New SP14 making music tonight

New to the forum, I would like to first thank Roy for the help in the few questions I had. This is the forth over all preamp I have ever built. The first for me to not having any problems to chase. I went with the SP14 because I wanted to see what the 6SN7 had to offer compared to the 12A family. After break in I will drop in the matched quad I got from Upscale Audio last month. I have it running into a St 70 that I redid a few years ago and that feeds a pair of Yamaha NS-1000's. I also have a pair of Snells that I will put in line down the road after I redo the tweeters. My source will be Bogen 62 with a upgraded plinth and a SME series III S with a Sound smith zephyr MK III with a hagerman cornet 2 as the phono. I will be upgrading the phono stage down the road, however for now I have a great idea what the phono stage is capable of sounding like as I once was using it with a LP 12 and a Garrett bros FMS I believe. Anywho thought I would introduce myself and Will try and add pictures in the next week.

Hey Frank... Welcome to the forum. We're running the DS2, the SP-14 offering from Don Sachs, a 60's ST-70 with the VTA board inside of it and we're getting the ST-120 Latino build fitted with the Octal board & Auto-bias.
Some pretty great synergy in these builds for sure.

What 6SN7's are you running to get started?

Aguaazul

I'm running the tung sol's that is stock with the kit, I have a pair quad of russian 6H8C that are matched that I purchased from Upscale Audio. The St-70 has the triode card with the same quality of resistors you would find in Audio Note, also I upgraded the powersupply with a board from a guy in New Mexico. He had a tweak back in the day for a fisher SA-16 that took it from a Porsche Boxster to a Porsche 911 twin turbo. I compared this ST-70 to a McIntosh 2505 that I had sold a friend after building her a Audionote kit preamp, I couldn't believe a ST-70 would sound better than a McIntosh but it does.

The first night of break in nothing great happened, The sound was good but nothing to write home about. Last night I had my Iphone plugged into it with Sade via Youtube. About 90 minutes into it the bass started to break loose. I also started to experience that not just any music will play because of the quality or type of recording. Later in the night I really started to get a taste of what the NS-1000 is capable of doing. My dog stood up in the chair and was watching the band members of the Herb Albert and the Tijuanna brass give us a personal concert. I knew these speakers were clean which doesn't mean much, but when they disappeared I was like now we are getting somewhere. I will run the tubes the rest of the week and then put in the russians and give a follow up. I also must say that this preamp is sounding better than the base model kit of Audionote. I really didn't think it would. It isn't even broken in yet.

I do have anther St-70 that I am currently putting the octal driver board in and that one will be stock nothing special, I want to do an AB between the two amps.

This is also kicking me in the butt to get the Turntable put together and setup to see what it will really be capable of achieving. Stay tuned

Frankford wrote:I'm running the tung sol's that is stock with the kit, I have a pair quad of russian 6H8C that are matched that I purchased from Upscale Audio. The St-70 has the triode card with the same quality of resistors you would find in Audio Note, also I upgraded the powersupply with a board from a guy in New Mexico. He had a tweak back in the day for a fisher SA-16 that took it from a Porsche Boxster to a Porsche 911 twin turbo.  I compared this ST-70 to a McIntosh 2505 that I had sold a friend after building her a Audionote kit preamp, I couldn't believe a ST-70 would sound better than a McIntosh but it does.  

The first night of break in nothing great happened, The sound was good but nothing to write home about. Last night I had my Iphone plugged into it with Sade via Youtube. About 90 minutes into it the bass started to break loose. I also started to experience that not just any music will play because of the quality or type of recording. Later in the night I really started to get a taste of what the NS-1000 is capable of doing. My dog stood up in the chair and was watching the band members of the Herb Albert and the Tijuanna brass give us a personal concert. I knew these speakers were clean which doesn't mean much, but when they disappeared I was like now we are getting somewhere. I will run the tubes the rest of the week and then put in the russians and give a follow up. I also must say that this preamp is sounding better than the base model kit of Audionote. I really didn't think it would. It isn't even broken in yet.

I do have anther St-70 that I am currently putting the octal driver board in and that one will be stock nothing special, I want to do an AB between the two amps.

This is also kicking me in the butt to get the Turntable put together and setup to see what it will really be capable of achieving. Stay tuned

Just seen your post...it's only July...lol
Anyway this is the reason for the contact...you mention McIntosh.
I have Bob Latinos m125's..I did not assemble them. Another gentleman on this forum did with precision. Could not have asked for a better job.
I recently purchased a custom SP14 and Audionote 4.1dac built by the same person.
What can I say...it's heavenly.
I digress...I showed off my m125's to my MAILMAN who is also into 2channel and bought the McIntosh 275 stereo amplifier and Focal Sopra ll's.
Sweet!
He was blown away with BL's m125's.
The only thing he was not liking was the way the m125's looked...the industrial type.
However, he loved the sound and the price and to this day he tells me how he wished he knew about tubes4hifi. He spent $6500.00+tax.
It made my day.
I thought he was very honest and open to tell me that the McIntosh was over priced.
Someone once told me that in the market of hi-end home audio and HT there is a 40% markup at B&M stores. I never really checked on that information but it would surprise me if it was or maybe higher.