Before I attempt to describe the marriage of Joshe's 801/10 or new bread-boarded preamp driving -- via his 845- or 2A3 mercury vapor rectified monos -- Cain & Cain Bens or Abbys, let's take a look at these formidable listening room ingredients.
< Terry Cain's personal pair of 2A3 monos >
< Ed Sawyer's soon-to-be-delivered pair of>
845 monos with Nemo-esque power meter
and green cat-eye indicator tubes
< Eye candy or audio porn? These center folds are luscious. Just wait until you put your ears on 'em and receive the first bill. Explain that to the wife.
^ Joshe's 801/10 preamplifier [above] and a bread-boarded new preamp with two gigantic mercury vapor rectifiers to the board's left that glow a sexy bright blue.


< Later into the listening session, Josh compared his older completed preamp with the prototype and agreed with our combined assessment. The older one was more open, refined and elegant-sounding, the new one had more drive and low-end moxy. "I know just what it needs" was his reply. Whereupon he ambled down the stairs into the workshop den, returned with soldering gun and added some small cobalt output transformers and increased filter capacitance. Bingo...
Comparing the after/before images of finalized steel/copper orgy to the "gutted critter" pix drives home the artistic element Josh adds to his curvaceously organic creations.
^ How many amps do you count? Three? It's just one, Jim Dowdy's GM-70 parafeed design. The left image shows the filament power supply, the middle one the mains equivalent and the right the innards for the main chassis.


< The massive transformers behind the power tubes are really chokes. The actual output transformers are far smaller and can be seen in the bottoms-off pic above. Om Mani Padme Hum? No hum! The Dodwy Lama banished residual hum with a small basement operation for a good Karma (late) Saturday Night Live session. But - dinner first:
^ Sloshed or joshed? Jay, Terry and Leslie in the thralls of good food, great wine and excellent company. Saludos to the hosts! ^ Definitely joshed. The sloshing was civilized and from selected vineyards. Nothing like some choice alcohol to calibrate that HF extension. Lol.
^ Josh, mom Linda and Dave Adams ^ Alan Kafton banging his stops - ahem, plates.
^ Paternal pride - and contemplating what tubes sonnie will stick into his amps next
^ Good table manners definitely include smooching, especially with one's girlfriend. Now where's my third wife when I need her? In my wallet, that's where. Talk's cheap.
^ Paternal pride II - Terry Cain reminding himself (only partially successfully) that womb-less delivery is the lesser pain of siring offspring
^ Krispy Kreme devotee and audio reviewer Ian White would love these. He's reviewed the Abby [left] for the upcoming ETM issue. Absolute Sound reviewer and Audio Asylum moderator Stephaen Harrell bought a pair of Bens. Will Scott Markwell let him write about his personal acquisition?
Stephaen Harrell drives the Bennies with an Art Audio PX-25. The man's got excellent taste. I'm drooling over reviewing a pair of these myself. With the PX-25 and the AUDIOPAX monos. Perhaps after CES if the audio gods in Walla Walla smile upon me. >
^ $1,495/pr for the Abby in four different stains over Alderwood (shown in dark red). The twin-horn Ben (short for Big ENough) goes for $5,500/pr and can be had in all maple, or with walnut sides.
^In the kitchen [far left, background], Leslie Cain meditates over how many crystals of salt fit onto one dry-roasted almond. She knows what her speakers sound like after all. We, however, do not. The posse assembles in the living room to indulge in some high-output romps until 2:30 AM for two days in a row. Audiophiles do it with nothing but their ears. How's that for safe sex and oblivious rudeness to one's hosts? When the tunes call, music lovers forget all about etiquette and good manners.