This is Eastern Electric’s finest offering in a true tube balanced preamplifier. Three sets of RCA inputs, one set of XLR balanced inputs. Two sets of RCA outputs, one set of tube- balanced outputs. Adjustable Gain range of 5-10dB.The Gain knob affects the resolution of the high frequencies while also adding some weight to the bottom end. You’ll have to adjust accordingly to your system.
Remote control. Tube rectifier (6X4).
A pair of 12AX7 tubes are the input/gain stages. 12AU7 tubes are also employed in the feedback loop of the gain control.
Some specifications:
Maximum output voltage: 20V
Frequency response; 15Hz-60KHz (+-1dB)
THD:0.8% (1KHz)
Output impedance: 1K
Signal to noise: 90dB
Dimensions (W X L X H) 17” X 16.5 X 4.75
Weight: 22Lbs
Milled Aluminum remote control Here is one customer thoughts. Here are my first impressions:
Upon taking the preamplifier out of the box I was shocked at how heavy and well built it was. The pictures on the web, both on the forums and on several sites don't do this piece justice. It simply oozes craftsmanship. Everything from the beautiful silver finish on the front panel to the way the volume control and gain controls feel when you use them. This is a wonderful piece of equipment, attention has been paid to fit and form in every way.
Let's talk about the remote, I have had many of them. This remote control is simply the finest piece of solid aluminum I have ever laid eyes on! It's so heavy I am sure you could knock someone out with it if you threw it at them. Don't get me wrong, it's not too heavy, it simply "feels good" in your hand. Unlike so many cheesy plastic remotes on so many electronic audio pieces these days even attention to detail was paid to the design of the remote. The aluminum keys that control all the inputs, volume and mute are so well designed I would imagine no issues many years later. By the way, it's unusual to get this many functions on a remote and it's very welcome. I wish more tube manufacturers would do what Eastern Electric has done, It's obvious that the designer paid attention to his customer requests.
The remote works everywhere in my living room, as much as 45 degrees to the side. There is no issue with using the remote functions anywhere in any room that I can see, it worked flawlessly every time.
Now to the insides, when I opened the chassis to confirm the tubes were placed correctly and had not shifted in shipment I was struck by the quality of the workmanship in the chassis. This preamplifier is extremely well laid out on the internal/parts board, I am not an engineer but my friend is and when he came over and looked at it he commented that there was a certain elegance in the way the parts board was put together, with an eye to simplicity and short, direct connections.
Now to the sound. How can I describe something that made both myself and my friends jaws drop the ground with a resounding "thud"? This is the kind of sound that I agonized over and spent much money in purchasing both class D and class A amplifiers. I have had no success until now and with the preamplifier I have achieved it!
I will be simple, the vocalists voice floats out of the speakers, the instruments hang in the air two, three feet to the side at times. The speakers simply disappear at times. Percussion and drums snap and cascade in synchronicity! Now here is the interesting part. Before, with a solid state pre amp if you put either the class A or Class D amplifiers on the back end of the signal, the sound would change correspondingly. Class A had a warmth to it, Class D had a sterility to it. (That is a simplistic description, it is much more complex than that)
Now comes the interesting part, putting the Avant in front of either amplification imparted a sense of openness and spaciousness that was irrespective of amplification used! This was accurate sound, it was not changing the frequency response, rather it opened up the sound stage and imparted a sense of realism to the music irrespective of amplifier used.
The Avant did it's magic with whatever was hooked up with it. In the case of Class A amplification it seemed to "snap" the imaging into focus, and sped up the attack of the amplifier. With Class D amplification it took that sterility in the sound and simply erased it, it opened up the midrange, one of the weaknesses I feel of class D amplification and imparted a sense of openness to the sound that did not exist before.
I see anyone using a class D amplifier or for that matter any solid state amplifier using this..
Oh, and one more thing, I have yet to tube roll, this is using the stock tubes with the NOS Haltron black glass rectifier you installed.
I assume this will only get better as the preamplifier breaks in and I start to tube roll. I am very very happy with my purchase.
In closing I would highly recommend this pre amp to anyone looking to get into tube sound regardless of amplification. The sense of quality of build and acoustic solidness this pre amp imparts in my opinion would easily compete with other preamplifier's costing up to twice as much!
Feel free to reprint or use my evaluation as you see fit!
Warm Regards, I’m offering as a Holiday Special Regularl$1750.00
20% discount = $1400.00
$40 shipping anywhere in Continental USA
PayPal ad 3.75%
Thanks for considering,
Bill O’Connell
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