I'm on a path to upgrade my preamp, and came across this. Seems to have some good press on Audiogon and a few clues elsewhere. I'm wondering if any Wammers have experience with one, either the A2 or A2-SE models. It ticks quite a few of the boxes for what I'm looking for - balanced and SE ins and outs, remote, adjustable gain, tape output (doesn't seem to have a tape monitor though). The big one is the price, though I could certainly stretch the budget given time.
YS Audio Experience Balanced A2
- Thread starter old_school
-
Start date
- Views 4,711
I am asking the same question.
I guess if there have been no replies in more than 4 years there are unlikely to be any now!
I guess if there have been no replies in more than 4 years there are unlikely to be any now!
I have taken the plunge and ordered the A2 Balanced Plus from YS Audio. Scheduled to arrive mid February 2018.
I will be running a balanced Digital Audio Company DAC (high spec) into it and it will be driving two Digital Audio Company Maraschino Cherry class D monoblocks into Rubicon 2 speakers.
This will be my first venture into the world of valves (although I borrowed a Croft for a few months and a Copland hybrid for a few months too - liked both of those).
The balanced architecture swung me towards YS Audio along with the (relatively) inexpensive price coupled with some good reviews. Will update here with my impressions when it arrives.
I will be running a balanced Digital Audio Company DAC (high spec) into it and it will be driving two Digital Audio Company Maraschino Cherry class D monoblocks into Rubicon 2 speakers.
This will be my first venture into the world of valves (although I borrowed a Croft for a few months and a Copland hybrid for a few months too - liked both of those).
The balanced architecture swung me towards YS Audio along with the (relatively) inexpensive price coupled with some good reviews. Will update here with my impressions when it arrives.
I thought that I would update on my experiences with the Audio Experience - A2 Balanced Plus.
Why this amp?
To date, not through any particular decision or intention, but rather through ignorance I have been a "solid sate" man.
For the last few years there has been a bit of an itch to scratch with respect to tubes. I have borrowed one or two either tube or hybrid amps over the last couple of years from other extraordinary generous Wammers and always liked the sound.
About 15 years ago I bought a 2nd hand AudioLab 8000a for £110 off fleabay and was very happy with it. I did not really get into HiFi until it broke and that led me into a bought of upgraditis in which I spent (wasted?) a lot of money and made some mistakes. What I didn't realise when the 8000a broke was that I could get it repaired relatively cheaply. Had I done that I would probably have been quite content and that would have been that!
Anyway when the 8000a broke, I thought lets try upgrading to something a bit newer. As I loved the 8000a I stuck with AudioLab and bought an 8200CDQ CD/DAC/Preamp and coupled it with an 8200P power amp. Oops. The CDQ was excellent! Seriously one of the best value pieces of kit ever IMO. If you were starting from scratch with nothing I think this would be a great component to put at the centre of a new system. Excellent CD transport, DAC and both digital and analog pre-amps all in the one box for not that much money. So I was very happy with the 8200CDQ but the 8200P was another matter. There was a distinct noisy hum that came from the torrodial transformer and this drove me nuts! I went on the hunt for a different power amplifier and my key criteria was absolute dead quiet during silent passages. After much research I was drawn to a pair of class D mono blocs and the rather quirky but aesthetically pleasing look of the Maraschino Cherries.
http://www.cherryamp.com/king-60v-desktop-marachino-dtm
I bought them in an unusual way. Digital Amplifier Company, who make the Maraschino's, did a kickstarter project for a new DAC they wanted to develop. By sponsoring through kickstarter to a certain level you got both the mono blocs and either the tube spec or high spec newly developed DAC at a competitave price. So that is what I did and ended up with the mono blocs but also a rather good DAC that I didn't really need as I had the CDQ. The mono blocs were everything I hoped for - as well as being deadly quiet they looked rather good too in bright red. I knew that I was unlikely to be able to sell the DACDAC for anything like it's true value so sadly decided to move on the CDQ as well as the 8200P. I did slightly prefer the sound of the DACDAC to the internal DAC in the CDQ. But that meant I would need both a CD transport and a pre-amp to replace the other components I was going to lose from the CDQ. I bought a 2nd hand Cyrus CD XT SE off another wammer for the transport and started the hunt for an appropriate pre-amp.
