Our Playback System (and Why You Shouldn’t Care)
A blast from the past about the single most revolutionary change I made to my system in the 70s.
In the commentary below I talk about buying the Audio Research SP3A-1 tube preamp (with built-in phono stage, as was the rule in those days). The difference it made in the ability of my system to reproduce the subtle complexities of my favorite music was completely beyond my imagination after having spent my early days listening through transistors.
Naturally, my ability to enjoy music increased dramatically as well. It wasn’t long before I was obsessed.
I was running Crown gear at the time, the DC-300 amp and the IC-150 preamp, so you can imagine that owning a state-of-the-art tube preamp was a real game changer for me.
We talk a lot about Tubey Magic on the site and on this blog. This preamp is the very definition of that sound.
Listening for Tubey Magic was simply not possible until we had electronics that could reproduce it, and the ARC equipment of that day had the best balance of Tubey Magic with clarity and freedom from smear that money could buy.
You could call my old Crown system BTM (Before Tubey Magic) and my new Audio Research-based system WTM (With Tubey Magic) if you wanted to be cute about it.
Now we provide the same life-chaning experiences to the audiophiles of the world through our Hot Stamper pressings. Better sound than they ever imagined. It’s practically our credo.