Abyone have experience with the Modwright LSA-100 Preamp?

nooshinjohn

I have been looking this one over and it looks like it could be a great fit for my new monoblocks. It even has HT by-pass which will be an imoportant feature for me going forward. Has anyone had ears on one?

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/modwright-ls100-preamp-w-phono-stage-amazing-sound

chandler9a

I don't have experience with Modwright but they certainly look very nice and I've heard great things about their stuff. Let us know if you end up trying it out...

SCompRacer

Well, I believe Dan's designs are second to none and he is top shelf to deal with. I never heard the LS 100 but I have forum acquaintances at Audio Circle with ModWright gear that heard/upgraded to it. Some kept their Signature Series SWL 9.0's with all the latest upgrades (power supply, ModWright signature caps), some embraced the 6SN7 sound.

The LS 100 with 6SN7's is Dan's more tubey sounding offering. He calls it a more musical pre amp compared to the SWL series. His previous 5687/6H30 offerings are oft compared to Jfet SS gear. That is why many folks quickly sold their SWL9.0's; they were looking for a tubey sound cause it had tubes. What they got was a high current extremely low distortion class A design that was neutral, detailed, accurate, fast with punchy bass and high frequency sparkle. Nothing soft or syrupy about the sound at all. Due to the high current design, tube life with the 5687's was low, in the 5K hours range. The 6SN7 design is at conservative operating levels so tube life will be higher than the SWL series.

The claim is his current phono stage in the LS 100 is as good/better than his SWP 9.0, which I dearly love. I get neutral with shades of warmth on my ESL's with my Signature SWLP9.0. If true balanced XLR's are important to you, the XLR's are not balanced on the LS 100. I recall in his design thread where he was soliciting input he said it would have XLR's but not be a true balanced design to keep it at that price point. His flagship 36.5 pre has balanced XLR's, but that has the 6H30 tubes and costs more.


The LS 100 design thread.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=81252.0

schwarcw

Nice write-up Rich! I like the sound of a 6SN7 in the preamp. They are very musical. There are plenty of these tubes in various varieties from cheap to pricey and rolling these tubes are a lot of fun. You will hear a difference depending on the tube.

I see that Dan is using the 6SN7 in his Oppo players also. His designs are good and his build quality is top notch.

Good fun!

SCompRacer

Thanks Carl. Thats right, you have that awesome Rogue Super Magnum! Doug has a upgraded Rogue that sounds wonderful in my system but not with the 6SN7 tubes IIRC.