Well it's been far from almost daily blog.. I haven't put a new blog page up for quite a while.
Seems that as I've got older, I have less to say...there's so much noise on the internet and the forums , and everyone's got an opinion on everything . I prefer to stay off the forums as I find it hard to consider it a legitimate source of knowledge , and I'm too busy anyway.
I've been building tube audio equipment for a very long time now , and I like to think I have a pretty good idea of what works , but I'm not so interested in flapping on about it on the internet, I'm happy for the products to sell themselves as the very finest product you can buy at a realistic and fair price.
I'd never sell a tube preamp that uses 12AX7 tubes in a cathode follower configuration for $40K, but you can buy one if you have the money to burn.....or you can buy a superbly engineered product, at a fair price that will last forever.
Ok , back to the topic. I get a lot of emails (and I'm always happy to answer emails at length) asking me what the difference is between the DHT and the 6SN7 Cabernet preamps.
Directly Heated Triode tubes like the 300B, 45, 2A3 etc are usually associated with Single Ended Power amps and a lush, vivid sound that is very engaging and musical.
The same attributes apply to preamps using DHT tubes with a sound that is perhaps less analytical than the famous 6SN7 indirectly heated triode , but definitely a very interesting and enjoyable sound.
The DHT tubes also have an ability to throw a bit of magic into a system , especially where a little synergy is not quite there .
I've been told the Cabernet with a 300B can do magical things with Magico speakers, turning them into a speaker that engages the entire room with extra realism and a bigger more open sound.
DHT tubes however have a few shortcomings - they are always microphonic as the cathode is pretty much swinging in space , and there is always a tiny amount of hum, but only when ear is directly next to driver.
You wont be able to hear the hum when the music is playing, and I'm not sure that a bit of microphonics is necessarily a bad thing.
The 6SN7 tube is, in my opinion, the finest preamp tube ever built - it does everything well- has a balanced sound that is analytical, but also very realistic .
With good design it can do everything - sound very focused , yet very musical . It can be engineered to have a very low output impedance that will drive any power amp .
Its the finest tube for 3D imaging and soundstaging .
I've been using 6SN7 for 40 years, and its still my favorite preamp tube.
Other indirectly heated triodes I've used but dont equal it are , in no particular order - 12AU7,12AX7, 12AT7, 6072,6BL7,6BX7,6BQ7, 5687,ECC88, 6922, 6H30, and about a hundred others.
The 6SN7 is the grandmaster of audio preamp tubes, but there is no denying that in the right circumstances a DHT tube will sound magnificent.
A while ago I sold a good friend one of my old personal preamps which used a DHT 300B for output, but it also had a separate 6SN7 output. Similar to my Dual Cabernet but specifically engineered to get the best out of the 300B and the 6SN7 circuits.
My friend was pretty happy to have two circuits of such quality and hard a hard time deciding which circuit he liked best.
Recently I modified a Cabernet DHT preamp to also have the separate 6SN7 circuit and again the owner was very happy.
It really is having the best of both worlds and its a great way to solve the quandary of whether to own a DHT or 6SN7 preamp- have both!
I'm presently building another couple of these DHT/6SN7 preamps and for a while longer I'm offering this version of the Cabernet for the price of the DHT preamp.
Pictured below is the DHT/6SN7 - this one uses the 2A3 DHT tube , but 300B and 45 can also be substituted.
There's a good chance the DHT/6SN7 will be the basis of the re-release of the mighty GRANGE preamp, with a moving coil phono preamp. The biggest, baddest preamp I've built , more news soon.
