has anyone heard of this??? [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

PDA

View Full Version : has anyone heard of this???



frenchmon
04-26-2010, 02:53 PM
Switching boards in and out.

This is part of the monthly news letter that one of the audio shops here in St.Louis emails me and Peabody. Read what he says about the boards in this tube amp.

"MY RECENT LISTENING EXPERIENCES
I’ve been tweaking the Strada/TR3 system – positioning the satellites and adjusting subwoofer crossover frequency and level. The result is very good. I’m pretty excited, and I invite any interested parties to come to hear the system.

For the past week I’ve been using the Musical Design Chameleon tube preamp and T-75 hybrid power amp. These are the latest from John Hillig of Musical Design/Musical Concepts. John founded Musical Concepts in 1979 to do upgrades and mods to Hafler amps and preamps. So successful were these mods and upgrades to Hafler products that John branched out to doing Adcom,B&K,and other high-end components. A few years ago he began to develop and produce produce amps and preamps under his Musical Design brand. In both his mods and his own products he pushes the envelope of performance, but at a prices most audiophiles can afford.
For example, the Chameleon at $1495 and the T75 at $1495 are the best components I have heard in years - a step in enjoyment beyond the Parasound and Vincent components I have used, even the Halo JC-1 and JC-2 and maybe even the Pass Labs. I won't quarrel with the state-of-the-art ratings of those components. All I know is what I enjoy and that the Musical Design tempts me to spend more time enjoying more music.
What is unique (yes unique in its true meaning ) about the Chameleon preamp is the availability of five different tube circuit boards that snap into the preamp, giving the owner the ability to find his most synergistic match. This is miles beyond mere tube rolling. Each board has the resistive and capacitive loading suited to its dedicated tube, and with each board there is the option to choose feedback/no feedback. Of course a brilliant idea is nothing without execution, but his talent for honing his product for the best result is why John has been so successful.
I’ve been listening to the Chameleon break in for this past week with the single 6922 board. If there were no choices I would stay happy with it, but I know that soon I will take advantage of the NASCAR-quick board change to try other boards, like the one that uses two 12AU7."

I've never heard of an amp/preamp that comes with switchable boards.

Im going to ask MrPeabody if he wants to go take a listen in a few weeks.

frenchmon

Ajani
04-26-2010, 04:03 PM
Mr Peabody has a thread on the Chameleon in the amp section, so I strongly suspect he'd be interested in going for an audition....

It sounds like an interesting concept and certainly worth checking out... Especially if you suffer from upgraditis or a tweak freak....