What did you do to your stereo rig today?

Reinstalled my Concept 11.0 receiver into my tertiary system after a repair hiatus to cure its tendency to go into protection mode at the slightest provocation. Now pumping 110 wpc into a pair of Infinity Monitor IIa speakers with lovely vintage audio satisfaction.

Upgraded to an Eversolo T-8 from the Auralic Mini. Matches up nicely with the Denefrips Pontus II.

@SCompRacer - I had it hooked up to my NAS. I was still under 2 TB.

Added new cables to the DR2 so my signal path is 100%....or somewhere around that

AudioQuest Yukon XLR's from Denafrips to AV10, Yukon XLR's from AV10 to XPA-DR2.....and the results???? Higher highs, lower lows and especially, midder mids..........then again, that could be from the pain meds from my recent knee revision surgery

I had this installed a few months ago.
Anker solix 10.4 kw inverter,24 panels and 20 kw of batteries(4x5kw). I had the old 6kw inverter and 38 panels replaced, the L800s seemed to like it showing some definite speed and slam , the theatre room seemed darker playing music, its ambiance lvl is 23-24 db

Warmed ‘em up for about an hour. On Joe Satriani’s sleepwalk, the effects on the into tended to be a little muddy. It was very pleasant and smooth! They are pretty dang quiet!
The guitars on Aaron Neville’s feels like rain are lush and layered. Angola bound has great percussion throughout. The separation of instruments really directional.

If they are truly NOS then YES, they have some breaking in to do.

I picked-up a new-to-me line-level tube preamp last weekend. It is a Blue Circle BC3. I believe these came out near the 'turn of the century', if I can use that phrase at this point. I bought it from a local dude off FB marketplace. We had a nice conversation during the sale/hand-off, albeit in the boiling TN sun. These are two-piece units, with a separate umbilical power supply.

The chassis turned out to be much larger (and heavier) than I thought from the pics, but that's fine with me. It is a true dual-mono design, with separate left/right volume knobs, input selectors, and tape monitor switches...and that's it on the front panel. The knobs are wooden, and quite substantial, with basically BBs, or small ball bearings, embedded in the wood as indicators. The chassis is all stainless steel, which contributes to the overall weight. There is a concentric blue light circle in the middle of the faceplate to indicate power is on. Honestly, the aesthetics don't appeal to me. I like simple, but I also like understated, and those knobs are definitely not understated. I will say they are easy to grab.

The rear panel has a different layout as well. Left/Right input pairs (there are 5) and output pairs (there are 2) are spread-out on their respective sides of the panel, so not even close to being side-by-side. I also discovered that the RCA jacks are very slightly smaller in diameter than typical, so locking RCA plugs are almost a must, or plugs that are considered notoriously tight on 'regular' RCA jacks.

Under the hood, there is point-to-point wiring, with most components glued to a blue acrylic board - blue, get it? There are only two tubes, which in the case of this unit, are JJ ECC99. Stock BC3 units came with 6922 tubes, but the seller of this unit sent it to Jena Labs in Oregon for 'upgrades'. I don't know enough about tubes to say whether the ECC99 configuration is an upgrade over 6922. Since I believe the ECC99 is exclusive to JJ, I guess I'm kind of stuck - no tube rolling. I took one of the tube fins and dampers off for these pics.


The volume attenuators are a different (or less-common) design as well, being resistor-based stepped attenuators. It had to be a lot of work to build those!

Finally, the caps in the signal path are apparently old-school military spec caps...based on my research. I think they are metallized film caps that are hermetically sealed - probably very reliable, but not sure about audio quality. It probably depends on the desired sound.

I'm not very experienced with tube gear, but I do really like the sound of this preamp. I don't think it's super-duper tubey, but it definitely adds some of that holographic sound. It is very quiet, and does not introduce any tube hiss noise floor, which would frankly be a deal-killer for me. The bass is really impressive with this preamp. In fact, having my SVS powered sub connected to the second pair of outputs, I actually had to turn down the volume control on the SVS sub. Also, the gain attenuation is not very precise; so much so, that even at the first volume level setting, it is almost beyond low-level, background listening. "Sorry, honey...that's as low as it goes."

Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase. I'm not a fan of an overly warm sound, but this unit doesn't go too far in that regard.

A Blue Circle preamp! Nice. My brother used to be the US warranty service technician for founder Gilbert Yeung (Angela now). All their preamps and amps were custom made, point to point wired units with very high quality parts throughout. You got a gem there. Their phono preamp is also a gem with similar construction.
My brother has been using BC components as long as I've been at this forum. My brother has always like the old Soviet military equivalent of the 6922, but I guess that's not an option with the change to ECC99.

Hey Jody,
I messaged my brother and you have an earlier Mk1 BC3. It was known for the gain being high like you mentioned. The later Mk2 version included a Hi/Low gain toggle switch. My brother said you could modify the Mk1 to mimic the toggle found in the later unit. If you want, I can put you in touch with him.

Just let the Raytheon heat up on and off the last couple of days. Thought I give em a listen. I’m pleased so far. Nice deep soundstage. Yet the instruments are much father forward. Nice deep tight bass as well.

Thanks for the tips and advice on my BC3.
Bill, I'll take you up on your offer to contact your brother. Always glad to have more info. I'll send you a PM.