dehavilland, and likely many more i don 't know. Nick's pre attracted me partially because it uses a balanced design (and thus the head is wired this way) and the reduction of noise is a gift :)
Looking forward to hearing it within a week if all goes well.
 
Should be fun Chris. Let us know how it goes.

Know the boys in Seattle did a shoot out between the King-Cello and Doshi a while ago at Ki's.

There are also the newer versions of the K-C where Charlie removed two caps in the circuit. Also mine uses duelands. End results is much cleaner and quieter and resolving.
 
I disagree. Nick was adamant he was right and everyone else was wrong.

I would have preferred balanced, but his tape preamp - as good as it might be - was out of reach for me.


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Mike said:
I disagree. Nick was adamant he was right and everyone else was wrong.

I would have preferred balanced, but his tape preamp - as good as it might be - was out of reach for me.


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Mike-looking at the gear you currently own and what has passed through your hands, it's hard to believe that statement. :)
 
mep said:
Mike-looking at the gear you currently own and what has passed through your hands, it's hard to believe that statement. :)
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I wasn't going to spend $12-15k on a tape preamp, when everyone and their dog told me to get the one Myles has if I wanted solid state or the DeHavilland if I wanted tubes.

If it was $4-5k - maybe.

Plus, Jeff was adamant Nick was dead wrong about balanced. He was going to wire single ended from the tape head or I could find someone else. It was that simple. He said balanced from an unbalanced source was "stupid"

When I asked over on the reel to reel forum, they said the King-Cello one was outstanding and so was the Dehavilland. No one had even heard of the Doshi.

If I fall in love with R2R as I suspect I will, then I can always look at some other tape preamp - if the Dehavilland doesn't meet my needs.


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Yeah you know the old story: put 10 audiophiles (manufacturers) in a room and you'll get 11 opinions! :roflmao:

Bruce Brown at Puget Sound Studios uses the Doshi and he does many (all?) of the well regarded FIM CD transfers. Bruce has been using the Doshi for the last year or two in his studio.

Steve Williams over at WBF also uses the Doshi with his Studer as does another WBF member I met out at the Chicago Axpona.

Yes, Nick is not well known (yet) but he has an amazing background in electrical engineering and book of knowledge. His phono section is second to none IMHO. His new phonostage promises to be even better; Nick's made a few updates to my phono section that includes some of what he's doing in his soon to be released product. Needless to say, he didn't tell me about the changes when I sent it back and I had to call him to ask what else he had done because the unit was more transparent, dynamic and resolving. (I think you've been to RMAF the last year or two so you've heard his products in the Paragon Audio room? If you come up in November, I should have the new phono section in my possession.)
 
There is no doubt Nick's gear is tops. His amps on the Alexia's were excellent and much better than the VTL room.

I would love to compare his tape preamp to the deHavilland, but unless I rewire the tape hear to balanced, that won't happen.....and those silly RCA to XLR adapters aren't an option. They sound awful.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Bruce Brown at Puget Sound Studios uses the Doshi and he does many (all?) of the well regarded FIM CD transfers.
Click to expand...

A small correction. Winston Ma (FIM) has used several mastering engineers over the years. Bruce Brown is one of them. All of the albums that FIM has released in the last two or three years, all the new UHD albums - which include the four released with my FIM Decca book - have been done by Five/Four productions (multi Grammy award winners Michael Bishop and Robert Friedrich, formerly with Telarc ). Before then, Paul Stubblebine did many of the albums. Bruce mastered "Somewhere in Time: Steven Siu at the Steinway" in 2009 which was an early DXD master. I think that is the only album of his that I have in my 100 or so CD collection of FIM albums. I believe that Bruce did about half a dozen or so albums for FIM, most or all using DXD.

Larry
 
Mike said:
There is no doubt Nick's gear is tops. His amps on the Alexia's were excellent and much better than the VTL room.

I would love to compare his tape preamp to the deHavilland, but unless I rewire the tape hear to balanced, that won't happen.....and those silly RCA to XLR adapters aren't an option. They sound awful.
Click to expand...

Mike I double checked with Nick because I thought his units came with balanced and unbalanced inputs. Apparently there was some miscommunication. Here's his response.

That's the beauty of a differential input
It can be used either way , I provide both xlr and RCA inputs on the unit , if the signal from the transport is ground referenced, simply wire the output to an RCA connection and use it that way,
A tape head ( and mc cart) are differential devices in that they respond to changes in magnetic fields by generating a voltage on both ends of the winding that are equal in magnitude and opposite in polarity
When you choose to amplify this signal you can do it by referencing one of the poles to ground ( s.e) or you can chose to do it differentially (amplify only the difference between the two poles)

The advantages of the latter are that any common mode signal induced into the chain via electromagnetic interference is cancelled out, additionally by amplifying the difference voltage you get an additional 6db of gain over referencing one of the poles to ground, lastly any noise carried on the ground (rfi) is isolated from the amplification chain
 
astrotoy said:
A small correction. Winston Ma (FIM) has used several mastering engineers over the years. Bruce Brown is one of them. All of the albums that FIM has released in the last two or three years, all the new UHD albums - which include the four released with my FIM Decca book - have been done by Five/Four productions (multi Grammy award winners Michael Bishop and Robert Friedrich, formerly with Telarc ). Before then, Paul Stubblebine did many of the albums. Bruce mastered "Somewhere in Time: Steven Siu at the Steinway" in 2009 which was an early DXD master. I think that is the only album of his that I have in my 100 or so CD collection of FIM albums. I believe that Bruce did about half a dozen or so albums for FIM, most or all using DXD.

Larry
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update Larry.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Mike I double checked with Nick because I thought his units came with balanced and unbalanced inputs. Apparently there was some miscommunication. Here's his response.

That's the beauty of a differential input
It can be used either way , I provide both xlr and RCA inputs on the unit , if the signal from the transport is ground referenced, simply wire the output to an RCA connection and use it that way,
A tape head ( and mc cart) are differential devices in that they respond to changes in magnetic fields by generating a voltage on both ends of the winding that are equal in magnitude and opposite in polarity
When you choose to amplify this signal you can do it by referencing one of the poles to ground ( s.e) or you can chose to do it differentially (amplify only the difference between the two poles)

The advantages of the latter are that any common mode signal induced into the chain via electromagnetic interference is cancelled out, additionally by amplifying the difference voltage you get an additional 6db of gain over referencing one of the poles to ground, lastly any noise carried on the ground (rfi) is isolated from the amplification chain
Click to expand...

This is excellent news. I know I was pretty diligent in my research and Nick was adamant things remain XLR. But hearing that he can do SE gives me options for upgrading the tape preamp.
 
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