Up for sale is a difficult to find almost brand new Doge Clarity 8 preamplifier with (obviously) Clarity caps but also with MusiCaps as well. This started out to be a Doge 8 LP but as I got talking to Marc from Doge we discussed caps for the preamplifier and I learned that for about $300 more than the cost of the regular Doge 8 LP I could get the much sought after Clarity 8 preamplifier that was once only the territory of the old Pacific Valve Company that has now gone defunct. So, here is one that is absolutely perfect and probably not even broken in yet. Here are the details:I have mostly amps and cables that are all balanced. I really wanted to try this preamp due to all the marvelous (and well deserved) press that this preamp has received, and frankly, many have missed the boat by not getting on board with how great this preamp sounds. So I contacted Doge and long story short they built this for me. Truth be told, the stock Chinese tubes do this preamp no favors so I will include some NOS 12AT7 / 6679 tubes that I purchased from The Parts Connexion. This preamp also has a built in phono section as well that takes four (4) 12AX7 tubes but as I have a rather expensive stand alone phonostage I never tried the phono section of the Doge. From what I have been able to gather from reading all I can, the phono section is quite good but again, one needs some decent NOS tubes or some better current production 12AX7 tubes like the Gold Lions. There is an all metal remote with this that is quite heavy. The volume control has a small blue diode on the volume knob so in the dark or low light one can see the position of the volume knob. And now the reason for the sale and there are a few: As mentioned, I run mostly balanced cables and the Doge is all single ended,both inputs and outputs. While I could use adapters, it does add a lot of weight to the ends of the cables and does make for some connectivity issues. I use rather large amps and combining the gain of the Doge with the large amps (plus fairly efficient speakers) I just have too much gain for my system. And lastly, I have too much "stuff". I do need to thin the herd and I will remain with my preamp that has balanced inputs and outputs though the Doge gives up nothing sonically to my other preamps, both of which cost a lot more than the Doge. Shipping will be to the lower 48 states only. Shipping will be via FedEx and the preamp will be double boxed at least, if not triple boxed. Be advised that this preamp is HEAVY. The manufacturer states 35 pounds for its weight and I believe it. Shipping with packing and all will probably add a few more pounds so shipping weight will be close to 38 pounds if not a tad more. I don't gouge on shipping. I will charge you what it costs me to ship and nothing more. PP fees I usually eat but on large dollar items those fees start to add up so at my asking price, and only at my asking price I will split the fees. I will ship the preamp with the stock Chinese tubes in place and include the NOS tubes packed separately in with the preamp or perhaps ship them on their own depending on space. The NOS tubes do test well and I gave them a brief listen and they are quiet. I would advise though, as previously stated, getting some additional NOS tubes for some fun tube rolling. 12AT7 tubes are still pretty inexpensive. One more thing: I did add some sound dampening material to the lid of the Doge 8. There really was no ringing but I do like to have the tops of my preamps to have more a dull "thump" on it so I added the material. Please feel free to ask any questions. I will be out of town from April 1 through the 8th. My wife has no access to my emails so she cannot reply or ship for me. If you are interested please let me know and I will do everything I can to ship it to you before I leave or after I get back. Of course, sooner is better than later....
Though I am "unrated" here on Asylum Trader I have a perfect score of 100% positive on Audiogon under the moniker of "zkidd" as well as a pefect score on USAM if you would like to check that out. Thanks for looking and thanks for the patience in reading the ad. This is a great preamp and with some balanced inputs/outputs and a little less gain this would remain here in my house!
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