Recently I have been given (yes, for free!) this wonderful device. I have never had a preamp and I confess I didn't even knew what they were for. Once I knew they are aimed to 'correct' any non-linearity of your turntable setup or deck, to send the signal 'corrected' to an amplifier or to another deck I thought I could make good use of it. Finally I found a place for it under my monitors. This beauty is fully made of metal, with a level of quality that is hardly found in nowadays HI-FI devices. The knobs are just delicious to use. With many smooth but precise 'clicks' it's just pure joy. The big volume knob is just glorious. Even more clicks (one per number position) and very very smooth to rotate. It has two line inputs (tuner and aux), two embedded phono preamps (MC and MM) and two in & out deck connections. It has level, bass and treble separate controls for left and right channel and it's completely built on dual mono paths, so channel separation is basically perfect. Using a precision gauge, a protractor (that you can download and print from HIFI Engine) and a very special vinyl from Analogue productions, The ultimate test LP, I could precisely calibrate the cartridge and then measure the frequency response. Continue reading...
You are lucky, Hugo. Beautiful unit indeed. Just imagine a pre amp only not an amplifier but with such a tough built. Can you share some shots on the rear unit?
I was given this unit from the guys of a hi-end store here in Barcelona I met a year ago. They quickly associated my name to 'analog' and 'cassettes' so everytime they find something to give or sale regarding all these, they call me. In this case, it was just the preamp and not the amplifier, so I only have what you can see. No extra devices. Anyway, I have also my own stack in the living room, with amplifier and all that so this DA-P20 is for my setup in my working room, where I mostly listen with headphones. I won't miss the amplifier, though
Shame you didn't get the amp that went with that hugo lad, i have been using pre amps for years mate, don't see any real advantage though if im honest
hey Hugo, what speakers are you running with it - or do you use a power-amp ? if you want to use some active speakers, I could offer you a pair of active RESTEK high-end bookshelf-speaker for it (?)
As I explained, it was very useful to linearize the freq response. So, as I already had a very good sound, this preamp made it a bit better, and easier to record on cassette. Well, I already explained in my reply (#3) that I use it in my working room, with headphones, so no amp nor speakers. I just have decent active computer speakers for when I don't want to use headphones...