I have talked about this before on other forums. In this day and age of tube preamp manufacturers touting their preamps as "pure tube" or "all tube," most of them aren't. The vast majority have solid state power supplies and/or solid state voltage regulation. The SA-5.1 is one of the few tube preamps that actually has a tube rectifier and tube voltage regulation and I for one thinks it matters sonically.
The SA-5.1 not only sounds fantastic, I think it is very elegant looking in the way the early Mark Levinson preamps looked elegant (when Mark actually owned the company). It also has a great sounding phono section which is hard to beat.
Even though Counterpoint was forced out of business, the chief designer (Michael Elliott) is still supporting all of the Counterpoint gear for repairs and modifications/upgrades for most of the line. My 5.1 has been back to Michael Elliott to have the line stage and phono stage upgraded and it was a good investment. One of these days when I can bear to part with it again, I will send it back for the power supply upgrades.
I have owned numerous other preamps and none could beat out the SA-5.1. That list includes the CAT Signature MKIII and most recently the McIntosh C2300. I wanted to like the C2300 because of all of its conveniance factors such as phono loading from the remote and the ability to take low output MC cartridges straight in. Even though the C2300 has six 12AX7 tubes, it still sounds like a SS preamp to these ears. The phono section wasn't even close to the quality of the 5.1. Lucky for me that I had 30 day return rights on the C2300 so it went back and I was only out the shipping costs.
I have reached a point now where I am no longer searching for a preamp that is better. That preamp (if it exists) needs to find me. I am not laying out any more cash in hopes of finding something that will be significantly better. I am sure that it might exist, but I am not going to chase it and hope I can find it. I am very happy with what I have and feel lucky everytime I power on my system.
Mark
The SA-5.1 not only sounds fantastic, I think it is very elegant looking in the way the early Mark Levinson preamps looked elegant (when Mark actually owned the company). It also has a great sounding phono section which is hard to beat.
Even though Counterpoint was forced out of business, the chief designer (Michael Elliott) is still supporting all of the Counterpoint gear for repairs and modifications/upgrades for most of the line. My 5.1 has been back to Michael Elliott to have the line stage and phono stage upgraded and it was a good investment. One of these days when I can bear to part with it again, I will send it back for the power supply upgrades.
I have owned numerous other preamps and none could beat out the SA-5.1. That list includes the CAT Signature MKIII and most recently the McIntosh C2300. I wanted to like the C2300 because of all of its conveniance factors such as phono loading from the remote and the ability to take low output MC cartridges straight in. Even though the C2300 has six 12AX7 tubes, it still sounds like a SS preamp to these ears. The phono section wasn't even close to the quality of the 5.1. Lucky for me that I had 30 day return rights on the C2300 so it went back and I was only out the shipping costs.
I have reached a point now where I am no longer searching for a preamp that is better. That preamp (if it exists) needs to find me. I am not laying out any more cash in hopes of finding something that will be significantly better. I am sure that it might exist, but I am not going to chase it and hope I can find it. I am very happy with what I have and feel lucky everytime I power on my system.
Mark