The Conductor - Preamplifier

[Golum]

Huh always quite difficult to start the thread and kick of the writing part especially when I need to write about the unit which has been developed by two good buddies out of which one of them is a really close friend. I'm saying this as I would love to be transparent from the get go as some might color me biased. Now putting that off my chest I can move to the topic and the topic of this write up is the preamplifier those boys came up with from the scratch on a white empty pcs of paper designing electronics, propriatary volume control, chassis design and of course making it as such.
Guess few of You who read something I wrote might remember that I'm really into tube preamps and I had quite a few of them from ARC, ModWright, few DHT ones from Tobian which I use to this day (SC12) hence I could say that I know what I like/dislike from the tube preams.
As I did with few other write ups, I'll divide it into parts and I'll start with the appearance. Forgot to mention - they named it 'The Conductor'.

Appearance:
Looking at it at my shelf there’s a quiet confidence to it, which somewhat was confirmed by my wife who rearly comments any of my HiFi gear (swaps) - guess she's fed up with it . It doesn’t scream for attention with flashy lights or oversized logos. Instead, it sits there low-slung, brushed aluminum, precisely CNC machined from 6-20mm slabs and quietly imposing—like a piece of industrial art that just happens to make music and before doing so tries to pull your muscles placing it in the rack. The volume knob is a tactile joy. It glides with the kind of resistance that suggests precision bearings and obsessive engineering. The dot-matrix display is a charming nod to vintage gear, but its clarity and simplicity are thoroughly modern. It tells you what you need to know - nothing more, nothing less and to my oldish eyes it is actually more as I'm able to easily see the numbers and volume level...much appreciated. Remote also done from a slab of aluminum covering all neccessary functions like Vol, Input, Mute.
Back panel is of course populated with inputs 3x XLR (RCA) and one XLR Out. As it is fully differential unit it only has Balanced out which for me is perfect.

Inside:
If I say something about the intestines of it, it would be the following - it’s a dual-mono cathedral of craftsmanship. Separate transformers for each channel. Shunt-regulated B+ supplies. Stacked attenuator boards. Tubes it uses are NOS E88CC (CCa) or 6N23Ps (supplied with the unit) from the 1970s and those are responsible for the gain of our precious signal received from the source and they are nestled like relics from a golden age of audio among shiny new boards and shabang of other electronics and parts.
I absolutely need to mention gain adjustments as they also included this into the design (I know that in a few of the top gun ones You can do it via remote control but i still like switches). It is user selectable at (6.5, 8, 15, 20 dB) and I do find it as more than a technical feature - it’s a system-matching superpower. With high-output DACs like my Lampi H360, I found 6.5dB ideal while at friends place with the source within the 2V industry standard 15 or even 20dB was a tip top option and the ability to fine-tune gain without altering the sonic signature is a fantastic option to have and this pre realy nails it.

Listening:
For this part I/we selected several tunes we played and in the nutshell short summary would be as follows.
From the first note I was quite shocked (I'm used to my one stage DHT pre with 10Y/801 tubes) as it sounded tone wise super close to Tobian but with a tad more speed as well as a bit more kick in the low registers. Overall it simply steps aside and lets the music through. If I disect it on the song basis it would look like this.
Jazz at the Pawnshop – Arne Domnérus
To me a torture test for spatial cues and microdynamics. With this pre the venue came alive. You could hear the clink of glasses, the rustle of jackets, the subtle decay of a vibraphone note hanging in the air. There is a beautiful touch of warmth and dimensionality.
Beck – Morning Phase
This album is a lush, layered soundscape, and The Conductor unraveled it with grace. The strings in “Wave” swelled with cinematic grandeur, while Beck’s voice floated dead center, intimate and textured, everything delivered with a velvet glove.
Daft Punk – Giorgio by Moroder
This track is a rollercoaster of analog synths, live drums, and spoken word. The dynamic swings are massive. They are handled with aplomb, never compressing or hardening. The transitions from Giorgio’s monologue to the explosive instrumental sections were seamless.
Fleetwood Mac – Dreams (24/96 remaster)
This track is all about groove and space. The kick drum had just the right amount of thump, the hi-hats shimmered without sizzle, and Stevie Nicks’ voice was hauntingly present. The timing and flow, making it impossible not to tap your foot.
Arvo Pärt – Spiegel im Spiegel
Minimalism demands purity. Here, the piano and violin were rendered with breathtaking clarity and emotional weight. The silence between notes was as important as the notes themselves. This was a proper honoring of the music not just pure reproduction.

