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MOSFET and tube pre....did I just hear a little magic?

tomlinmgt

tomlinmgt

Lunatic Member
Drug my Hafler 500 out last night to do some troubleshooting on my rig. It's been several months since I've listened to it and last night was the first time I've ever heard it with my new-ish tube preamp. Man, the Hafler put on one hell of a performance. I mean I was really surprised at what I was hearing. I certainly never remember the ol' Haf sounding so clear and musical. It's been a great amp for dynamics and slam with above average detail, but I prefer my Soundcraftsmen MA5002 to it on just about every level. I've been listening the Soundcraftsmen with the tube pre recently so to hear the Hafler match up quite favorably to the Soundcraftsmen has me pretty impressed. Makes me wonder if the combination of MOSFET power and tube pre is cookin' up a little mojo? :scratch2:

- Michael
 
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If I remember correctly, Counterpoint had a similar concept in combining tubes with Mosfets.
 
I have no other MOSFET designs in my collection of amps so I have no way to substantiate my observation. I'd be curious to hear of anyone else who has experience with this pairing.
 
I concur. I am running a Linn LP12 into a Conrad Johnson tube pre, with a Soundvalves 32 MOSFET amp, pushing JBLs. I likey.
Prior to the tube pre, I was using a Carver SS pre.
It just wasn't the same.
 
It wasn't in a tube pre, mosfet system, but when I worked in a CD replication plant, our Mastering Dept. had 2 identical studios. Same size, same sound treatment, same equipment and speakers; basically mirror images of each other. Except amps. One room had a Bryston 4B and the other room had the pro version of the Hafler DH 500. So, even similar power output. But IMHO, the Hafler studio always sounded more 'musical' than the Bryston room. Sweeter treble, a bit warmer mid-bass and midrange. Definitely not as dry/flat sounding as the Bryston. Maybe not more accurate than the Bryston, but more musical. Maybe that's what you're hearing? With the help of the tube pre. Better harmonics? :thmbsp:
 
fiddlefye said:
I have long wondered how that amp would pair with my CJ PV12 tube pre. Maybe one of these days I'll find one and give it a try.
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If you do please post. I've always heard wonderful things re CJ preamps but I've always heard them in the context of a tube power amp. When I bought the Mapletree I considered one of the CJ preamps but decided not to go that route because they are a bit more $$ and also the preamps I was looking at (PV5, PV 10) seem to be very high gain and I was concerned about a mismatch with the power amps I was using at that time (Emo UPA 1) which also have high gain. The Mapletree has 10 db of gain which worked well with the UPA 1's and also works well with the CJ MF2300A.
 
Maybe. I run a low wattage class A MOSFET amp through a Passive Preamp with Active buffer stage. I like it quite a bit. :yes:
 
ejman said:
If you do please post. I've always heard wonderful things re CJ preamps but I've always heard them in the context of a tube power amp. When I bought the Mapletree I considered one of the CJ preamps but decided not to go that route because they are a bit more $$ and also the preamps I was looking at (PV5, PV 10) seem to be very high gain and I was concerned about a mismatch with the power amps I was using at that time (Emo UPA 1) which also have high gain. The Mapletree has 10 db of gain which worked well with the UPA 1's and also works well with the CJ MF2300A.
Click to expand...
I've run my PV12 with a range of power amps and never had excessive gain issues. Run with same power amp the output from the PV12 and my Yamaha C-4 seems subjectively to be about the same. Of course if one did have issues you could work with it via some tube rolling as well, no? I wish you and I lived nearer each other, we could try some combinations and see how it sounds. Would be fun!
 
fiddlefye said:
I've run my PV12 with a range of power amps and never had excessive gain issues. Run with same power amp the output from the PV12 and my Yamaha C-4 seems subjectively to be about the same. Of course if one did have issues you could work with it via some tube rolling as well, no? I wish you and I lived nearer each other, we could try some combinations and see how it sounds. Would be fun!
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That would be fun. Living in SW Oregon has its advantages but meeting fellow enthusiasts ain't one of them. I was looking in CJ website http://www.conradjohnson.com/It_just_sounds_right/classic_product_page.html and the PV 12 has 18 db of gain while the PV 5 has 28.5 db and the PV 10 has 31 db. So the PV 12 would be fine with most amps.
 
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