Now THAT'S a tube preamp

[richidoo]

Just ran across this on that online audio flea market. Never saw the guts before - looks prettier on the inside than on the outside!  





Atma-Sphere MP1...    I want one!!  

[Rob S.]

Funny, Rich.... I was looking at that one today also, even though I have no business buying one.  It would be up there with your AR ref preamp, me thinks.

rob

[TomS]

Mine is similar to that one except single chassis with the power supply in place of the phono stage (line version).  Not point to point, but still some lovely craftsmanship in there.  So far I love it.

[richidoo]

Cool Tom! Next time you pop the bonnet, please grab a shot...

This MP1 shows 2 boards, each with 9 tubes. So i guess one of them is phono and the other is a linestage?

[TomS]

Cool Tom! Next time you pop the bonnet, please grab a shot...

This MP1 shows 2 boards, each with 9 tubes. So i guess one of them is phono and the other is a linestage?

Actually each board has both a phono stage and linestage channel on it.  True dual mono in to out.
The linestage side is 1 voltage gain 6SN7 per channel, 2 complementary output 6SN7's per channel.  Mine is earlier and actually uses a 12ax7 for the voltage gain instead of the 6SN7 and is on a single board.  The left side has a bunch of transformers, bridges, caps the same as the MP1 separate power supply.  The output pair can supposedly drive 600 ohm load to 200' balanced at about 30v.  Plenty for F4's or whatever you put behind it.  It rocks with the M60's.

[tmazz]

Just ran across this on that online audio flea market. Never saw the guts before - looks prettier on the inside than on the outside!  





Atma-Sphere MP1...    I want one!!  

Do you have a link to this listing?

If I remember correctly this was a big buck piece. (~ $10 even in the early 90s)

[richidoo]

It rocks with the M60's.

I bet it does...

500k input, 30 Ohms output from 6sn7, wow.

Here you go Tom:
http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?preatube&1279379898&/Atma-Sphere-MP-1-MK-lll-includ

[bmr3hc]

All those tubes with the Teflon Caps are indeed a beauty to behold and listen to.

Henry

[bpape]

Always wanted to hear one of those.  I just cringe when I look inside and think of the cost of tubing/retubing it.  Certainly a gorgeous piece to look at though.

Bryan

[tmazz]

Always wanted to hear one of those.  I just cringe when I look inside and think of the cost of tubing/retubing it.  Certainly a gorgeous piece to look at though.

Bryan

Nice on the inside anyway, but rather industrial looking on the outside.

As for tubes, rough estimate I would say about $600-800 (unless you want to get into som big buck NOS tubes.) Not cheap, but not all that much if you consider that whomever is retubing it could afford to pay $15k for the preamp in the first place. (Even used it is going for over $7k w/shipping)

[richidoo]

I have read that it sounds really good with the stock tubes. Not very tube sensitive. But tubanoia is an highly individual thing. It would be cool to hear it with Black Treasure CV-181.