VTA SP-6

Roy Motram's VTA SP-6 Preamp 

I guess I got the point where all the tweaking with power amps has been done and it's about time that I looked into preamps and speakers. So far, I have gone through several solid state preamps (NAD, Adcom, etc.). I also tried a passive preamp with a homebrew phono preamp. All these gave me performances a lot to be desired. I have always wanted to try a tube preamp or two, but I was somewhat put off by off-the-wall prices of preamps that were worth considering. I guess the Dynaco PAS-2/3 would have been an option that can be had for under 200 bucks, but some tweaking (PS upgrade, recapping, and tone control removal) would have to be done to make it listenable. I figured that if I were to spend more than $200 on a decent preamp, I might as well built something new. After having done some research, I narrowed it down to Aikido preamp or Roy Mottram VTA SP-6. I settled for the latter, mostly because I had to have a phono stage.