New Eros and a thank you!

[johnsonad]

Thank you very much Doc, Queen, PJ and Shawn for making my New Year weekend.  The Bottlehead team built me a custom Eros with RIAA and NAB eq curves and a few other small tweaks.  Today it went into the system and the Otari is finally up and running.  I'm honestly blown away at how good commercial R2R tapes can sound.  Right now Brubeck plays Cole Porter is on and it's the best I've heard it in my system.  From huge kick drum to delicate cymbals

[johnsonad]

As I don't have a lot of commercial tapes yet the Eros has moved over the the vinyl rig.  Even during break-in it has an impressive sound as all of you owners know.  The pic is of a less than ideal placement but it works for the moment.  Tube wise I'm running the new Gold Lion 6922, 6BR7's and a very low noise Sylvania 12BH7A.  It is nearly dead quite and isn't picking up any noise though close to output trannies on the power amp.  It has much more gain than the cart I'm using needs which causes me to keep the volume on the preamp low.  I may throw in a passive I've got sitting around after break-in and see if it's a better match. Overall I'm a pretty happy camper at this point.

In case you're wondering, the table is a Sony PS-X9.

[johnsonad]

The more I listen to the Eros, the more I like it.  There is something special about direct coupled circuits that I can't quite describe other than they seem more realistic.  This tube combo is a winner in my books and I've no reason to roll others at the moment.  The sound stage is more forward than my other phono stages and enveloping at the same time.  With horns having the soundstage forward of the speakers can be painful depending on your listening position but with the Eros this is not the case.  More to follow as it breaks in.  Spinning a little Heart at the moment and happy.