I wasn’t expecting such a improvement. I played the soundtrack from Chinatown which I saw at the theater in ‘72 or 73 and being on film which to me is the king of analog. On my system with the large bookshelf speakers in place,the clarity and dimensional quality reminded me of film.
I found the ParaCas dual mono preamplifier on Ebay. I once had one that Carl had modified moving the transformer outboard. Have been sorry I sold it ever since. There were six bidders including me. I will have it recapped. Glad to have it back.
Ack,
The designer was is a gentleman named Carl Staub who’s current company is Agtron located in my area of Reno,Nevada. Carl designed audio electronics and spreakers from the 1970’s To about 1993. Since then has focused on the Coffee Industry such as Starbucks and McDonalds designing spectrophotometers to measure the degree of roast of the coffee bean to scientifically produce the best tasting coffee.
Carl always preferred dual mono designs and used computer modeling in his designs. I own one of his speaker designs, stereo subwoofer, electronic crossover, psychoacoustic circuit, dual mono amplifiers . A great audiophile and good friend.
Like I said, I'm a gear junkie. Especially when it is connected to my past. I knew a high school pal who was connected to the Quintessence Group out of Sacramento. I remember my friend saying it was high end, and for me at the 400 hundred bucks was big dough. Anyway I found the preamp and equalizer and took the plunge. I found a interesting article on the history of the company and reading the ads...I was surprised the designer was into psychoacoustics, a guy named Barry Thornton who was probably related to my high school buddy.
My latest Crown tape machine is a dual mono SS preamp(s) machine. The preamps and the transport are the later series,the transport is the 800 type and the preamps are CX series as opposed to the earlier SX 700 series. The one and only that Chuck Ziska put together...as he says "the machine that Crown never made,but should have" . The preamps are rare,made in the early 1970's but after the Crown factory fire,they were never built again. It is a 1/4 track machine and I think is pretty nifty.
My 4 track Crown 800 tube deck is finally finished too!
Some more Crown gear. I haven’t had time to pull the packing tape off the 800 logger deck.
Also a very nice Crown stereo tube amp using 6SN7,EL37, and 12at7 tubes. About 35 watts a channel. These amps are rare. Right now using Russian 6N3C-E substitutes the Mullard EL37
A pair of super rare A30 Crown monoblocks. They use 2 EL37 and 2 6sn7 tubes each. I had them restored partially as the original output transformers had been replaced. They were really bastardized when I got them. I have seen 1 other single,but never a pair. For my bedroom system. 30watts each with JBL's