Now I’ve got that out of the way I’ll tell you about why I bought these remarkable speakers for that purpose. But by the time of writing this article, I’d had a good month or so to live and work with them.įirst off a caveat of sorts – I bought the Theophany Pneuma’s as studio monitors. You can read about my visit and my first impressions here.Īt the end of that article, I stated that I’d ordered a pair of the Pneuma model as up to that point I hadn’t heard a speaker like them – anywhere. My curiosity got the better of me, and I organised a visit to Garth’s factory in Christchurch last year. This in itself is highly unusual, but the further you delve into the story of Theophany, the unusual and the exceptional soon become part of the story of what Theophany as a brand is all about. The other option is that Garth will take them off your hands as a trade in on a newer model, and he will find a home for your old speakers through his extensive database of Theophany owners. If you peruse TradeMe you’ll very rarely find any Theophany speakers for sale secondhand, which suggests that Theophany owners tend to hold on to their speakers for life. I’d heard about Theophany speakers through friends, who spoke of designer Garth Murray with a kind of awed reverence, and when it came to describing his speakers, those same folks would usually say, “well, come and have a listen.” It’s an almost cult-like club of smugness – a kind of “we know something you don’t know”.
SONIC FRONTIERS SFC 1 FULL
Nathan Haines in full flight at the Flamingo Pier Festival Feb 2021. Here, he explains his recent audio epiphany. It's a sleeper of a tube preamp.NATHAN HAINES is not only a legendary Kiwi jazz/crossover music icon but an exacting audio connoisseur. Other than those two areas the YS Audio is right there with the Joule. The JE is superior to the YS Audio in two areas, bass definition and absolute detail. It was the pre in my main system for years before just recently being replaced by a Joule Electra LA-100. The YS Audio preamp completely curb stomped the CJ and both were using quality NOS tubes. I also compared it to a friend's Conrad Johnson PV-10 for several days in my system. I find it to sound superior to a modified Anthem Pre-1L that I have (another great budget tube amp). The sound is excellent and it punches way above its weight. I own one of these and still use it in a backup system. It's remote control to boot and can be had new in the $800-900 range and used in the $400-450 dollar range. Very good quality parts are used in its construction. They are a handmade by a gentleman in Hong Kong with really nice build features such as a tube rectifier and point to point wiring. Lots has been written and lots of user impressions all over the web, get your learn on.Īnother good option is a YS Audio Symphonies + R tube preamp. Just a couple links to whet your appetite. In general they are not close to tubes from the good 'ole days as far as longevity and especially that magical tube sound. Also IMO, don't bother with tube gear if you are going to leave the stock tubes in. Keep in mind tube rolling is a must (IMO) if you are going to get the best results, so figure that into the budget as well. I thoroughly enjoyed mine when I had it, only got rid of it to move up the higher end Eastern Electric Avant tube pre. Solid build and it sounds like a unit almost twice its price. Uses tubes that won't break the bank (12AU7/ECC82). It's one of the best (used) sub $1K tube pre-amps going. Not real common as most people keep them. I might have to start looking at passives too. Looking at bottleheads other preamps another is $500 then it shoot up to $1100 (for a kit). And if it sounds decent is certainly a bargain at $100. I use a passive autoformer volume control and source switch ahead of my (vacuum tube) power amplifier because I rather literally cannot afford a good enough sounding preamp (vacuum tube or solid state) to be worth adding to the system. They also tend to be microphonic, but they're cheap enough that one may acquire a passel of them and select a couple of nonmicrophonic ones. The 3S4 tubes it uses (which are, in full disclosure, pentodes, not triodes) are inexpensive and plentiful. It is battery operated (solves one problem but creates a different one). That said, this is very reasonably priced and is not bad (indeed, it is not a toy), with two catches.ġ. It is difficult to make a good sounding and quiet vacuum tube preamp.
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