New preamp in-bound: First Sound

Kingrex said:
If the 2 led are too bright, take a little cotton and push it in the hole with a tooth pick. Shrednit a.little and fluff it. You will find the correct density to cut the intensity but let you know its working.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, the LEDs are fine.
 
I ran mine from a Denali for a week. It adds a nice energy and air. I do have some Addpower units that seem to mimic some of the effects I got from the shunyata gear.

Hope you enjoy it. I love mine.
 
Kingrex said:
I ran mine from a Denali for a week. It adds a nice energy and air. I do have some Addpower units that seem to mimic some of the effects I got from the shunyata gear.

Hope you enjoy it. I love mine.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I am already enjoying it very much.

More pics coming up!
 
Thought the gang would like to see some pics of the interior of the First Sound.

Top view without the covers; there are only two tubes, a 6DJ8 and OA tube per channel. The preamp is a true dual-mono design; two mono preamps mounted in a single chassis.

FS%20Preamp%20Top%20View.jpg


Just some, but not all of the power supply capacitance...and yes, that blue and brown wire is Shunyata Research OFE wire connecting everything. Emmanuel Go and Caelin collaborated on incorporating several Shunyata technologies into First Sound preamps. The 6DJ8 triodes can also be seen in this photo. These tubes are super-durable, with mean life over 100,000 hours.

FS%20Interior%204.jpg


The back panel shows input jacks, wiring and huge copper bus bars for making and grounding connections. Note that there is no ground wire for each RCA jack, only a single + connection. There is also no insulation on the wires so as to not have any dielectric effect from various insulation materials; the dielectric in this case is air. The entire copper bus bar serves a ground for all inputs. There is also a switch (little red box) for each channel that lets me float the ground in the advent of any ground hum (there isn't; this preamp is DEAD QUIET).
FS%20Back%20Panel.jpg


A close-up of the volume attenuator with individual metal film resistors.
FS%20Attenuator.jpg


There are also large, heavy, copper bus bars for chassis-grounding.
FS%20Ground%20Bus%20Bars.jpg


AudioCap copper capacitors.
FS%20Interior%202.jpg

FS%20Interior%203.jpg


A view of the front panel and part of the chassis interior...
FS%20Preamp%20wo%20Cover%201.jpg
 
Telefunken e88cc gold pin nos. Upscale Audio has platinum Grade for $365 a piece. Sounds like a shit load. Once you have a pair as a reference you know is correct, go online and you can find pairs for about $250 a pair. I have 4 sets now. But the First Sound is very gentle on preamp tubes. I can still put a fresh set in and not tell a difference after 5 years of use. I can tell you some ebay sellers I got good tubes from. The Siemens is also good but a little more smooth.. The Tele is very clean and clear with a magic that works in my system. I have tried the Amprex bugle boy white labels. They were good, but they did not do it for me. But the Amprex were the best in my CJ premier 140 amp. Better than the Tele. I tried a bunch of other Upscale Audi 6922 variants but they were not a match in my system. I also tried the Ifi ones Emmanuel likes. It looks like they are in your pre now. They are clean and clear but, baaahhhhh. Just nothing special.

Don't screw with the OA2. I tried the ones on ebay and sure enough it exploded as Emmanuel said it would.
 
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.
 
Jack said:
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.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, Jack.
 
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 :D.
 
Randy Myers said:
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 :D.
Click to expand...

Go for it, Randy!
 
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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top