Choosing a pre-amp is really hard! There is just far too much choice and soooo many good possibilities. By the time you throw passives into the mix it gets totally mind boggling. For reasons that I can not fully articulate I decided that I wanted to go for a tube pre-amp to put in front of the Class D monoblocs. Possibly due to the critism of the over analytic and dry sound that solid state and particularly class D receives. Also with the DACDAC being a fully balanced design with only XLR outputs and the Maraschino's only having XLR inputs I reckoned that a single ended design didn't make much sense. This was quite sad as I would have loved to buy a tube amp from David Coe who only lives 15 mins away from me
https://adaudio.wordpress.com/about/
However Dave's designs are singled ended and were ja bit above my price point.
YS audio in Hong Kong build a balanced tube pre-amp at a extremely competitave price ...
http://www.ys-audio.com/
The Balanced A2 +
http://www.ys-audio.com/a2plus.htm
and I decided that met my criteria at a reasonable price point. My research indicated that other owners of the amp couldn't sing its praises highly enough and despite having never heard it I decided to take the risk and pull the trigger on 15th January this year and ordered the A2 + from the ys-audio website.
Nelson, who designs and builds the amps got back to me immediately to advise that the build time would be 21-28 days and shipping from Hong Kong to the UK would be another 6 days or so.
The amp duly arrived on 23rd February. It was double boxed with bubble wrap and expanded polystyrene foam between the inner box and the outer. I was seriously underwhelmed by the packaging in the inner box. In constrast to both the Maraschino cherries and DACDAC that came from the states and both were completely surrounded by sponge foam that had been cut precisely to size to fit around the components and tightly into the box, the A2 + had no custom packaging and just a few more rather unconvincing pieces of polystyrene foam.
That said the amp itself was well constucted from black painted steel plate with an extraordinary chunky 8mm alloy face plate. The amp came with a simple remote to allow input selection from the four line level inputs and a volume control. This was just as well as the manual input selector on the front of the face appeared not to be working! The manual volume control and left and right gain controls both worked fine. I had read a post from another customer who had received a damaged amp but they reported that Nelson was responsible and helpful with the issue they had so I didn't let this put me off. Having said that it was hugely dissappointing to recieve a product that was not 100%. When I ordered it, I made a bit of an issue about QA stating that this was really important to me as I didn't want to ship a defective product back to HK from the UK. I emailed Nelson about the issue and said that I thought it would be cheaper to repair the amp in the UK rather than ship it back. He was helpful and offerred to ship any parts that might be required.
Before taking to be repaired I decided that I would open the amp up and try and diagnose the problem myself. If any soldering was going to be needed my plan was to engage David Coe and and try and recover the repair costs from Nelson. When I opened the amp up I found the repair was trivial and didn't require soldering and that I could do it fairly easily myself. The selector switch was a digital switch and was mounted on a small board on the other side of the front plate along with the IR receiver for the remote and the input selector LEDs. There were four steel legs that should have been holding the main body of the switch in place but these were not gripping the switch as tightly as they should have been. Very gently I squeezed the legs with some fine nosed pliers so that they had a good mechanical grip on the selector switch. With the amp dissembled I switched it on and tested the repair. Way Hay! The switch was working perfectly. Phew. No 3rd party repair or expensive shipping costs back to HK would be required. All in all to dis-assemble the amp, diagnose the repair, fix it, test it and re-assemble the amp took just over 1.5 hours.
So apart from the initially dodgy selector switch what are my impressions of the amp?
It sounds very very good. Sadly I am not a HiFi buff and don't feel I have the right knowledge or vocabulary to convey the character of the amp to those who are more knowedgable. All I can do is compare to other things I have known and I feel that it is as good as, if not better than, anything I have owned or borrowed previously. This includes the "basic" Croft amp, a hybrid Copland CSA 14, an early prototype of Dave's Satchmo single ended tube amp (I know that Dave has done a lot of improvements to the Satchmo since I borrowed it) and the 8000A and 8200CDQ.
I was offerred the loan of a Research Audio Company LS27 a while back. Sadly for one reason or another that didn't work out logistically as I would be very keen to see how the Balanced A2 + compared to that or some other higher end tube amps (BAT, AudioNote etc).
It must have been 2 or 3 years ago that my original 8000a broke. Prior to that I wasn't much interested in HiFi, I just enjoyed music. I am rather hoping that I can now return to that happy state of affairs. My final system looks like this ...
Analog Input
Project Debut turntable into Angle Audio phono into Balanced A2+
Digital Inputs
Cyrus CD XT SE into Audio Authority Digital Switch
Sonos Bridge into Audio Authority Digital Switch (Spotify is streamed through Sonos)
PS4 into Audio Authority Digital Switch
Humax Settop box into Audio Authority Digital Switch
Audio Authority Digital Switch via coax digital to DACDAC
DACDAC via XLR to Balanced A2+
Balanced A2+ via XLR to Maraschino cherry mono blocks
Maraschino cherry mono blocks via chunky but cheap speaker cable to Rubicon 2 speakers on unknown but perfectly adequate stands.
This is a picture of the Balanced A2 + in my living room with the DACDAC and Angle Audio phono stage sat on top of it (I know not a good idea!) and the Audio Authority digital switch underneath.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/160052647@N08/shares/Z2U0e3
Why this amp?
To date, not through any particular decision or intention, but rather through ignorance I have been a "solid sate" man.
For the last few years there has been a bit of an itch to scratch with respect to tubes. I have borrowed one or two either tube or hybrid amps over the last couple of years from other extraordinary generous Wammers and always liked the sound.
About 15 years ago I bought a 2nd hand AudioLab 8000a for £110 off fleabay and was very happy with it. I did not really get into HiFi until it broke and that led me into a bought of upgraditis in which I spent (wasted?) a lot of money and made some mistakes. What I didn't realise when the 8000a broke was that I could get it repaired relatively cheaply. Had I done that I would probably have been quite content and that would have been that!
Anyway when the 8000a broke, I thought lets try upgrading to something a bit newer. As I loved the 8000a I stuck with AudioLab and bought an 8200CDQ CD/DAC/Preamp and coupled it with an 8200P power amp. Oops. The CDQ was excellent! Seriously one of the best value pieces of kit ever IMO. If you were starting from scratch with nothing I think this would be a great component to put at the centre of a new system. Excellent CD transport, DAC and both digital and analog pre-amps all in the one box for not that much money. So I was very happy with the 8200CDQ but the 8200P was another matter. There was a distinct noisy hum that came from the torrodial transformer and this drove me nuts! I went on the hunt for a different power amplifier and my key criteria was absolute dead quiet during silent passages. After much research I was drawn to a pair of class D mono blocs and the rather quirky but aesthetically pleasing look of the Maraschino Cherries.
http://www.cherryamp.com/king-60v-desktop-marachino-dtm
I bought them in an unusual way. Digital Amplifier Company, who make the Maraschino's, did a kickstarter project for a new DAC they wanted to develop. By sponsoring through kickstarter to a certain level you got both the mono blocs and either the tube spec or high spec newly developed DAC at a competitave price. So that is what I did and ended up with the mono blocs but also a rather good DAC that I didn't really need as I had the CDQ. The mono blocs were everything I hoped for - as well as being deadly quiet they looked rather good too in bright red. I knew that I was unlikely to be able to sell the DACDAC for anything like it's true value so sadly decided to move on the CDQ as well as the 8200P. I did slightly prefer the sound of the DACDAC to the internal DAC in the CDQ. But that meant I would need both a CD transport and a pre-amp to replace the other components I was going to lose from the CDQ. I bought a 2nd hand Cyrus CD XT SE off another wammer for the transport and started the hunt for an appropriate pre-amp.
Choosing a pre-amp is really hard! There is just far too much choice and soooo many good possibilities. By the time you throw passives into the mix it gets totally mind boggling. For reasons that I can not fully articulate I decided that I wanted to go for a tube pre-amp to put in front of the Class D monoblocs. Possibly due to the critism of the over analytic and dry sound that solid state and particularly class D receives. Also with the DACDAC being a fully balanced design with only XLR outputs and the Maraschino's only having XLR inputs I reckoned that a single ended design didn't make much sense. This was quite sad as I would have loved to buy a tube amp from David Coe who only lives 15 mins away from me
https://adaudio.wordpress.com/about/
However Dave's designs are singled ended and were ja bit above my price point.
YS audio in Hong Kong build a balanced tube pre-amp at a extremely competitave price ...
http://www.ys-audio.com/
The Balanced A2 +
http://www.ys-audio.com/a2plus.htm
and I decided that met my criteria at a reasonable price point. My research indicated that other owners of the amp couldn't sing its praises highly enough and despite having never heard it I decided to take the risk and pull the trigger on 15th January this year and ordered the A2 + from the ys-audio website.
Nelson, who designs and builds the amps got back to me immediately to advise that the build time would be 21-28 days and shipping from Hong Kong to the UK would be another 6 days or so.
The amp duly arrived on 23rd February. It was double boxed with bubble wrap and expanded polystyrene foam between the inner box and the outer. I was seriously underwhelmed by the packaging in the inner box. In constrast to both the Maraschino cherries and DACDAC that came from the states and both were completely surrounded by sponge foam that had been cut precisely to size to fit around the components and tightly into the box, the A2 + had no custom packaging and just a few more rather unconvincing pieces of polystyrene foam.
That said the amp itself was well constucted from black painted steel plate with an extraordinary chunky 8mm alloy face plate. The amp came with a simple remote to allow input selection from the four line level inputs and a volume control. This was just as well as the manual input selector on the front of the face appeared not to be working! The manual volume control and left and right gain controls both worked fine. I had read a post from another customer who had received a damaged amp but they reported that Nelson was responsible and helpful with the issue they had so I didn't let this put me off. Having said that it was hugely dissappointing to recieve a product that was not 100%. When I ordered it, I made a bit of an issue about QA stating that this was really important to me as I didn't want to ship a defective product back to HK from the UK. I emailed Nelson about the issue and said that I thought it would be cheaper to repair the amp in the UK rather than ship it back. He was helpful and offerred to ship any parts that might be required.
Before taking to be repaired I decided that I would open the amp up and try and diagnose the problem myself. If any soldering was going to be needed my plan was to engage David Coe and and try and recover the repair costs from Nelson. When I opened the amp up I found the repair was trivial and didn't require soldering and that I could do it fairly easily myself. The selector switch was a digital switch and was mounted on a small board on the other side of the front plate along with the IR receiver for the remote and the input selector LEDs. There were four steel legs that should have been holding the main body of the switch in place but these were not gripping the switch as tightly as they should have been. Very gently I squeezed the legs with some fine nosed pliers so that they had a good mechanical grip on the selector switch. With the amp dissembled I switched it on and tested the repair. Way Hay! The switch was working perfectly. Phew. No 3rd party repair or expensive shipping costs back to HK would be required. All in all to dis-assemble the amp, diagnose the repair, fix it, test it and re-assemble the amp took just over 1.5 hours.
So apart from the initially dodgy selector switch what are my impressions of the amp?
It sounds very very good. Sadly I am not a HiFi buff and don't feel I have the right knowledge or vocabulary to convey the character of the amp to those who are more knowedgable. All I can do is compare to other things I have known and I feel that it is as good as, if not better than, anything I have owned or borrowed previously. This includes the "basic" Croft amp, a hybrid Copland CSA 14, an early prototype of Dave's Satchmo single ended tube amp (I know that Dave has done a lot of improvements to the Satchmo since I borrowed it) and the 8000A and 8200CDQ.
I was offerred the loan of a Research Audio Company LS27 a while back. Sadly for one reason or another that didn't work out logistically as I would be very keen to see how the Balanced A2 + compared to that or some other higher end tube amps (BAT, AudioNote etc).
It must have been 2 or 3 years ago that my original 8000a broke. Prior to that I wasn't much interested in HiFi, I just enjoyed music. I am rather hoping that I can now return to that happy state of affairs. My final system looks like this ...
Analog Input
Project Debut turntable into Angle Audio phono into Balanced A2+
Digital Inputs
Cyrus CD XT SE into Audio Authority Digital Switch
Sonos Bridge into Audio Authority Digital Switch (Spotify is streamed through Sonos)
PS4 into Audio Authority Digital Switch
Humax Settop box into Audio Authority Digital Switch
Audio Authority Digital Switch via coax digital to DACDAC
DACDAC via XLR to Balanced A2+
Balanced A2+ via XLR to Maraschino cherry mono blocks
Maraschino cherry mono blocks via chunky but cheap speaker cable to Rubicon 2 speakers on unknown but perfectly adequate stands.
This is a picture of the Balanced A2 + in my living room with the DACDAC and Angle Audio phono stage sat on top of it (I know not a good idea!) and the Audio Authority digital switch underneath.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/160052647@N08/shares/Z2U0e3
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi Andy,
I hope you are well and things are better with you than last time we spoke? Very interesting to hear about your journey and how you nearly came to use my services! I've developed my own system and products a lot since your last visit here. Firstly, I made a quantum leap improvement to the Satchmo preamp and, as you say, given that you are only 15mins away you really should come round for a listen! The Satchmo could be made balanced but for reasons below I don't think there's any need. I've also improved my Dac offering, by adding a re-clocking module and valve output buffer stage. On the speaker front, I've now got some Troels Gravesen speakers that really bring my system to life. I've also added a Nord Class D amplifier to power the bass section and as this exactly matches the gain of my Mastersound 845 monoblocks, the whole system integrates beautifully.
The Nord Class D amps are of course balanced in operation and I both asked Colin the designer whether there was any sound quality advantage in running the amps balanced as opposed to single ended and I also ran some tests. Both Colin and the tests demonstrated there was no sonic advantage in running the Nord amp balanced. I have attached a pic of the current system.
I'm glad you found sonic bliss and do come round and hear my new pre version as it really is a quantum leap performance-wise over the previous incarnation.
David
I hope you are well and things are better with you than last time we spoke? Very interesting to hear about your journey and how you nearly came to use my services! I've developed my own system and products a lot since your last visit here. Firstly, I made a quantum leap improvement to the Satchmo preamp and, as you say, given that you are only 15mins away you really should come round for a listen! The Satchmo could be made balanced but for reasons below I don't think there's any need. I've also improved my Dac offering, by adding a re-clocking module and valve output buffer stage. On the speaker front, I've now got some Troels Gravesen speakers that really bring my system to life. I've also added a Nord Class D amplifier to power the bass section and as this exactly matches the gain of my Mastersound 845 monoblocks, the whole system integrates beautifully.
The Nord Class D amps are of course balanced in operation and I both asked Colin the designer whether there was any sound quality advantage in running the amps balanced as opposed to single ended and I also ran some tests. Both Colin and the tests demonstrated there was no sonic advantage in running the Nord amp balanced. I have attached a pic of the current system.
I'm glad you found sonic bliss and do come round and hear my new pre version as it really is a quantum leap performance-wise over the previous incarnation.
David
Last edited by a moderator:
M
Millennium
Guest
Well Dave your current system certainly looks a lot more impressive than mine! 
I know there is some agreement, on the WAM anyway, that balanced is not a requirement for the shorter cable runs that are found on typical home HiFi systems and that you should try and buy the best amp that you can for the money and not worry too much about whether balanced/single ended. I certainly would not argue against that but have only XLR output on my DAC and only XLR inputs on my mono-blocs. I simply did not want to introduce XLR/RCA adapters into the equation to support a single ended pre-amp. Also the Balanced A2+ including import costs and carriage came in at just £20 over a Grand new and while I don't doubt I may have been able to get something that sounded better 2nd hand, if I was lucky, for a new piece of kit, I very much doubt that I could have got anything better at that price.
Maybe "sonic bliss" is verging slight towards hyperbolic but I am very happy!
If felt quite risky importing direct from HK. It also felt quite risky opening up the amp to repair the selector switch (for me!).
However I do feel the risk has paid off. Now the select is working properly if feels very solid and dependable.
The A2+ seems to synchronise well with the Cherries and I am enjoying my music in a way that I have not experienced before.
It is lovely. The more I listen, the better it gets and I know it is a total cliche but I am hearing an awful lot of stuff that I hadn't heard before.
The texture and tone of the music is very rich. Also really impressed with the sound stage, imaging and the "space" between the sounds. Silent passages continue to be dead quiet.
I mostly listen to digital but since getting the A2+ I have felt moved to listen to more of my small and ancient vinyl collection.
Experenced St Pepper's in a way I never had before and Neil Diamond's Hot August Night really felt like I was in the Greek Theatre in LA.
That with my humble project debut and Angle Audio phono stage!
Early days yet (2 weeks in) but at this point in time I am feeling very pleased with my purchase.
I know there is some agreement, on the WAM anyway, that balanced is not a requirement for the shorter cable runs that are found on typical home HiFi systems and that you should try and buy the best amp that you can for the money and not worry too much about whether balanced/single ended. I certainly would not argue against that but have only XLR output on my DAC and only XLR inputs on my mono-blocs. I simply did not want to introduce XLR/RCA adapters into the equation to support a single ended pre-amp. Also the Balanced A2+ including import costs and carriage came in at just £20 over a Grand new and while I don't doubt I may have been able to get something that sounded better 2nd hand, if I was lucky, for a new piece of kit, I very much doubt that I could have got anything better at that price.
Maybe "sonic bliss" is verging slight towards hyperbolic but I am very happy!
If felt quite risky importing direct from HK. It also felt quite risky opening up the amp to repair the selector switch (for me!).
However I do feel the risk has paid off. Now the select is working properly if feels very solid and dependable.
The A2+ seems to synchronise well with the Cherries and I am enjoying my music in a way that I have not experienced before.
It is lovely. The more I listen, the better it gets and I know it is a total cliche but I am hearing an awful lot of stuff that I hadn't heard before.
The texture and tone of the music is very rich. Also really impressed with the sound stage, imaging and the "space" between the sounds. Silent passages continue to be dead quiet.
I mostly listen to digital but since getting the A2+ I have felt moved to listen to more of my small and ancient vinyl collection.
Experenced St Pepper's in a way I never had before and Neil Diamond's Hot August Night really felt like I was in the Greek Theatre in LA.
That with my humble project debut and Angle Audio phono stage!
Early days yet (2 weeks in) but at this point in time I am feeling very pleased with my purchase.
Last edited by a moderator:
M
Millennium
Guest
Hi Andy,
Ive been looking at the same preamp from Ys-Audio and wondered whether it would be possible to have a listen to yours?
kind regards.
Steve.
Ive been looking at the same preamp from Ys-Audio and wondered whether it would be possible to have a listen to yours?
kind regards.
Steve.
Steve - sorry mate.
I haven't been on here in years and didn't get any notification about your message! Of course you would have been more than welcome to come around and have a listen or even a loan for a few weeks. I am still very very happy with my purchase. As my Rubicon 2 speakers have matured my enjoyment of this pre-amp has increased. If I were starting from scratch with nothing though I think that I might go for Croft setup from UK. If balanced is important to you, as it was to me at the time, reckon the YS-Audio Balanced A2 is hard to beat at the price, otherwise I would probably go either Croft (http://www.croftacoustics.co.uk/series7_R.html) or more locally to me, David Coe's Satchmo 3 pre-amp (https://adaudio.wordpress.com/the-satchmo-preamplifier/) with a Croft power amp.
Fascinated to know what you did go for in the end or are you still looking?
I am currently thinking of replacing my Class D mono bloc's with a tube power amp and am thinking along the lines of a Croft Series 7 if that will pair up OK with the YS-Audio.
I haven't been on here in years and didn't get any notification about your message! Of course you would have been more than welcome to come around and have a listen or even a loan for a few weeks. I am still very very happy with my purchase. As my Rubicon 2 speakers have matured my enjoyment of this pre-amp has increased. If I were starting from scratch with nothing though I think that I might go for Croft setup from UK. If balanced is important to you, as it was to me at the time, reckon the YS-Audio Balanced A2 is hard to beat at the price, otherwise I would probably go either Croft (http://www.croftacoustics.co.uk/series7_R.html) or more locally to me, David Coe's Satchmo 3 pre-amp (https://adaudio.wordpress.com/the-satchmo-preamplifier/) with a Croft power amp.
Fascinated to know what you did go for in the end or are you still looking?
I am currently thinking of replacing my Class D mono bloc's with a tube power amp and am thinking along the lines of a Croft Series 7 if that will pair up OK with the YS-Audio.
I ran an A2+ for about two years. They sell with pretty vanilla sonicaps which I upgrade for russian paper in oil caps and russian teflon.
You also need to use decent NOS valves as the shipping ones aren't amazing.
All hand wired too.
In hindsight I wouldn't buy it again though.
The musical paradise MP-701 mk2 is a LOT more preamp for the money, balanced, with rectified power stage. I haven't heard one but I bet it is lot better.
The caps can also also be upgraded without any soldering.
https://www.musicalparadise.ca/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=103
You also need to use decent NOS valves as the shipping ones aren't amazing.
All hand wired too.
In hindsight I wouldn't buy it again though.
The musical paradise MP-701 mk2 is a LOT more preamp for the money, balanced, with rectified power stage. I haven't heard one but I bet it is lot better.
The caps can also also be upgraded without any soldering.
https://www.musicalparadise.ca/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=103
Hi Andy,
Hope you are well and surviving lockdown! I'm now on Satchmo 3 and strangely enough I've just made a balanced version for a client. Not in my usual Italian case tho, but a cheaper one without graphics!
David
Good work Dave! No plans to change my pre-amp. Thinking about maybe swapping my class D mono blocs for a stereo tube power amp though to be honest I have no spare cash to do this at the moment! Possibly a pipe dream.
Interesting that you would have that opinion without having heard one. I followed your link. It doesn't *look* like more pre-amp for the money. Indeed I would say that it looks less. The build quality does not look so good from the picture IMO and it doesn't have as many inputs (balanced or single ended) as the A2+. What did you actually move onto after the A2+ and how did it compare? I would find the answers to that question based on your experience of what came next interesting. Thanks for bringing the musical paradise MP-701 mk2 to my attention.
I have been happy with the stock tubes delivered with the A2+ and after almost 3 years have nothing to complain about. I don't know what either a sonicap or a NOS valve is so probably won't be changing any time soon. Obviously I am happier with the A2+ than you were as I have had it for almost 3 years now and probably feel happier with the purchase now than when I first bought it. I don't feel any compulsion to change anything about it.
The musical paradise preamp is based on the dac that I actually own and it is built like a tank. The YS isn't.
I upgraded to a Modwright 36.5 with very nice non "stock" valves.
NOS means new old stock.
That is a significant upgrade.
My impression of the YS was that it was solidly built. The 8mm anodised front plate gives it weighty and 'tank like' feeling IMO and certainly it is sturdier than a lot of kit I have owned. If you feel that the musical paradise preamp is better built I wouldn't argue with that as I only have the picture you referenced to go on.
I experienced the ModWright 36.5 at a bake off and was impressed with it. There is no question that is built like a tank! Great choice for a pre-amp upgrade.
I'd suggest changing the x4 main signal tubes for some vintage Telefunken. You will be surprised by the impact
The other two don't make much difference in my experience (can't remember their type)
The other two don't make much difference in my experience (can't remember their type)
The YS-Audio A2+ Balanced has the following 'stock' tubes:
4 x 12AU7
2 x 5687WB
I know nothing about tubes but I found this data sheet on the 12AU7 ...
https://www.effectrode.com/knowledge-base/the-12au7-tube/
from which I deduce that the 12AU7 is functional equivalent to the ECC82.