Sumup:
Always difficult to sum it up in a few words - but shortly it could be - an absolute killer of the preamplifier. Built like a reinforced concrete wall to last an eternity and outlive the nucler arrmagedon, while upon turning it ON being able to seduce You to forget all the crap of the world we live in, and day to day issues we have. Having slam of an elephant and at the same time being gentle as a lamb when needed so. Very rare traits summed up in one unit - getting the best of solid state but wrapped in a tone of a tungsten filament directly heated triode. Absolute hats down to these guys!!!!

I know that few guys here around are enjoying this pre and would be nice to read their imporessions not to rely only on me so it would be nice if they could chime in with their thoughts....
Also few pictures of the unit itself...

 

[Alrainbow]

Mine is black , I'll be back here to make a detailed post soon. I've had mine a while now and I think I've sorted things out well now .

 

[adamaley]

Any updates/new feedback on this?

 

[Alrainbow]

I’ve had the preamp for a few months now
Was using it on my Maggie 3.6r setup with a Krell ksa200b amp
A few observations in comparisons to two other preamps I have
Ml no 26 and a Krell kct
both preamps were rebuilt by myself all correct caps.
the ml no 26 has some good details
Great stage and a touch or warmth
no noise floor I could here.
it’s a preamp that controls the sound in dynamics. You hear drum wacks and the rest , but I’ve always felt it was being to Controlled.
I use headphones as well as a speakers to confirm my observations.
next I bought the Krell kct while I think it’s a bit warmer then the ml no 26 it did give me more dynamics. more of a forward attack
big and bold.
both used in the same setup.
Now the new tube preamp :
at First I used it on headphones to acclimate my self to its sound
I bought the preamp from people I know who makes them.
before my purchase I asked what its sound signature would be.
Im not a fan of warmth nor slow
I was made to believe the sound was different then my Krell Ktc
in ways I was unsure it could be.
after headphones I was excited to use on the Maggie’s as what I heard from the preamp feeding a headphone rig.
on the Maggie’s it truly made them explode yet subtle details were still there.
it’s noise floor seems to low enough I can’t hear it.
it’s less warm then both preamps I have but not a sterile neutral sound
It’s extremely musical and yields details the others have but to me Ina more transparent way.
while I play almost any genre the sound quality is a must and I am One who does not like all tracks or albums to have a pattern of same sound.
if we think almost any album has tracks that can be very different. This is what a good system should have.
And the preamp needs to be open to changes and not lock it in on any given sound signature.
The mo no 26 has some of its own with the track playing
The Krell has this too but in a more powerful way.
The tube pre I’m sure has this but much less
Maggie’s are nice panels and cheap too
They do some things very well and some less for sure
The apogees on two large Krell amps explode yet subtle details are there
the tube pre has a big ability to convey attack in all frequencies but never over shoots the sound.
what I mean is simple it does not exaggerate sounds
the ml no 26 did not the Krell I think had some lower frequencies being hyped a bit
This tube amp is a straight arrow of sound
an example a piano can be heard while a upright bass and high hat cymbals being played
All remain there , it grows and shrinks but unless the mixing changes all are always there.
it’s clear the apogees are way above the Maggie’s yet they both have some common ground
Both play Low level details at low volume
the Krell pre did a but less of this while it was a bit too aggressive at times. This changes perspective I think
The tube stays on point always
It uses two tubes per channel and had 4 gain settings
we all need to adjust gain and in this tube preamp gain also effects tone
All gain affects my other pre amps but the tube it’s more apparent. So when the pre amp is placed in a system one must adjust to get the tone needed. The dynamics , details , imaging and stage remain . But in my opinion tone changes too.
now my setup is not a typical one.
The tube pre feeds an apogee Dax that divides the freq up.
the ml no 26 did not rate the output imp but a reviewer claimed it is about 600 ohms
The Krell is below an ohm , in fact it can drive small speakers
the tube preamp is specified at 60 ohms that’s a good low figure as some tube preamps can be higher
there is a master turn switch at the back
A button on the front
The front button is not momentary it’s on or off. So if the front button is left on and the rear switch is turned on the preamp boots up
at boot up there is a countdown 10/1
Then a series of relay clicks are heard it’s now fully engaged
the vol knob starts at zero and goes up to 63
no clicks are heard nor any volume pauses
the volume control method is to me perfection
with the remote or knob the volume just changes uniformly
you can’t by accident turning the large heavy knob spin it
it is easy to turn but has enough resistance to go slow. So no problem in blowing up your system.
the display is large and I can clearly see it 12 feet back. It’s bright too but has settings to lower it so r turn in off.
The remote is small hand held but weighty
easy to use steel buttons.
The tube tie is large
Weighs I think 40 pounds or more
Has Finely machined case , the cover has vets. The amp gets warm but not hot
my ml no 26 was warm even though its power supply is remote
The Krell is a fireball really hot on psu side
I always have a tiny fan to suck up the heat
The tube pre is very easy on heat creation
now it’s not small
you need 24 inches to have some clearance on sides. I think it’s about 22 inches
It’s about 7 inches high and about 18 inches deep.
the tube preamp is truly fully balanced
it has 3 inputs all balanced or single ended
to use the se input they gave me an xlr that shorts two pins to feed both phases
the output is balanced only
I am not a fan of tubes , im
More a ss guy , but like pass labs and Krell they have make sound that I think has some tube assets in sonics.
I’ll be posting some pics soon and some videos too.
to me the tube preamp is an interesting very well made product that sounds amazing
this is a preamp that we should definitely consider
soon it moves to nyc in my infinity IRS v setup
the Krell kct was there and proved to me the ml no 26 was a bit too tame and controlling
I can’t wait to hear what this tube pre does there

