I think he’s still making them all himself, and quite a bit more work than the speaker cables
Yesterday I listened to the tube stage of my Freya preamp with the Fidelium ICs for the first time together. I’ve never really been a fan of using the tubes due to the over warm and woolly lower ranges it presented. Also, I never experienced much of the “holographic soundstage” that everyone talked about. Definitely more negatives than positives. Thats completely changed with the Fideliums in the chain. Now I can hear what all the fuss is about using tubes, especially with digital. This option is going to be much more useful as an alternative to listening to my MK II connected directly to my power amp. Those to methods offer entirely different presentations but maybe equally good. Time will tell.
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Initially pleased with my Fidelium XLR interconnects. Still the notion of inserting Audience FrontRow comes to mind all too frequently. Recently a curve ball was thrown my way causing me to take pause on cable upgrades, the FrontRow Reserve launch. For now I’ll just wait it out.
BTW, what interconnects did the Fidelium replace, RCA or XLR? Refresh my memory as to your tube gear. My cj Premier 11 and Audible Illusion Modulus 3/3A would lose some of their magic indicating a tube replacement was necessary. As such I’ve learned to have multiple spare tube sets on hand.
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My new Fidelium cables have proven to be powerful tools for insights into my system. Recently I posted on how they have increased my appreciation for what tubes can bring.The soundstage and depth that tubes can provide are now revealed to full extent. But so are the downsides. I also can hear a reduction in transparency but, more importantly to me, I hear a reduction in refinement that is so beguiling to me when I run my MK ll to my power amp directly. Using tubes can be seductive for sure but, in the end, what it does to depth sounds artificial to me. I do appreciate the texture and color occasionally but solid state as presented by my MK II is on another level.
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Climbing up the tube preamp ladder would potentially change your mind and tip the scales in favor of tubes.
I had both some splendor and some unhappiness with less than upper tier preamps in my system. That changed when I bought a normally unreachable tube preamp on the used market.
Yes, that’s true. My Freya is certainly entry level in the tube world. I would love to hear a preamp in my system on that level. It probably will never happen though unfortunately.
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Even though I found GREAT deals on the used market, I did fall into the rabbit hole. The better amp meant finding a better preamp. The better preamp meant finding a better DAC. The better preamp and DAC lead me to get an even better amp than the already improved one. Now I bought one, just one upgraded interconnect. Can’t wait for it to arrive.
And we are back to the point of this thread- how transformative a really great interconnect can be once the rest of the pieces are up to a certain level.
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