After the last Lone Star Bottlehead meeing at Wardsweb's place, and after staring enviously at the room he has all to himself to build, modify, and putter with his audio equipment, I convinced my wife we really don't need to use that fourth bedroom as a bedroom. I sold the hundred years' old antique bed the next week, and the room has become mine!
Of course, that called for another system. You can't work on tube audio stuff in silence, can you? Since I have several amps and speakers I only needed a new preamp to complete the system. I needed something really cheap and didn't want to mess with a used pre, but I didn't want another Foreplay either (how much foreplay can you do before passion turns to boredom?).
I saw the Audio Experience MK3 advertised on Audiogon for $310 including airfreight from Hong Kong and ordered one on July 1st. It arrived today. I don't want to comment on how it sounds just yet, but in my Marantz CD-67, Assemblage 300B, Klipsch Cornwall system it sounds pretty good to me right out of the box. The Lone Star Botts are meeting here on Aug 9th, so I'll let them pass judgement as we compare it with some of Lee R's creations and other outstanding preamps that usually come to these meetings.
In the meantime I do have a question about how it works. There's a 5Y3 rectifier plus three 12AX7's. The input from each channel of the volume control goes thru a 0.22uF cap and then thru a 2K resistor to pins 2 and 7 (the grids) of the middle 12AX7, which is labeled V1.
Pin 6 (one plate) of V1 goes thru a 0.22uF cap to pin 2 (one of the two grids) of V2. Pin 1 of V2 (one plate) is connected directly to pin 7 (the grid on the other side of this dual triode tube). Pin 8 (the cathode) is connected to the output RCA thru a 2.2uF capacitor.
Pin 1 (the other plate) of V1 is connected to the grid of the other 12AX7 (V3) thru an identical 0.22uF cap, and the rest of the circuitry for V3 is similar to that of V2.
Am I corrrect in assuming that V1 is an input buffer, and that each of the other 12AX7's functions as a volatage amplifier and cathode follower for one channel? Comments?
Of course, that called for another system. You can't work on tube audio stuff in silence, can you? Since I have several amps and speakers I only needed a new preamp to complete the system. I needed something really cheap and didn't want to mess with a used pre, but I didn't want another Foreplay either (how much foreplay can you do before passion turns to boredom?).
I saw the Audio Experience MK3 advertised on Audiogon for $310 including airfreight from Hong Kong and ordered one on July 1st. It arrived today. I don't want to comment on how it sounds just yet, but in my Marantz CD-67, Assemblage 300B, Klipsch Cornwall system it sounds pretty good to me right out of the box. The Lone Star Botts are meeting here on Aug 9th, so I'll let them pass judgement as we compare it with some of Lee R's creations and other outstanding preamps that usually come to these meetings.
In the meantime I do have a question about how it works. There's a 5Y3 rectifier plus three 12AX7's. The input from each channel of the volume control goes thru a 0.22uF cap and then thru a 2K resistor to pins 2 and 7 (the grids) of the middle 12AX7, which is labeled V1.
Pin 6 (one plate) of V1 goes thru a 0.22uF cap to pin 2 (one of the two grids) of V2. Pin 1 of V2 (one plate) is connected directly to pin 7 (the grid on the other side of this dual triode tube). Pin 8 (the cathode) is connected to the output RCA thru a 2.2uF capacitor.
Pin 1 (the other plate) of V1 is connected to the grid of the other 12AX7 (V3) thru an identical 0.22uF cap, and the rest of the circuitry for V3 is similar to that of V2.
Am I corrrect in assuming that V1 is an input buffer, and that each of the other 12AX7's functions as a volatage amplifier and cathode follower for one channel? Comments?
