Transformer Volume Controls
- Thread starter sqlsavior
- Start date
TEA FOR ONE
Super Member
I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions!
UG!! It won't be here until Friday.:tears:
TEA FOR ONE
Super Member
My Promitheus TVC finally showed up today. I have about 45minutes with it. I am VERY happy! To get me started with passives,I purchased a Shiit SYS. While that was an ear opener,the TVC has taken my system to another level still. Now let me preface this,my sources are FAR from reference.(see sig) One thing that I feel is the Monarchy SM70 mkII's are made for a passive preamp.
The TVC in my system adds nothing. Like others have noted,very black backround. I am amazed at how much color active pre's were adding to my system. Remember,this is the model with the 6db gain option,that I purchased used. No burn in needed.(however,I believe that my ears will still be burning in for a while).
As far as interconnect length,I'm running 2meters from pre to amp. No problem bringing up the volume to ear bleed levels! From what I have heard so far,detail is great,as is imaging. That's all I have so far,another Promitheus fan!:thmbsp:
The TVC in my system adds nothing. Like others have noted,very black backround. I am amazed at how much color active pre's were adding to my system. Remember,this is the model with the 6db gain option,that I purchased used. No burn in needed.(however,I believe that my ears will still be burning in for a while).
As far as interconnect length,I'm running 2meters from pre to amp. No problem bringing up the volume to ear bleed levels! From what I have heard so far,detail is great,as is imaging. That's all I have so far,another Promitheus fan!:thmbsp:
Attachments
Last edited:
TEA FOR ONE
Super Member
When I first connected the SYS,and turned the amps on,I knew immediately that passives were the direction I wanted to go. The SYS at its price point,was a HUGE surprise for me. It just let so much more music through. While the other pre's I had been using were never going to win any awards,I still thought my rig sounded pretty good. The SYS was a definate upgrade in SQ. After reading what yourself and others have written about the Promitheus,I had to have one. Now,if money was a huge factor,I would have kept the SYS in play. However lack of an added input and output would have made this difficult. While the SYS did everything (that my ears could tell) very well, the Promitheus takes it up to a new level! At this moment I will hold on to the soundwaves/belles pre to use as a phono stage. Everything else..they gotta go!!
sqlsavior
Lunatic Member
Well, they're not modern, but I've now got a pair of Luxman MB-3045 tube mono blocks driving the Quads again. The first thing I listened to was the new MFSL 45 rpm issue of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms. It was one of those occasional truly sublime experiences - I heard all kinds of new subtle additions to the music that I'd never heard from the Warner Brothers CD I have, only some hints at them. Since this was the first time I'd played the album, I wondered a lot whether it was the new master or the new amps responsible for the magic, and I've concluded it is both, with most credit going to the new mastering and pressing - recommended!
Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album also provided some new insights, some almost cloying in the timbres and textures.
My CD of Eva Cassidy's Eva By Heart has a little more air, more breath and realism than with the L-505u's power amp, so it's not just on phono. But the phono side is pretty amazing now, with the Fosgate signature essentially driving the power amps with a combined 8 meters of cable per channel (AQ King Cobra ICs, fwiw), with the Promitheus in the middle. Phono is now an all-tube system, half modern Jim Fosgate and half early Tim de Paravicini. And credit for the passive TVC in between goes to Nicholas Chua. Congratulations to all.
I had to steal a 12AU7 from my dead MB-3045 to get one amp going. I'm glad that worked, or I'd have been pissed, but the fact that it wasn't lit up was a pretty good clue for a dummy like me. If they last awhile and my opinion remains as positive as it's been so far, the amps will go back in my signature, like in The Retro Room days. Brand new SS Luxman amps and 40 year old tube Luxman amps have an extreme difference in reliability, IME. I hope they last.
Still loving the TVC! :yes:
Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album also provided some new insights, some almost cloying in the timbres and textures.