 

[Alrainbow]

Sorry for late positing my wife had spine surgery all went well but it’s been a tough few months over all
just setting up the apps was a handful
but now I’m getting back into audio and slowly tweaking the setup around the new tube preamp
this is one of many reasons why I waited so long to post.

 

[Alrainbow]

Hopeful today and get to start playing some vinyl .
This should add to more observations

 

[morricab]

Observations on "The Conductor" preamplifier: Part 1

I have now had 'The Conductor' preamplifier on loan from Golum for around 1 1/2 months now and I would like to write a bit about my listening observations. To date, I have only compared The Conductor to DAC direct into my Aries Cerat Protos amplifier. I will write a part 2 that covers a comparison with the Arie Cerat Incito and possibly some other similarly priced preamps. Disclaimer, I am an Aries Cerat importer/distributor for Switzerland.

As Goran mentioned above, the construction is very good and the internal layout is also at the same level or better than I have seen in some of the more well known companies...so, well done to the team that designed this preamp! I have to say that it is a very big preamp, being quite wide, deep and somewhat tall. Not sure why it needed to be this large but there is that. The looks are pretty industrial but in a clean and pleasant way...nothing to complain about but also not beautiful in the audio jewlery sense...as if I care about that.... The front panel has a large LED display, which is very nice to see your inputs and level from a good distance away and it can be switched off when not needed, which is a bonus in my book. The remote is small but has all the main functions and works just like it should, also being all metal gives it a nice feel.

Now to the important bit, how does it sound? I will start by saying that it is one of the more transparent preamps that I have tried in my life with exceptional clarity, focus and preservation of microdynamic cues as compared to DAC direct (Ayon Skylla II is my main DAC at this time). At first blush it was not too obvious that a preamp + additional cables had entered the system. The usual tradeoff of reduced transparency adding a preamp vs. DAC direct was not immediately evident...a very good sign.

