BT2 vs My favorite preamp

This last week I was afforded the opportunity to demo a potential new preamp for the system.


For logistical reasons (tube availability/cost/wear also) I've been gently nudging my system towards being solid state where possible.




I've always been a tube guy, simply because towards the lower end of the market, to my ears it has always yielded a more 'pleasing' sound. Be that from pre-amp, phono stage, DAC etc.

Most of the SS preamps I have tried just end up giving me less texture, less emotion from the music even though technically (spec-wise) they are miles ahead of their tube counterparts.




So as my equipment approaches something towards the higher levels of what I would call 'mid-fi', I wondered if now would be the right time to re-investigate the old notion that "nothing sounds quite like tubes".

I've successfully managed to swap my tube DAC for an acceptable SS one (more on that another time) and my power amp has been the Neurochrome 686 for a good while now, that hasn't come out since it went in to be fair and I can't imagine anything getting close.



The thing that nits the entire system together, the preamp, was the last piece left using tubes and it is/was doing a damn fine job of still providing the system with the nuance and texture I am so used to, having used tubes for the majority of my hifi life now.



Or so I thought . . .



Enter the BT2 prototype kindly lent to me by Oli.




Plugged it in. Hmmmm . . . . that sounds different. Passages untangled; sub bass became multiple notes instead of all being mashed together into one sound. It's wider, it's got scale and new levels of dynamics. Basically, it has allowed me to hear what my old tube pre-amps were doing. Don't get me wrong there is still 'something' about the tube preamp that adds a rich harmonic texture to some notes and instruments but I suspect this is a colouration from the tube/circuit.



The separation and detail within the wider soundstage is unequivocal, no need to swap back and forth, the difference is immediate and ultimately just impressive. The nuance and texture is still there but not in the same highlighted way that my tube preamp provides. I suspect what I'm hearing from the BT2 is a less distorted signal with less artifacts from the circuit being introduced. An old cliche but it really is as if it isn't there at all, nothing added, nothing taken away more importantly.



My setup is a complicated one, with active Martin Logan speakers and a pair of subs setup in stereo. I have obviously optimised this setup to run in harmony with the tube preamp as the crossovers of both the speakers and the subs can be adjusted to suit. I didn't need to play around with them to know that in a fully optimised setup (it takes days sometimes) that the BT2 would have the chance to shine even more brightly. An exciting prospect but ultimately one I would have to wait for until I commission my own BT2 build which will be going full speed ahead in due course.



Although I have written down all the settings and positioning of the speakers/subs etc, I still didn't want to mess with the settings so I could just swap my tube pre back in as I am now returning the BT2. I also didn't actually want to get too used to the sound with the BT2 in as I always knew I would have to return it sooner than I could receive my own, so that thinking also played a part there.




I still love my tube pre-amp but it's audibly inferior in this company.




As I say, I enjoy what the tube preamp does but the BT2 has really shown me exactly what a preamp should and indeed what it should not be doing to the signal.





For the meantime I'll be holding onto the tube preamp anyway (even if a BT2 happens to turn up!) as it has a very basic Alps volume pot and crappy terminals etc so the scope for upgrading is certainly there. To be fair I also don't find it off-putting listening to it straight after the BT2 even though the difference in performance is audible. I think that's a heavy compliment to both to be honest and I'm a happy man listening to either, it's just I will look forward to the soundstage stretching about 8 foot either side of both speakers when another BT2 makes it's way here at some point . . . .



Big thumbs up to all involved with the BT2 design, once again it's going to ruffle a few feathers I suspect.



For the record and an accurate comparison, my valve preamp is a Musical Paradise MP-701 MKII - Odam caps - NOS RCA 6SN7 tubes