Fabulous sounding winner in bang for the buck

none noted

I've been listening to the BB for a week and want to share some impressions. Current setup: Sunfire Classic Tube Preamp driving Wright 2A3 monoblocks on Khorns. Source is AH! Njoe Tjoebs CD. I've been using this preamp for the a little over a year driving the likes of the Cary Rocket 88, Paramours, ST-70 and Wrights. The Sunfire is a FatCat preamp with remote and tone contour controls for bass and treble. In the season that I've had it, I've mostly wondered, man can it get any better than this? It is a very sweet preamp running three 6922 tubes. Sovtek were stock and it sounded great right out of the box. After a few months rolled Mullards in and thought it was significantly improved in smoothness. I've been curious to substitute the Blueberry and see what it sounds like. I've been listening to a few CD's that I know backwards and forwards. The first was Diana Krall, Live in Paris. With gear of this quality, I expected that I'd perhaps be able to discern which one had the edge over the other. What I did not expect was for the BlueBerry to kick the Sunfire in the butt. To my ears, this has been my perception. Now, the Sunfire is not a slouch at all, it does a heck of a good job, but I am hearing elements in music material I have not heard before. With Diana Krall, I'm hearing a depth and texture to strings I have not heard before. I found this somewhat startling. Piano notes are smoother and richer. Bass response is more extended and full. Just clean, tight, bass with more snap than with the Sunfire. I haven't felt like I've missed anything without the Sunfire's tone controls, which I have used with some frequency. The most surprising listening with the Blueberry came with The Who's "I Can See For Miles" when I heard a bass line I hadn't heard before. This was a jaw dropping, and grinning myself silly reaction, since I've been listening to this cut for YEARS on CD and just haven't heard it. This material has been buried somewhere in the mix, unheard by my ears, until the Blueberry seemingly pulled it out and placed a new track on the mix. In this layer it sounds completely live hearing the pluck and slap of the musician's fingers on the strings. There is an amazing mix of resonances and sound in a bass guitar's notes. The BlueBerry comes stock with Yugoslav Ei tubes. Dave has sent some Telefunken replacements to roll in which I will check out this week. One note on the look and feel of this preamp. The case is a nice compliment to the clean looking face plate. The RCA connectors are sturdy enough on the main board. The volume and level controls are smooth and have a good substantial feel to them.

Similar Products Used:

Sunfire Classic Tube Preamp