I received my preamp (assembled) a few weeks ago from Victor - Thank you Victor! I'm running a Cossor WE274b rectifier tube, two Gold Lion 12AX7, and have been going back and forth between a Gold Lion 12AU7 and NOS Valvo 12AT7. It was upgraded with two Vcap Odam 4.7 Capacitors.
My amp is the 8600s with WE 300b tubes. At this point. I have quit a fews hours of playtime on the SV-Pre1616D. When I retired my previous preamp setup I spent a month just plugging and unplugging my sources directly into the 8600. I was amazed at how good it sounded across the board without a preamp in the chain. This makes sense, of course, but manually switching out cables was not sustainable so I decided to try the SV-Pre1616D. I'm very happy with the looks (In contrast with Elekit stuff - which I absolutely love for sound - but are not the prettiest) and build quality, but it does degrade the sound of the 8600. The 12AT7 is smoother on the high end than the 12AU7 - especially with jazz and electronic music but it's all still a little harsh compared with the insanely good sound of just the 8600s with WE300b tubes. I was thinking of upgrading the volume control (my previous preamp had a Khozmo 64-step attenuator which was excellent) but I'm not sure if this would address the harshness I'm hearing. Does anyone have thoughts on additional upgrades I could make? Different tubes? A specific volume control option? Or why, besides the additional circuitry, that the sound is degraded.
Thanks!