Thank you! Very nice offer. Not getting to the Bay as often as we imagined when we moved to Sac but I'll definitely keep it mind. Very generous of you as usual.
Tell me more about your MW 9SE please. I'm looking at that at the moment. I think it's neck and neck between that and the Juicy right now. I tend to prefer things on the warmish side of neutral. I love the detail and three-dimensionality of my SEP amp and F5 clone. They're very revealing but sometimes too much so. So I would love a pre that both smooths things out as well as enhances the stage/image/yada yada. It's seeming like the MW 9 or Juicy might get me to that spot at a price point that's right for me. That said, I would be open to something that's notoriously warm like the Mac...so I'll keep that as my "dark" horse contender (yuck yuck). While the MW 36.5 looks amazing, it might be too much of a stretch for me.
I wish I had heard a Juicy Music somewhere along the way so I could put the two in perspective for you.
I wouldn't say the MW is a warm preamp, but it's not thin/lean/cold either. Compared with two VERY fine SS preamps (Bryston 1B and Forte Model 2), the MW adds an extra level of soundstage depth and dimensionality - maybe that's the tube aspect coming into play - not sure.
The Bryston and Forte are incrementally a bit more warm/full/dark, but not obviously so in casual listening.
The truth is I could be very happy with any of them. Since I have all of them, I compare and look for subtle differences. Neither the Bryston or Forte have been recapped, so they're 30+ and ~20yrs old respectively. Perhaps they would move more toward the MW sound if recapped. I have all the caps for the Forte, so will likely be recapping in the not so distant future and will compare again.
Note: This is all with my MC 2120 amp, which leans more toward the warm/full side while still being very nice in other important aspects.
These are the 3 best preamps I've come across for my system. Several others have come through that have been too bright, too slow/rolled off, too flat, etc. These 3 are non-fatiguing, yet warm/detailed/musical enough with the MC 2120 that they all make me happy.
The reason I'd choose the MW in my current situation is that extra level of depth and dimension, plus it has a remote control. And I can tube roll to subtlely change the sound. All of the above are with Tung Sol 5687's. I have other good tubes for it, but haven't changed them out to do careful comparisons with the other two.
If I didn't have the 2120, my choice might be different because I might want more warmth/fullness with a colder/leaner amp.
But what I'll also say is that my preference may also change with different types of music. For critical listening comparisons, I tend to use acoustic jazz and female vocals rather than dense, and what can be at times less well-produced, classic rock for instance. Maybe, perhaps, I might care less about depth and dimension if I were just rocking out with a wall of sound.
I've said I'm very happy with all three, yet I'm going to be bringing a recapped C35 into the mix. The reason is really more curiosity than need. I'm curious If a Mac pre will add that extra incremental helping of the intangible musicality that Macs are known for. Also, it has 5 band tone controls, which I know can be useful for certain recordings. So it's looking for that last 5-7% because that's the way we audio people roll. It also retains the remote control that the MW has and Bryston and Forte don't.
Not sure if that helps, but I suspect only marginally so. It would be more helpful if I had heard a Juicy and could tell you how it compared with the MW, but unfortunately I haven't.