NeverSatisfied is getting a fresh d500

laatsch55 said:
The 3000 though......time to upgrade pres bud...
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The 3000, 3500 and the 4000 are all stock and need to be upgraded Lee. I know I could just buy a new high end preamp with all the modern benefits but I would rather keep the PL’s and have them upgraded if possible. Other than the nose bleed expensive stuff, none of the modern equipment appeals to me aesthetically and that’s a big part of vintage collecting for me.
 
Got a little more music time in yesterday and did some tweaking. On Saturday when I first started listening to the Lightning with records I noticed something seemed a little off but when I switched to streaming all was good. So yesterday I checked my setup and found that my TT was not perfectly level after swapping the amps. As mentioned before, these linear trackers MUST be level to perform and after readjusting, everything sounds fantastic again. It is amazing how just a tiny bit of lean will kill their performance.
Now if I could just get Joe to design some new innards for my preamps I could change my forum name from Never Satisfied to Totally Satisfied. Hell I would even be willing to leave my benches messy……for a couple hours.
 
George S. said:
Time to replace the electrolytics and clean those pots and switches. Those preamps were excellent units when they hit the market.
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Agreed George, was just thinking that if Joe or someone with the skills could do for the preamps what has been done for the amps (modern boards and upgraded components), there would be a very healthy market.
 
Yes, but so many different ones were made. If you recap the electrolytics and upgrade the opamps as appropriate with Browndogs from Cimmeron Technology, I think you'd be somewhat astounded by the improvement.
 
Yep, there is probably 1000 different preamps built over the years, some were great, some not so, where would you start? George is right. With a little digging, you can find the good ones have upgrades done over the years which helps the specs and gives them life for another 20 years. Grab a Carver C-1 and for a couple hundred, you can have a world class preamp with a bunch of bells and whistles and are so quiet you would be surprised. We have been doing these for years and they are awesome. Or, spend $500 and get a Acurus RL-11 and do nothing to it but add a Phono amp to your system. It's easy to find a suitable upgradeable pre which will fit into a retro system. Some pre's are not worth messing with as they have so questionable connectors inside (some PL/Carver pre's). I've worked with Glen on some of these pre's over the years and we have come up with a list of upgrades and posted them on these pages. We'd put these up against about ANY pre out there.
 
Good advice. Also, the 3000 series might not even need Browndogs, might be able to just "roll" to better opamps, I don't know. Never seen any of your preamps first hand or looked at their manual/schematic.
If you want Phase Linear preamps, easy enough to upgrade them, or move on up to Carver. They match pretty well. Me, personally, I staying PL.
 
WOPL Sniffer said:
Yep, there is probably 1000 different preamps built over the years, some were great, some not so, where would you start?
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Easy, with the ones I own…lol
I know you guys are right and plan to go down the refresh path with the preamps I have. Hell if I get this Muse preamp going, it looks to be a performer. I guess I am just stuck on the “all PL” system idea.
 
NeverSatisfied said:
Easy, with the ones I own…lol
I know you guys are right and plan to go down the refresh path with the preamps I have. Hell if I get this Muse preamp going, it looks to be a performer. I guess I am just stuck on the “all PL” system idea.
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Heck yeah, get that Muse up and running and use it to bench mark your PLs as you upgrade them! I also am stuck on a all PL main system. Then I have a garage system which is a mix of Marantz and Optimus. And a work room system that uses whatever I have available.
 
Problem with preamps has been stated. They are a dime a dozen with no volume concentration anywhere.

Further to do a new board for a pre, you have to design around the controls it came with because replacements are not available in those form factors any more. That defeats the purpose of the upgrade to a large extent. New board electronics with 40+ year old controls...
 
Amen, spent yesterday designing the templates for the PL2000 selector switch, tone pots, and power/volume switch/pot using DipTrace. Nothing close was in the library. Very labor intensive and I have a long way to go. Worth it to me due to being obsessive/compulsive and always needing a project.
I might make a little bit of money selling boards on down the road, but not a lot of these preamps still exist, and the cost of all new Switchcraft RCAs would make most think twice about installing a new board.
 
George S. said:
Heck yeah, get that Muse up and running and use it to bench mark your PLs as you upgrade them! I also am stuck on a all PL main system. Then I have a garage system which is a mix of Marantz and Optimus. And a work room system that uses whatever I have available.
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You have no ideas if the Muse system is even a benchmark (HIGH OR LOW) yet!!!
 
The early PL systems are sometimes populated with really shitty mother/daughter boards and are near impossible to work on. The Star Trek joystick pre's are the biggest pieces of junk ever built. Nothing wrong with having a full PL system but there are better options when wanting to "Up the Ante". When you go out and spend thousands of dollars on a KILLER turntable and then back it up with sub-par pre's/amps, it's counter intuitive.

Just sayin
 
WOPL Sniffer said:
I'm not saying your system is sub par...... I'm just saying
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No worries Perry, I never really was going for an ultimate audiophile system. But I do understand that the system is only as strong as it’s weakest link and the preamps I have are certainly not at the level that the WOPL upgraded amps can use. I think in the end I will be happier with getting the PL preamps performing the best they can and live with them as the weakest link. The Carver C1 option might be a good compromise on the aesthetics, so I will add it to the search list.
 
Make a daughter board (or boards) that interface with the main board. Then the daughter board can be changed for different controls without a total redesign of the motherboard.

Or, just run pigtails off the pots to holes in the motherboard. Then form and placement are not critical.
 
NeverSatisfied said:
I guess I am just stuck on the “all PL” system idea.
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I personally dont mind having different makes of components, but am quite attached to the PL P3600. Lee did such a good job on making that unit sing. An all PL system looks great. You could leave the 3000 in there and have an Acurus hiding elsewhere :evil4:
 
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