New tape pre-amp king!!
- Thread starter Bruce B
- Start date
Well at least they were cheaper than your Tele ECC803S's
Now, I have to ask how much $$$ the Tele ECC803S's were.... inquiring minds want to know.
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
SShhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! She just thinks it's more equipment I have to review!!
Sneaky...but it works.
Did you hear me gasping for air in Seattle from way down in Southern California? It was very loud and startling for people around here, and loud enough for them to think I was having a big one...
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
After much experimentation, listening and swapping out cables, I have started doing all my tape transfers through the Doshi Audio tape pre. This thing is amazing. As good as the internal cards are (thank-you Ki), they are no match for the Doshi. I have never heard a tape pre this quiet, detailed and dynamic. Nick is an amazing engineer. I just got some JPS Labs Abyss headphones. Up to building a headphone pre Nick?
Doshi tape preamp
It is a beautiful sounding preamp. Ki, Charlie and I are hoping to have a shootout in September against the King/Cello if Ki still has the Doshi. It should be a fun listening session.
Rich
Portland, Oregon
It is a beautiful sounding preamp. Ki, Charlie and I are hoping to have a shootout in September against the King/Cello if Ki still has the Doshi. It should be a fun listening session.
Rich
Portland, Oregon
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
It should be way fun because as Bruce says, this unit is dead quiet and that was my biggest fear with a tubed unit. Sounds emanate from blackness
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Good for you guys , but whats on the recording side , if the record amp ( tubed or whatever ) exhibits noise its gonna be recorded and cannot really be removed ( dolby noise reduction maybe ), so that is at least as important as repro amps .
I guess this question is more directed to the recording engineers ???.
My expirience is that there still is some residual noise when the play button is pushed, and i dont mean noise when tape is playing but when the recording actually starts
I guess this question is more directed to the recording engineers ???.
My expirience is that there still is some residual noise when the play button is pushed, and i dont mean noise when tape is playing but when the recording actually starts
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Say what you want, but put the all tube BH Repro (with V-caps, Tele EF806S and ECC88s) back in the system this weekend and it was 100X better than I remember (plus have changed the heads and cables since last listen). While the K/C is tighter and quicker in the bass, a little quieter and dynamic, it can't hold a candle to the BH's low level resolution (listen to the people talking and pay attention to what they are saying on the Bill Evans tape), dimensionality (musicians, say on a good RVG tape, are literally in the room) or midrange and harmonic resolution (you can tell exactly how much pressure Roebke is applying to the strings on his bass on the Josh Berman tape)
This is how I tell if the unit is quiet or not. I press record with a blank tape. While monitoring, either through the stock electronics or through an external tape pre, I take note of the noise floor. While turning up the volume on my XP-30 to full, the Doshi is at least 12-15dB quieter than the stock electronics, even though it was modified by an expert tech!
I have found the record sides of much higher quality than the playback side on the machines that I've used. The only outboard record unit I've used is the Aria, which I didn't care for. I guess all you can do is replace caps and such as well as pay attention to the PS.
This comports with my current knowledge as well.
I've spoken with Charlie Bolois about PS mods.
Thanks, Bruce.
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