My CD of Eva Cassidy's Eva By Heart has a little more air, more breath and realism than with the L-505u's power amp, so it's not just on phono. But the phono side is pretty amazing now, with the Fosgate signature essentially driving the power amps with a combined 8 meters of cable per channel (AQ King Cobra ICs, fwiw), with the Promitheus in the middle. Phono is now an all-tube system, half modern Jim Fosgate and half early Tim de Paravicini. And credit for the passive TVC in between goes to Nicholas Chua. Congratulations to all.
I had to steal a 12AU7 from my dead MB-3045 to get one amp going. I'm glad that worked, or I'd have been pissed, but the fact that it wasn't lit up was a pretty good clue for a dummy like me.
If they last awhile and my opinion remains as positive as it's been so far, the amps will go back in my signature, like in The Retro Room days. Brand new SS Luxman amps and 40 year old tube Luxman amps have an extreme difference in reliability, IME. I hope they last.Still loving the TVC! :yes:
marqueemoon
Gimme indie rock!
I'm thinking throwing some of those Intact Audio modules in a case is going to be a future project for me. I like the course/fine adjustment thing, and I don't mind a more DIY look.
ivan63
New Member
I use the intact audio autoformer with my Monarchy audio SM-70, it takes a bit of work to figure out and experiment with the stacking of the cores but it sounds very good. the the past i have compared the intact audio autoformer to a S&B transformer they both sound similar therw wasn't one that was better than the other.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
sqlsavior
Lunatic Member
Well, two pair of vintage Luxman power amps later (poof!, poof!
) I've moved on to a modern PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium tube power amp, for sanity's sake. I've also become more convinced that a Promitheus TVC is a poor man's $20K line stage:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/high-end-separates.666925/page-7#post-9068389
Art Dudley added the Bespoke Audio TVC to that list last month. He still preferred his active preamps for "communicating force", but somewhat grudgingly admitted that the high-end TVC under review was clearer. It was a $12K unit.
In relative SQ terms, my system stands out in the Transparency department due to the Quads. In absolute terms, the Transparency award might well go to the Promitheus, and I doubt that I will be able to afford to better it, at least anytime soon. Probably an "unless-I-win-the-lottery" keeper in my system. Oh, and I modified mine. A couple of dots of my wife's Pearl White fingernail polish on the knobs made them easy to read at a glance, in low light.
Recommended!
) I've moved on to a modern PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium tube power amp, for sanity's sake. I've also become more convinced that a Promitheus TVC is a poor man's $20K line stage:http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/high-end-separates.666925/page-7#post-9068389
Art Dudley added the Bespoke Audio TVC to that list last month. He still preferred his active preamps for "communicating force", but somewhat grudgingly admitted that the high-end TVC under review was clearer. It was a $12K unit.
In relative SQ terms, my system stands out in the Transparency department due to the Quads. In absolute terms, the Transparency award might well go to the Promitheus, and I doubt that I will be able to afford to better it, at least anytime soon. Probably an "unless-I-win-the-lottery" keeper in my system. Oh, and I modified mine. A couple of dots of my wife's Pearl White fingernail polish on the knobs made them easy to read at a glance, in low light.
Recommended!
Last edited:
TEA FOR ONE
Super Member
I have to say, the Promitheus TVC is probably my best audio purchase ever.
Rex Aeterna
Gigolo of Gigolos
these look really cool. interesting looking too with very nice wiring job. i found the website. is the prices right what i saw... 420 for the single ended version and 480 for the balanced version? if so, i might have it on my future bucket list of things to buy and try after i get some projects first out of the way.
sqlsavior
Lunatic Member
AFAIK the prices are still the same. I think he (Nicholas Chua) builds them to-order. Mine took a couple months between order w/payment, and receiving the package from Kuala Lumpur.
