[vishalk]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

Modern components have had to get better. The trend to more complex equipment having many more parts would have brought about very short mean times between failures if things had stayed as they were. Additionally, expectations have risen so the reliability of the overall equipment had to do better than stay the same.

I had some vintage Japanese amplifiers and preamplifers 70's, 80's and 90's. the amount of components used was a joke. When I used to service my equipment, or had to change components I just thought to myself "This sh@t is not worth keeping, it won't last 20-30 years and I'll be damned if I'm changing a hundred plus or so components. I mean look how many components and parts make up a valve amp, then compare that to today's technology. I'm drawn to valve amplifiers and preamplifiers because they will last a lifetime and you can fix them if you're competent. Oh and of course because they sound wonderful as well.

Reducing the sensitivity of these amplifiers amounts to either re-doing one of the major pieces of work in their design (and then questioning just what the amplifier is afterwards). These amplifiers were designed pretty much at the state of the art in terms of how much negative feedback could be employed in a transformer-output amplifier without stability issues. If the closed-loop gain is to be reduced, then the open loop gain needs a matching reduction in order to preserve the stability margins

Sounds like a great deal of trouble to me, if thats how HJ Leak designed it, that's how I will keep it. Plus you lost me at "open loop" but I kinda get what you are saying.

Not changing it means taking a large signal from a CD player for example, attenuating it down to a hundred millivolts or so, and then the Leak amplifying it up to loudspeaker drive levels. This conveys an inevitable disadvantage in noise performance. It's not bad, but it's inelegant.

I have three pre amplifiers here all with different gain outputs so one of them should suffice, I also have a ALPS 10k potentiometer

The hype and marketing does tend to suck you in. That's what it's supposed to do. the marketing people see it as a route to either increase profits by greater turnover, or as a way to increase profits by making greater prices seem acceptable. You have to develop a thick skin to all the claims and strip them down to the reality (marketing people really don't like this)

Thick skin in being built as we speak!

Also there are people using it to stroke their egos.... "I'm a mage of the seventh level and my highly trained ears can hear things yours cannot. Trust me, there is a difference and it's a Huge one!"

hahaha I'm pi$$ing myself with laughter because I like to stroke my own ego just like that!

Their logic misses out on the thought that even if there is a difference, if you cannot hear it, then it doesn't matter at all to you. They wish the gratification of you following their lead and buying whatever they've just blown the family heritage on. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

There are people who just got sucked in by all the fancy wordery. They're innocents, really.

There are differences which really can be heard, maybe not as much as the aficionados claim, but differences none the less. I find it interesting that the aficionados always hear differences in anything, and always know which is better. Me, I can hear differences in some things, none in others, and often I can't make my mind up which is better. I don't trust my senses 100%, I know my hearing and sight can be tricked by acoustic and visual illusions and I know that I sometimes do the tricking. It's good to have reality checks to keep myself honest.

I tell you what David I am similar to you, this is one of the many reasons I am doing this project and many more for the future. I like to think I have a keen ear and a good sense of what feels and sounds good.

I mean I take it as far as have four sets of different speakers, from ones I have built myself to commercial made such as Kef, Tannoy etc. I like to try these speakers on different amplifiers, different sources, preamplifiers just to see if I notice a difference and choose a system that best suits my listening pleasures.

Those Leaks are gorgeous pieces of kit, they were well designed by honest engineering people long before sonic fairy dust was invented. They are nice to look at, nice to contemplate and good to listen to music with.

I like the fact that I can buy a piece of British audio history, learn about it, share my enthusiasm with the members on here and have the reward of repairing them to former glory.

Vishal