Back in the spring of this year, I got the inkling to try out tubes. That kernel of an idea led to an extensive overhaul of my setup. Several months later, I can now say that I’m content with what I have, and I can relax and enjoy the music a little more. After building my own tube power amplifier (a custom Analog Ethos AE1), I needed to pair it with both higher efficiency speakers and a standalone preamplifier. The result is what can now be seen on the new Equipment page of my website.
There was also a terrible dilemma involving a slight ground hum created by my OWL 1 78 phono stage. It caused a great deal of trouble because it was very difficult to find a solution. I went back and forth between trying to find a single phono stage for both LPs and 78s versus finding a phono stage just for LPs and a solution to the ground hum problem. After receiving advice from numerous experienced professionals, I ended up finding my own solution: a ten-dollar ground loop isolator fromParts Express!
I was completely thrilled to have solved the problem, and it meant that I could have the best of both worlds: I could keep using my OWL 1 for 78s, which would make the job of finding a preamp with a standard LP (RIAA) phono stage built in much easier (since there are so few phono stages out there with EQ settings for both LPs and 78). The preamp ended up being the Apt Holman preamplifier, a vintage preamp recommended to me by an acquaintance from the Connecticut Audio Society. The Apt Holman also had a mono button (actually a mono knob that grants the user the ability to slowly “fold” the stereo image to mono), which is my long-preferred solution to playing both stereo and mono records on my system.
In the past I’ve shared a list of the equipment I’m using on the About page of this site. Now that I have a setup I am so content with (and even a little proud of), I decided to share some photos as well (shoutout to FW Rare Jazz Vinyl Collector for the inspiration). Check the link below!