One area where DAC direct did seem to have a slight but noticeable advantage was decoding the recorded space. Here the Conductor was bringing the overall soundstage plane and images somewhat more forward than DAC direct. Likewise, the sense of space around the instruments set into that soundstage was not as obvious with the preamp in the chain. I think this could be one of the few places noticeable as having slightly less resolution overall than DAC direct.

However, compared to DAC direct, there is somewhat more information coming through with low level dynamic shifts, especially in the critical upper bass, lower midrange. I could hear this most clearly with a couple tracks that I use to evaluate these subtle dynamic shifts. One is the track Schlafes Bruder off the album The Other Side by Tord Gustavsen trio. There is a lot of subtle cymbal work and snare to open the track and there very soft bass strumming/plucking before really getting involved in the track. With DAC direct you can hear it but it is very soft and more 'sensed' than heard clearly. With the Conductor, what the bassist is doing becomes more clearly defined and present, while still sounding very soft it is more definitive and woven into the fabric of the song in a more convincing manner.

This preamp also delivers a more colorful and vivid presentation of the tonal palette than the DAC direct. This is not the same as saying it is colored, it is not, but that there is greater saturation of the colors and this made listening to acoustic instruments, especially violins and woodwinds, simply more interesting to listen too.

I also found that preamp did a great job with macrodynamics, although I think the inner resolution resulted in it doing even better with microdynamics and small signal shifts. One area where the Ayon needs no help whatsoever is in macrodyanmics and so there was not a significant improvement going from DAC direct to preamp in this area but at the same time there was not a significant lessening of dynamic impact, except for the upper ranges, which I will address further down.

One area of clear difference between DAC direct and the preamp was in the high frequencies. Here we find that that preamp is softening the highs somewhat, which overall I think contributes greatly to its listenability and wonderful tone. What I did find though is that it did soften the attack on percussive instruments to a noticeable degree. This was evident when listening to Modul 49_44 on the album Llyria by Nik Baertsch (ECM label). As this track picks up pace in the mid section there are some very sharp snare drum attacks that sound more alive and realistic DAC direct. This was also the case with piano when listening to the excellent recording of Rameau/Ravel by Vikingur Olafsson on DG. The track Tambourin has a lot of short sharp attacks on the keys that gives it a very percussive sound and the conductor, while having arguably a nicer overall tone and otherwise equal dynamic swings, has a softer presentation of those key strikes that I feel is less realistic but only really noticeable in a direct back-to back comparison. Finally, this along with the slightly reduced sense of space around the instruments results in a reduction in overall realism for plucked violin such as the opening of the track Love on the album Brothers by Adam Baldych (ACT label).

One area where the Conductor was showing a clear set of heels to DAC direct was the lateral image focus. Images in space were very well placed and very stable, which is what I often attribute to a well regulated power supply keep the tubes in optimal operating conditions...something the Conductor does and clearly does well. On the track Birds (everyone knows this one by now I think) and also the opening track Cancion del Fuego Fatuo on the Daniel Garcia Trio album Via de la Plata the voice (on Birds) and trumpet (on the Daniel Garcia) are both better located and more stable in the sound field than with DAC direct. There is also a sense of musical organization that helps the music to make sense and aids in ease of listening to complex music. You hear all the pieces of the music about the same as with DAC direct (other than what I have mentioned above) but with better organization and relationships that help make listening pleasurable. This is not to say that DAC direct is a chore, we are talking small things here, but the preamp allows a further level of relaxation into the music, even if in some ways the individual pieces don't seem quite as realistic.

