Hattor Pre-amp Inbound

I previously owned the Wyred 4 Sound STP-SE Stage 2 which is passive and has an active stage that automatically kicks in at a certain level. I never approached the level needed to kick in the active stage.

I did not get the OPA because I felt I did not need the active boost. I have never heard it therefore I cannot give an honest opinion. What I can say is the pure passive version is amazing. I do not know which resistors you choose for your unit but what I can say is that unless you purchased the AMRG Trans version, I would feel that is more important. In my view, the higher level resistors are vastly more important than adding the active stage option. Now if you got both then it certainly can't hurt since you have the option to use the active stage or not to.
 
Very nice! Enjoy it. I love mine so far. I cannot imagine finding a better sounding pre-amp.

Let me know what you think after you have had a chance to let it run in a bit. :dancered:
 
Randy Myers said:
I previously owned the Wyred 4 Sound STP-SE Stage 2 which is passive and has an active stage that automatically kicks in at a certain level. I never approached the level needed to kick in the active stage.

I did not get the OPA because I felt I did not need the active boost...
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Steve McCormack who is the father of the Mod Squad Line Drive used to say, you don't choose passive preamps they pick you. Passives can leave a lot of performance on the table if you have a low gain amp driving low-sensitivity speakers. Add to that a LOMC and you could be losing all dynamics and drive your system is capable of.

presently i have a few pairs of speakers about the house, one that's around 100 db sensitive and running the Freya full passive is sufficient for capturing everything. when I insert my 83 db sensitive speakers it sounds anemic running the pre' in passive mode, it lacks punch and room filling volume.
 
puroagave said:
Steve McCormack who is the father of the Mod Squad Line Drive used to say, you don't choose passive preamps they pick you. Passives can leave a lot of performance on the table if you have a low gain amp driving low-sensitivity speakers. Add to that a LOMC and you could be losing all dynamics and drive your system is capable of.

presently i have a few pairs of speakers about the house, one that's around 100 db sensitive and running the Freya full passive is sufficient for capturing everything. when I insert my 83 db sensitive speakers it sounds anemic running the pre' in passive mode, it lacks punch and room filling volume.
Click to expand...

That actually makes a bit of sense to me. I could see how those factors might come into play. I don't have oodles of power and my speakers are not low efficiency but certainly not high either. The amp is about 100 WPC and the speaker are 89 dB. I am definitely a subscriber of quality power versus quantity.

I know, to me, my system is very dynamics and inviting sounding! I do like that Arek has active stage, either sold state or tube, that can be added if I ever decide that passive is no longer doing it for me. As it is I am thrilled with the sound!

I certainly can say, without reservations, that the parts being used inside makes a very big difference. Going from the Vishay resistors to the AMRG Trans was a real eye opener!
 
Awesome... enjoy it. I pretty much believe mine is about as perfect as I could ever hope for in a pre-amp!
 
Hi Randy,
from the sound of hattor with AMRG resistors I'm excited, it's natural, transparent, with a lot of space, for me the ultimate choice. With a power amp understand impedance (the input impedance of my power amp is 94k), with a DAC as well, all connected by XLR cables.
 
Yea, I use XLR from my DAC and out to my AMP, both the T+A pieces. I use RCA from the tuner and phono stage and out to the SubWoofer. Oh, I do have XLR from the Oppo spinner, but I never spin disks... :)
 
I have been playing a lot of vinyl lately and the Hattor is sounding wonderful so I was giving much of the credit to the new vinyl setup. Last night I played some digital and it has never sounded better so I got to give a lot of the credit to the Hattor as well! What a wonderful sounding pre-amp with all the inputs and outputs I could ever use. I could not be happier at this point!
 
I decided to move some cables around a bit. I had read that the Hattor really could be made even better with certain cables on the outputs. I moved my AQ Amazon, (pure silver 1M in length) between the Hattor and the amp. I moved the AQ Anacondas (silver covered copper, 1.5M length) in between the DAC and the Hattor. So the better and shorter cable on the outputs. I had to adjust cable runs and slight gear equipment positioning to do this.

It was worth it! More open, more impact on both vinyl and digital. Amazing improvements in sound stage, deeper, tighter bass. Very nice indeed!
 
Hi Randy,
I tried more xlr cables between Hattor and power amp, silver (VDH, XSymphony, AQ), hybrid and copper, I think it plays best with a cheap shielded copper cable star quad Canare (Neutrik XX gold-plated connectors) in the length of 0.8 meters. Enjoy
 
I am sure it is the synergy between various cables. I do believe the output cables appear to make a large difference. I think shorter is better (in my system anyway). Silver sounded better but that vary well might have been because the cables were also shorter. I do know that exchanging these cables made a very nice improvement. I also know the Hattor is an amazing line-stage!
 
Another update experiment. A little background... with the Wyred 4 Sound STP-SE Stage 2 there was so much output that I could barely move the volume control without it getting far too loud. I know EJ says there is no gain until getting to the active stage, which honestly, is so loud that I never approached this. I used my Rothwell attenuators to bring the volume a little more under my control. It added the 10db attenuation without any negative sonic affects. They achieved their purpose and did what I desired.

Last night I tried the Rothwell's on the DAC to bring my digital more inline in output to the phono stage. It did bring the outputs to similar level with the vinyl, however there was a huge caveat. I noticed very quickly that the performance was dragged down a few notches. Everything was lifeless, and much less dynamics. I noticed no sound quality difference when using these with the Stage 2.

I can only concluded that the Hattor has moved the entire system to a much higher level in reveling the music. I believe it is more in tune with other changes in the system and forms great synergy with other components. It is so accurate and revealing that small changes elsewhere in the system are instantly apparent.

I can honestly say I have never encountered another component that shows changes elsewhere in your system as much as the Hattor. Rather amazing in my view!
 
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