TEA FOR ONE
Super Member
Last week I switched my Promitheus out for my old Belles pre. That little experiment lasted about 2 minutes. I forgot how much all that added gain ruined the sound for me. The Monarchy amps were a match made in heaven with the Promitheus!!
sqlsavior
Lunatic Member
Full disclosure: The source selection switch in my Promitheus TVC has started to get flaky, sometimes dropping the left channel. I am listening to the Luxman's linestage again now. I find myself listening at a higher volume than with the TVC. Perhaps because of that, I notice different things, but as a whole, they sound less natural. I have a new amp, but feel that I won't be able to evaluate it properly without the TVC.
I like my TVC so much that if I can't fix the switch (I can't even yet figure out how the knob comes off), I may hardwire it out and use a switch box instead. No problems with the volume control switch, thankfully.
I like my TVC so much that if I can't fix the switch (I can't even yet figure out how the knob comes off), I may hardwire it out and use a switch box instead. No problems with the volume control switch, thankfully.
sqlsavior
Lunatic Member
Incredible as it may seem, I believe the weakest link in the chain (preserved for posterity)
London Decca Super Gold, Marantz TT-15, Fosgate Signature | Ortofon SPU Synergy GM, Bob's Cinemag 1131, Jelco SA-750L, Technics SP-25
Benz Micro Wood SM, Budgie SUT, Denon DP1200, Realistic 42-2109
Marantz SA-15S2 SACD, Luxman L-505u (pre), Hood Class A, 2x Hsu STF2, Quad ESLs
...is at present the line stage of my Luxman L-505u integrated, being used as a preamp. I'm not nearly as surprised as I should be, since I had been listening through the Promitheus as a reference for several years before the flaky switch prompted me to pull it. The Luxman was deemed Stereophile Class A when it was current, perhaps ten years ago.
Have you ever read a reviewer who mentioned something like "... a complete lack of electronic artifacts that reveal the sound as reproduced..." or similar language, and wondered WTF the reviewer was talking about? If you got used to the Promitheus in an ultra-revealing system and then switched to the Luxman, you would find the point illustrated exactly. Despite (or perhaps because of) emphasizing different aspects of the sound, the Luxman does not have the natural ease of the Promitheus, and never will. Those emphases are colorations - the Luxman has them and the Promitheus doesn't. It's as simple as that.
Towards the beginning of this thread I was kind of wondering how much different the two were. To use an audiophile exaggeration/cliché, now they're as different as night and day. I got spoiled.
Edit: OK, I've been hard on the Luxman, but it sounds a lot better now that I've gotten the balance right, or closer.
London Decca Super Gold, Marantz TT-15, Fosgate Signature | Ortofon SPU Synergy GM, Bob's Cinemag 1131, Jelco SA-750L, Technics SP-25
Benz Micro Wood SM, Budgie SUT, Denon DP1200, Realistic 42-2109
Marantz SA-15S2 SACD, Luxman L-505u (pre), Hood Class A, 2x Hsu STF2, Quad ESLs
...is at present the line stage of my Luxman L-505u integrated, being used as a preamp. I'm not nearly as surprised as I should be, since I had been listening through the Promitheus as a reference for several years before the flaky switch prompted me to pull it. The Luxman was deemed Stereophile Class A when it was current, perhaps ten years ago.
Have you ever read a reviewer who mentioned something like "... a complete lack of electronic artifacts that reveal the sound as reproduced..." or similar language, and wondered WTF the reviewer was talking about? If you got used to the Promitheus in an ultra-revealing system and then switched to the Luxman, you would find the point illustrated exactly. Despite (or perhaps because of) emphasizing different aspects of the sound, the Luxman does not have the natural ease of the Promitheus, and never will. Those emphases are colorations - the Luxman has them and the Promitheus doesn't. It's as simple as that.
Towards the beginning of this thread I was kind of wondering how much different the two were. To use an audiophile exaggeration/cliché, now they're as different as night and day. I got spoiled.
Edit: OK, I've been hard on the Luxman, but it sounds a lot better now that I've gotten the balance right, or closer.
Last edited: