Chardonnay Pre-amp

I haven't built a Chardonay for quite some time, as I've been very busy building LCR Cortese preamps.

The latest version of the Chardonnays are loaded with features- remote volume, XLR and RCA in and outs, adjustable gain and with a choice of finishes.

They employ much of the circuitry of the more expensive Suprateks- tube rectification and tube shunt regulation , the dynamic sound of high gain 6SN7 tubes , and the gain can also be adjusted to suit any system.

Output impedance is very low and they can drive any or multiple power amps.

At $US2000 for the basic model they are surely the best value in high end audio, as they have repeatedly been shown to embarrass preamps costing over $20,000.

I've built the Chardonnay to be as rugged and reliable as possible; in 30 years time they will be as good as new, perhaps a new rectifier tube every 5 years and  other tubes every 10, although there are plenty of twenty year old Chardonnays with original tubes.

I recently got an email from a senior writer from one of the very top end hi fi magazines who had just purchased a 15 year old Chardonnay - he congratulated me on its sound and thought it one of the best preamps he'd heard.

The Voice Of The Concert- the Western Electric sound.

There's a Korean audio company that is (in)famous for displaying 1930's built Western Electric speaker systems at audio shows and upstaging just about every other display.

Here's a story about it, from John Darkos website
 https://darko.audio/2016/05/fucking-hell-western-electric-horns-silbatone-fun/

Fucking Hell + Western Electric horns = Silbatone fun

by John H. Darko3 years ago

The F word. No, not that word! I’m talking about fun. Remember fun?

Many attendees of Munich High-End 2016 will talk of fun after the fact but walking the hallways and sitting down amongst them in many of the Atriums’ high-end exhibits, it didn’t look like there was too much fun getting about. A lot of solemn, serious faces sitting expressionless in front of a lot of solemn, serious music.

Not so in the Silbatone Acoustics room. The South Korean company metaphorically wrote “FUN” in 10ft high neon lettering; roughly the same height as their monster Western Electric 11A horn system.

This awe-inspiring rig generated a full house for most of the Munich show’s four day run. Beer, some of which was called Fucking Hell (details here), helped keep the fun flowing.

Silbatone were asking: is newer really better than old?

“How old?” you ask. Originally designed for PA use, the 11A horns date back to 1924. For greater bandwidth, they were augmented at the M.O.C. by a pair of Western Electric’s  “movie speakers”- from 1926.

Providing the go juice were VT1 and VT2 amplifier tubes, here given a little nudge from MOSFET power to bring output up to 3 watts. Tubes that were made in 1914!

The sound was as effortless as I’ve heard at any show. But hey, such audiophile-centric judgements dissolve to nothing upon hearing Prince’s “Sign O’ The Times” played back through what was essentially a hundred year-old hifi system. Bonkers in the best possible way.

Silbatone’s room easily gets my Best In Show gong, primarily because it made me, and probably others, forget about being at a hifi show, if only for a short while. For those keeping score, best sound in show still goes to Dynaudio‘s new Contour series standmount.

Is old better really than new? On practicality, not a chance. On SQ, possibly. It’s certainly no worse – just a different flavour. On smiles generated amongst the audience, abso-friggin-lutely!

Further information: Silbatone Acoustics

 I'm presently having the same amount of fun listening to The Azura horns , with WE type compression drivers - not as big as this system above, but still substantial in size.

Every time I sit down and listen to a recording its just like going to a concert.  So dynamic and realistic.

There's no "horn" sound as such- yes there is some coloration and I'm sure they may not be totally accurate. 

I have the means to measure the response, but they sound so good as is, that I'm reluctant to fiddle with them.

Azura's Martin Seddon calls his horn system "Voice of the Lounge" in reference to the Altec's phrase "Voice of the Theatre" - I'm calling my Azura's "Voice of the Concert" because that's what they do. 

I've intended to do The Melbourne Hi Fi show the last few years but never got there, maybe I should go this year and take the horns , that would be fun.

Suhendran's Dual Cabernet.

I'm not a big fan of HT (home theatre) bypass in a stereo preamp, and I'm also not a great fan of balanced operation (see previous post for reasons) but I realize that for many people these options are a necessity, and I've offered both HT bypasses and balanced outputs in my preamps for many years.

As I've explained,  true balanced operation via a centre tapped transformer is the purest and most transparent form of balanced , and is the only method I use.

Suhendran needed to integrate his HT system with a Supratek preamp, but he also recognised the advantages of using a Dual Cabernet preamp to bi-amp his speakers.

Any speaker with seperate connectors for bass and mid/treble can be bi-amped , which provides a good performance boost, but with the Dual Cabernet, and its two seperate line-stage circuits, with level controls for each, its possible to adjust the levels so as to adjust the bass and treble to get a perfect setting for achieving the ideal tone for room and personal taste.

No passive crossover in any speaker is perfect for all conditions- they are all compromises, but the Dual Cabernet lets you dial in exactly what is best for your room and taste.

Suhendran's design request was a little different as both of his power amplifiers were XLR input connections . The Dual only has one set of XLR output , so we decided to sacrifice the preamps input XLR and use that as the extra output XLR.

Both of these output XLR's had to be switched into the HT bypass circuit, which is easy enough to do on a printed circuit board, but quite a job with hard wiring , nevertheless it worked out well.

Suhendran also wanted to use a DSP (digital sound processor) on the bass amplifier , in order to do some bass EQ for room correction, so I put a loop into the linestage circuit which will be used for bass.

The advantage of this is that you get the benefits of DSP in the bass spectrum, but it doesn't affect the mid/treble region, no opportunity for digititus in the ear!

Here's a diagram of the preamp integration.

And here's a pix of completed preamp. Its finished with ebonised black wood cabinet and satin black chassis, to blend in with all black component system.

Worked out well, but a lot of work!