I have to say that overall, I am very impressed with the preamp as it fared very well against DAC direct, against a DAC direct that is essentially designed to replace a preamp (the analog stage of the Skylla II is essentially the same as the entry level Ayon preamp). In fact, it was noted in the Polish Hifi magazine HighFidelity that the Ayon CD5S (essentially a Skylla with a cd drive) did not benefit from the addition of the Ayon Polaris III preamp, so good was its output stage. The Conductor has only subtle differences to the DAC direct, sacrificing nothing in the way of dyanmics (in fact improving micro-dynamic clarity) or transparency, and improving upon tonality (with caveats about the highs), musical cohesiveness and spatial focus. There is some subtraction of sense of space and soundstage depth and a somewhat rounding of initial attacks compared to DAC direct but in isolation it is not at all obvious.

With any kind of normally designed DAC (as I said, the Ayon was specifically designed to be a digital front end with a preamp) I think this preamp will offer a musically rewarding experience and I find that I keep it in the system for rather long stretches, not finding a desire or need to remove it and go DAC direct...that says a lot to me.

Coming up in part 2, I will compare it to the Aries Cerat Incito and hopefully at least one other preamp of a similar price/caliber. I think the comparison with other preamps will be interesting and a proper challenge...for the other preamps!!

 

[Golum]

Brad thanks a lot for the willingness to listen to such a detail this pre. As I told you, your POV and assessment of it was important as the guys during a development used as one of the reference points Vacuum State RTP3D from Allen Wright and knowing how much you liked that one it's great to read the above text. Super looking FW to read the comparison vs Incito or whichever one you have on hand. We'll do the clash also at my place vs Tobian SC12R at some point (rather sooner then later).
In the meantime @lars66 with really 'big' system(s) decided to jump into this ship but I assume he might write some words as well...

 

[morricab]

Brad thanks a lot for the willingness to listen to such a detail this pre. As I told you, your POV and assessment of it was important as the guys during a development used as one of the reference points Vacuum State RTP3D from Allen Wright and knowing how much you liked that one it's great to read the above text. Super looking FW to read the comparison vs Incito or whichever one you have on hand. We'll do the clash also at my place vs Tobian SC12R at some point (rather sooner then later).
In the meantime @lars66 with really 'big' system(s) decided to jump into this ship but I assume he might write some words as well...View attachment 158633

View attachment 158634

Looks like a cool system with a couple pairs of Fyne speakers and Jadis amps! Nice...I am sure the Conductor is doing a 'fyne' job in that system

 

[lars66]

The Conductor, first impressions. A more detailed view requires time and listening for a slightly longer period of time. The production of the preamplifier is such that it delighted me, very high-quality and minimalistic in appearance. Using it is very simple. The reproduction of musical material of various genres of music is superb. I would highlight the stereo image, huge, detailed and I can safely say realistic when it comes to the size and arrangement of the instruments. This applies to all genres of music, the only limitation is the quality and production of the musical material. I have the ability to compare the musical presentation with other preamps I own. Rating for The Conductor is 10/10. Thank you Igor, thank you Saša.

 

[lars66]

I started listening to preamps in earnest. I don't want to bore you with technical details, I want to write something about the emotional experience while listening to music through the audio system of which it is a part.
dCS Rossini Apex (Map2, F1) + The Conductor + Jadis JA80MKII + Fyne Vintage 12.
Arvo Pärt- Tractus (after listening to the album for the first time, I repeated listening to the album several times while reading Alessandro Baricco - Oceano mare).
It's cold outside, it's raining. I had a nice breakfast, drank a couple of coffees and a strong drink, finished my morning duties.
In the mentioned novel, a scene is described where Professor Ismail A. Ismail Bartleboom stands on a sandy beach at the very edge of the sea and studies how far the waves reach. Before him is a huge scene, endlessly. The air is full of the smell of salt and iodine. He feels complete peace in his soul. I can freely say that this album would be the perfect OST for a possible film adaptation of this novel.
Now about the emotion, imagine you are in the professor's place. Such is the feeling created by the described audio system, whose main star is the preamplifier. A huge, lifelike scene is created by the preamplifier in cooperation with the rest of the system, created with all the subtlest details. Unbelievable to be completely honest.

 

[Tuckers]

Any links to the product?