12-27-2005, 05:37 PM
Hola,
Aqui te dejo el review de Enjoy the Music:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/e ... yaudio.htm
The Etesian Preamp
The Etesian is a passive preamp. For those of you not familiar with a passive preamp, this type of design uses a transformer to ‘step up' the voltage from your source (your CD player or whatever) that your amplifier sees. One of the advantages (some audiophiles believe) is that you eliminate all of the capacitors, resistors and voltage gain devices (opamps, tubes or transistors) typically associated with an ‘active' preamp. It is believed that these components can color or embellish the sound in some way. In turn with a passive design, the only thing you have left is the pure resistance of the wire and the (unlikely) possibility that the transformer begins to ‘saturate'. Sure, you'll have some inductance and capacitance associated with this type of design but careful engineering of the transformer should place the residual effects of L and C far outside of the audible band.
Getting to the physical aspects of the preamp, Odyssey gives you three sets standard gold plated inputs plus a Home Theatre pass through on the back side of the unit. The volume pot is a nice sounding Alps Blue attenuator. Not sure if you noticed, but those big honkin' knobs on the front of the unit are solid aluminum. The selector switch is extremely easy to move due to the increased diameter of the knob, as is the volume pot. The faceplate is 3/8ths inch thick solid aluminum. The rest if the case is your standard heavy gauge formed sheet metal painted with a black matte finish to help hide fingerprints.
As you can see, Klaus offers something a bit different in his stylings. His super think faceplates come in a variety of different colors. The unit I have here is this cool Red but he also offers the standard brushed aluminum, Blue, Yellow, Green, Black, Purple and others.
When we take a look around the inside of the preamp, the first thing you notice is the PC Board. This is the same board that he uses in opamp based Tempest preamplifier. The PC board is nice and beefy with decently thick traces. The board is stripped of all its active components for use in the Etesian design. The only thing left is a Pi filter to regulate the transformers 15 volt secondary windings which are used to power the switching relays. Klaus has also added a small capacitor (and paralleled diode) used to eliminate the thump you could hear as you switch sources. All of the internal signal wiring is done with the Groneberg cabling. On the underside of the preamp, you'll find nice, Audio Selection Reference rubber feet (from Deutschland) to help absorb some of the structure-borne vibrations in your equipment rack.
Aqui te dejo el review de Enjoy the Music:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/e ... yaudio.htm
The Etesian Preamp
The Etesian is a passive preamp. For those of you not familiar with a passive preamp, this type of design uses a transformer to ‘step up' the voltage from your source (your CD player or whatever) that your amplifier sees. One of the advantages (some audiophiles believe) is that you eliminate all of the capacitors, resistors and voltage gain devices (opamps, tubes or transistors) typically associated with an ‘active' preamp. It is believed that these components can color or embellish the sound in some way. In turn with a passive design, the only thing you have left is the pure resistance of the wire and the (unlikely) possibility that the transformer begins to ‘saturate'. Sure, you'll have some inductance and capacitance associated with this type of design but careful engineering of the transformer should place the residual effects of L and C far outside of the audible band.
Getting to the physical aspects of the preamp, Odyssey gives you three sets standard gold plated inputs plus a Home Theatre pass through on the back side of the unit. The volume pot is a nice sounding Alps Blue attenuator. Not sure if you noticed, but those big honkin' knobs on the front of the unit are solid aluminum. The selector switch is extremely easy to move due to the increased diameter of the knob, as is the volume pot. The faceplate is 3/8ths inch thick solid aluminum. The rest if the case is your standard heavy gauge formed sheet metal painted with a black matte finish to help hide fingerprints.
As you can see, Klaus offers something a bit different in his stylings. His super think faceplates come in a variety of different colors. The unit I have here is this cool Red but he also offers the standard brushed aluminum, Blue, Yellow, Green, Black, Purple and others.
When we take a look around the inside of the preamp, the first thing you notice is the PC Board. This is the same board that he uses in opamp based Tempest preamplifier. The PC board is nice and beefy with decently thick traces. The board is stripped of all its active components for use in the Etesian design. The only thing left is a Pi filter to regulate the transformers 15 volt secondary windings which are used to power the switching relays. Klaus has also added a small capacitor (and paralleled diode) used to eliminate the thump you could hear as you switch sources. All of the internal signal wiring is done with the Groneberg cabling. On the underside of the preamp, you'll find nice, Audio Selection Reference rubber feet (from Deutschland) to help absorb some of the structure-borne vibrations in your equipment rack.