Rich stopped by today to help me get my bigger audio system going in my main room. I need to see how everything is going to work to help me plan for next stages in the sound room... Plus, it's nice to hear a good system again.
In doing so, I asked him to bring his 'GG' kit preamp from Transcend (not sure about spelling). For what he paid, he's got a helluva preamp on his hands. We first connected my system together (Mac C220 pre, MC402 amp, SB3 w/ uber-ized Scott Nixon Tube DAC, Piega C8 LTD speakers). I'm using some RCA blackplate tubes in my preamp and we listened to this setup first for a good while... We swapped in the GG on a piece I knew well (Alice in Chains 'Over now', toward the end).. and it had a little less 'open' sound at first listen. went to lunch and came back... things started opening up...
After a while I liked what the GG was doing. It was quiet, intimate, and I enjoyed music on it. In some areas it seemed to perform a little better than my Mac... specifically on tonal texture like wood instrument resonance and that sort of thing. I can see why Rich would love that aspect. The only thing that kept it from beating the Mac was overall transparency... And I would wager with a few upgraded parts and better tubes, it would be hard to justify my nearly $3,k pre (based on sound quality). sigh.
Thanks to Rich for the visit and the opportunity to hear this pre. I hope he does some upgrades to the parts and tubes... I'd be very interested in hearing that!
-C
