Listening now

[nsorens]

Wow, this thing has some power!

Coming from a hopped up Sex amp with an Enhanced Foreplay 2 through some tweaked Hammer Dynamic Super 12's I had to back off the volume quite a bit.

Lots of nice detail and heft to the lows and just a little bright up top, but I just started the thing up an hour ago!  It should smooth out nicely with some burn in. I guess I would say this amp has gravitas! 

Best build yet for a bottlehead kit. Everything checked out with the meter and it fired up right out of the gate, no issues.  Very quiet too! 

Now to build that Smash Pre kit and see if that matches up better than the old Foreplay.
Thanks Doc and Eileen and crew!

 

[sl-15]

hello, any update on your impressions? how does it sound after breaking in? i am curious if the brightness went away.

 

[nsorens]

Yes, as with most gear, things have broken in nicely over the past few months.  I now have the amp paired with a wonderful Smash pre-amp.  This combo is more resolving than the previous combo of Sex and Foreplay.

It's amazing to me that just when you are satisfied with your system and think things can't get much better, you can still hear major improvement when you replace some key components.

I have better imaging and can hear more subtle details in the music.  I have just done the Smashup upgrade and as Doc mentioned this was also a major improvement.  More power and detail yet again! 

I did try swapping out the Seductor's EL84 tubes from some nice vintage GE's to some new JJ's and was surprised at how good the JJ's sound.  A little more mellow highs paired with a solid bottom end with no lack of detail.  It's fun to roll tubes and hear the subtle tone and detail changes happening in your system.

For now I'm very satisfied with this combo and feel I'm set for many years of exploring my music collection all over again.  ;D

 

[sl-15]

Thanks for your impressions. Which Foreplay were you using?

 

[nsorens]

Extended Foreplay II.