? for Doc B about ebay Eros

[ssssly]

Morning.

Was randomly searching through stuff on ebay and came across a current listing for an Eros tape head preamp. The seller is claiming that Doc B and Paul Joppa checked out this pre-amp and told the him it sounds better than a Tube Repro.

I emailed the seller who said "He would get back to me with the email from Doc B when he located it."

I have no plans of buying it, its 240v mains. But as someone who relies on my name for value,  I just thought I would see if it were true.

And who knows, maybe it is a rare Eros that manages to sound better than a Tube Repro and someone can get a great deal.

Either way I thought I'd throw the question out there.

Have you, Doc B or Paul Joppa, checked out an Australian Eros with balance controls and told the owner that it sounds better than a Tube Repro?

[Doc B.]

What's my cut if I say it sounds better?

[ssssly]

Would have to work it out with the seller.

But since he is claiming a $3200 savings, verified by you, I would think it should be substantial.

Standard would be about 8-12% of total sale plus a flat fee for licensing likeness.

Should hit 'em up.

[Paul Birkeland]

There was a claim that the HF response on that unit was rolled off.  With the 100K loading resistors in that preamp, the measured HF response went out a bit further than the Repro we have on the same machine (with trimmed loading resistors at the input).

Paul Joppa was several thousand miles away when all of this went down, so that part of the claim is a little humorous.

I can also tell you that those 20K attenuators that the builder has put back into the circuit (I removed them from the circuit during our inspection) will have quite a negative impact on the performance of this circuit. 

[Mike B]

Hehe, more bunk busted.

I have had good luck on ebay, but I don't buy high end stuff there.  Just look at the pics and the description and go from there.

Third party quotes are not admissible in a court of law, and I treat them the same way -

[Paul Birkeland]

There has been some great Bottlehead gear floating around on eBay.  As always, we say to look for gear that is absolutely bone stock and built as indistinguishably from the manual photos as possible.

-PB

[Doc B.]

Yes I remember now. That Eros was looked at and returned to stock by PB after the owner complained that it was not performing as it should and PB found it had been modified. When it left here it performed to spec and sounded quite good and I imagine I said that to the owner. If PB says it had a little better response than my Repro (which has been modified to work with a specific playback head), then it did.

Whatever may be construed here, I do not think an Eros is a better repro amp than a Tube Repro.

[Doc B.]

Apparently PB was mistaken that the builder put the 20K pots back in after we sent the preamp back to him. It was in stock condition when it left our lab.

Please direct any further questions to the seller.