I just threw out my Bryston preamp..........

[Crimson]

.........and replaced it with TUBES! Yes, a Cary Audio SLP-50B line-level preamp. MY DEAR what a difference! Got a call from my dealer who said I just had to come over and hear this piece. So I grabbed my wife (to make sure I wasn't just 'hearing' things) and scooted on over to hear it. Fortunately, the dealer has the same setup in one of his demo rooms that I do (Maggie 3.6 + Bryston 7B's). I get there and he hooks up a Bryston BP-20 being fed by a Wadia 850 (I have a Camelot Morganna) and I listen. That oh so familiar sound that I love. Then he swaps out the BP-20 with the Cary and...........I was stunned. Same controlled bass, harmonious midrange and pristine treble as before, except now the music was so much more musical, fluid, and didn't sound like 'electronics' any more. After the initial shock, I look over at my wife and she says 'That sounds much nicer'. So now I'm eagerly awaiting the piece with optional remote, oil-filled caps, and HT bypass. Darn it........I never thought I'd believe this day would come.




Q.

[MichaelW]

Crimson,

Congrats and welcome to the wonderful world of tubes. There great aren't they.

Cary makes some great tube gear and the preamps are no exception. I own this own and love the sound of 6SN7 tubes, especially NOS (New Old Stock) ones. I think the oiled filled caps upgrade is a great idea. I would also suggest getting the fast recovery diodes upgrade as well. Not a very expensive upgrades. Another thing to consider would be to upgrade the power supply to be fully regulated. I am planning to get this upgrade done, with my SLP-98 preamp, in the very near future.

If you like the way the tube preamp sounds, you might also want to demo a tube amp for your speakers. I have heard about Maggie owners who have had great success using tube amps with their speakers.

By the way, when you get the chance you might want to update your profile to include your current system.

[Lexman]

Crimson, welcome to the forum, and wow, you come in here impressing the Moderator right off. What, you trying to make us look bad? lol.

Congrats on the new gear and I really hope you weren't on a top floor when you threw out the Bryston.

Lex





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[Andrew Pratt]

Nice gear Crimson, one day I&#39;d love to have a nice 2 channel set up.

[MichaelW]

Lex,

LOL!

Crimson,

One thing that I forgot to mention is when you do get the SLP-50B unit look into replacing the stock 6922 tubes with some Old Stock tubes. I would suggest looking in to finding some 7308 tubes, maybe Amperex White Label PQ or Siemens. The 7308 is a low noise version of the 6DJ8 family tube which the 6922 belongs to. See if you can find used ones that test new. The advantage of used tubes is that they are already broken in and cost a lot less then the new version.

[Crimson]

Mike,
Thanks for the input. I&#39;ll ask my dealer re: the old stock tubes. BTW, what sort of breakin time am I looking at with new tubes? Cary&#39;s website says 100 hours of music playing. Also, this particular model doesn&#39;t have a power switch (that I can remember). Being that its a preamp, is it ok to leave it on like I do with my Brystons? Or will this shorten the life of the tubes even though they&#39;re not being &#39;used&#39;?




Q.

[Ken McDaniel]

If he threw out the Bryston....where did it land? (scurries outside).




Ken

[Lexman]

It&#39;s a good thing Bryston are built tough! Sorry Ken, your to late.
Lex





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[Crimson]

Actually, it landed on the grass and now has a nice natural sound to it......almost tubey. I was thinking of trying to use it in my HT system.




Q.

[MichaelW]

Crimson,

I am not sure what type of front panel controls exist on the SLP-50B. I know there is a input selector and a volume control. If the other knob is the same as what is on my SLP-98 then it may be a off/Standby/On knob. If this is the case, then when you are not using the preamp simply put in the standby position. The Standby position runs just enough current to keep the tubes warmed up. Modern tube gear is much more reliable then the old counterparts. Unless you are leaving your home unattended for several days I would always at least leave the preamp in standby.

What you will find is that it can take anywhere from 15-30 minutes to get the best sound from tubes as they will sound best when they reach their optimal operating temperature. Until that point, the music might sound fuzzy, hard, or slight disorted. So if you turn off the preamp everytime expect some warmup time. I would suggest playing some background music to get the tubes fully warmed up from a cold start.

Different tubes, even within the same class, break-in differently and may require different amounts of time. Beware that initial breakin needs to take into account the non-tube parts which is few compared to solid state. So initial break-in will take longer.

When you roll tubes this will also take some break-in. I would suggest not doing any critical listening until the SLP-50B is broken-in. Also, I would use the stock 6922 tubes for a while. This allows you to get used to the sound of the preamp as stock. After a period of time, say maybe a couple months, I would work on rolling different 6922 or 7308 tubes. Doing it this way, will allow you to determine best which rolled tubes improve upon what you already have. Also, you want some time to get used to the SLP-50B preamp. When you do go searching for different 6922 and 7308 tubes please be aware that what someone else suggests may not work for you. A lot will depend on your what sounds good to you and how well the tubes balances out with your other gear.

As far as buying Old Stock tubes (uew or used) from the dealer, beware that if you dealer is not heavy into stocking various types of tubes you may end up paying a lot more as the dealer will have to find them for you and probably charge you extra. I would suggest looking at the FAQ of Audio Asylum, under tube resellers and contact the various tube resellers to get prices. Also, ebay can be a good place to buy new/used tubes. Keep in mind that you are about to embark on a wonderful thing that may cost you some bucks to obtain Old Stock tubes. In my opinion the cost is well worth it.

[Lexman]

Great post Michael. I can&#39;t contribute here beyond that. Your out of my domain, lol.

Crimson, I think he gives great advice here. It&#39;s a great example of why he is moderator here too.

Lex





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