A number of replacement options for the ECC82 are outlined here ...
https://www.watfordvalves.com/products.asp?search=12AU7
Replacing the four with Mullard tubes would cost an eye watering (for me!) 4 x £85 + VAT = £340 + VAT
A matched quad of Telefunken can be found here for the slightly more reasonable £185 + VAT.
https://sxpro.co.uk/telefunken-ecc82-tk-12au7-vacuum-tube-matched-quad/?sku=ECC82-TK-MQ&gclid=CjwKCAiAqJn9BRB0EiwAJ1SztWR5pLDHQrx8mfbJHamzKsN8zLjeI01ZYZX9UjX9j61TjVQpv5wSohoCFJ4QAvD_BwE
As I am happy with the stock tubes at the moment I don't feel moved to spend the money and swap them out.
However when it comes to time to replace them I will consider this upgrade for sure.
I am curious as to whether other "tube aficiandos" think this would be good upgrade based on their experiences with other tube preamps?
There is a thread here about replacements for the 5687WB ...
4 x 12AU7
2 x 5687WB
I know nothing about tubes but I found this data sheet on the 12AU7 ...
https://www.effectrode.com/knowledge-base/the-12au7-tube/
from which I deduce that the 12AU7 is functional equivalent to the ECC82.
A number of replacement options for the ECC82 are outlined here ...
https://www.watfordvalves.com/products.asp?search=12AU7
Replacing the four with Mullard tubes would cost an eye watering (for me!) 4 x £85 + VAT = £340 + VAT
A matched quad of Telefunken can be found here for the slightly more reasonable £185 + VAT.
https://sxpro.co.uk/telefunken-ecc82-tk-12au7-vacuum-tube-matched-quad/?sku=ECC82-TK-MQ&gclid=CjwKCAiAqJn9BRB0EiwAJ1SztWR5pLDHQrx8mfbJHamzKsN8zLjeI01ZYZX9UjX9j61TjVQpv5wSohoCFJ4QAvD_BwE
As I am happy with the stock tubes at the moment I don't feel moved to spend the money and swap them out.
However when it comes to time to replace them I will consider this upgrade for sure.
I am curious as to whether other "tube aficiandos" think this would be good upgrade based on their experiences with other tube preamps?
There is a thread here about replacements for the 5687WB ...
Similar threads
Share this page
Forum statistics
Latest Articles
-
Review Meze 109pro ReviewMeze 109pro Open Back Headphones (£769) Martin Virgo Introduction...
- Mr Underhill
- Updated:
- 6 min read
-
Review Sound Artist LS3/5aSound Artist LS3/5a or System Building Review by Martin Virgo Sound...
- Mr Underhill
- Updated:
- 7 min read
-
Review No Stopping Me This Time, SMENo Stopping Me This Time, SME By Martin Virgo & George Sallit Trevor...
- Mr Underhill
- Updated:
- 6 min read
Staff online
-
jkbmusicModerator -
bandit pilotComfortably Numb
Wammers Online
- MrSteve
- TECUMSEH VALLEY
- Gwantommo
- DJM57
- jkbmusic
- Kmap
- Dazzor
- silkie
- Kajama
- terrycym
- Mowgli
- SpLinnter23
- Mark212121
- Ron.P
- ian917
- Steveh
- diceman
- Origin
- wizmax
- DaveyTed
- shaunjuk1982
- Ears
- Tamed Shrew
- bigfool1956
- BalooToo
- Wendy
- John (big)
- Jezzer
- Iceman 16
- savvypaul
- Kubs
- DomT
- Ragnarock
- sidsmut
- audio_PHIL_e
- Fraser
- bigrod
- bandit pilot
- Lambros
- PeteVid
- Baggawire
- nut
- p147
- grahamfocal
- iansr
- Naass
- steve 57
- llatpoh
- bencat
- Andy Stephenson