Transcendence Eight Vacuum Tube Preamplifier

Price Factory wired $1099 Circuits Transcendence Eight Pure Vacuum Tube Chassis AVA SL Options Remote control $299 RIAA phono circuits $299 wired Buffered tape $149 wired International transformer $30

If you love vacuum tube preamps, you'll love this one best,

All new with a ground plane shielded mother board and ten active regulators.

Read the review in the Abso!ute Sound's AV Guide. review (156 kB PDF file )

Of pure vacuum tube line preamplifiers, our new Transcendence Eight is easily the best we have ever heard. It is so musically outstanding, it replaces the Transcendence Five, Transcendence Six, and Transcendence Seven series in our product line. The T8 circuits are available as upgrades to some of those models.

New for 2006 is a built-in multi-stage high voltage analog regulated power supply, with separate regulators for each half of each tube. This makes a striking improvement in dynamics, transparency, detail, bass power and control, while still retaining all the "tube" virtues of simply smooth and pleasing musicality without stress or grain.

Also new for 2006 are high reliability gold contact pushbutton switches for the front panel functions.

Working from what we had already done so well, my vacuum tube specialist, Dean Kayser, has developed a fresh approach to vacuum tube design. With a huge, open, transparent, and simply lovable sound, the Transcendence Eight will get your attention because it is so faithful to the spirit of the music.

We build vacuum tube products because the very high voltage overload capability of a small signal tube, properly used, yields musical performance—especially in the midrange—that is so natural and relaxing that many purists demand it. Some of us suspect that part of what we like about vacuum tube sound might really be a bit of euphonic coloration. But the tube lover wants what a great tube design provides, and the Transcendence Eight makes life (and the music) easy for the vacuum tube lover. The price is nearly an order of magnitude lower than its audio salon-priced competition and the performance is great. If you want to hear what tube sound is all about, this is your best opportunity.

Very high-quality new tube RIAA phono circuits are optional. Our circuits are quiet, dynamic, musically liquid and transparent and work great with any normal output phono cartridge, head amp, or moving coil step-up transformer.

Of course, our circuits are built completely with precision film capacitors and precision film resistors. The power supply is a modern and reliable solid-state design with eight separate active analog high voltage, high current regulator sections and with two DC regulated heater supplies.

Our tubes (2 6N1P in line, 2 12AX7A in phono if so optioned) are run below their rated plate voltages, are run on very heavily filtered DC heater supplies, are isolated from transformer magnetic fields, are given plenty of cooling space, and are not dynamically stressed with loads or signals they cannot handle. Thus we can expect many years of good service from our tubes and almost never see a unit for service because a tube failed and never because that failure damaged something else.

Unique to vacuum tube preamplifiers, the Transcendence Eight features an exquisite headphone amplifier built-in at no extra cost. The Transcendence Eight features precision-stepped volume and balance controls and a silver contact fiberglass selector switch. It has left mono, right mono, full mono and stereo switches, a tape monitor switch, a tape 1 – tape 2 switch, and a lighted power switch on the front panel. It has 20 gold-plated jacks for input and output to handle special, CD, FM, Spare (for VCR or TV), two sets of tape in, two sets of tape out, and two sets of audio outputs. It has three convenience switched AC outlets.

It is 17" wide, 12" deep, 3.5" high. The shipping weight is 17 pounds. It has our black powdercoated steel chassis with black knobs, double-anodized aluminum faceplate with gold lettering.

Optional performance enhancements for the Transcendence Eight Preamp:
•The AVA Remote option adds remote controlled volume and mute functions to your AVA preamp.
• T8 RIAA Phono Circuits installed in the Special location replacing one set of line level inputs.
• Buffered Tape Outputs provide a dedicated fast high-current circuit, enhancing tape loop performance.
• 240 V Wiring. A 120V/240 V 50 Hz/60 Hz international toroid transformer is available at extra cost.

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