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Topic: The most extreme Rev Pre ever... |
Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 7 Jul 2012 9:59 am |
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Just finished a custom order Revelation Tube Preamp for Charlie Shapiro. He spared no expense here. About $1500 worth of V-Cap CuTF capacitors for the audio path. Copper foil & teflon. Audio Note tantalum plate resistors. Hexfred soft recovery B+ supply rectifiers (diodes). Cine-Mag output transformers. WBT silver solder. Extra film cap filtering at each plate supply node.
The result??? Well, it's pretty amazing. I expected it to be the ultimate Rev with such great quality cap's and resistors and other tweaks. What I didn't expect was this extra intense and explosive warmth and richness. Super-duper warm. Everything we love about tube circuits times 10. The top end and detail and sweetness is all there in spades, no harshness, no zingy crisp edge, deep midrange, huge bass and low mid body and warmth. Ultra lush. And it's not even broken in yet.
Not that a stock Rev is a slouch, but these extreme (and extremely expensive) components do take things to another level. These copper foil and teflon V-Cap's are astounding.
Brad
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Tony Rankin
From:
Land O’ Lakes, FL
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Posted 7 Jul 2012 10:33 am Wow!
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I'm envious! Perhaps this should be a new model of the Revelation. I'd suggest calling it the Revelation Apocalypse. An apocalypse (Greek: apocálypsis, meaning 'un-covering') is a revelation of something hidden. In this case you brought out its ultimate hidden potential.
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Tony Rankin |
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Dickie Whitley
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Posted 7 Jul 2012 12:21 pm
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....and as always, the suggested manufactuers retail price on this new ultimate model. There may be interest....
I'm gonna step out on a limb and say $2500 - $3000 for one of these "souped up" Revelations....
So this along with a Lexicon PCM92, puts about $5k in your rack to start off.... 
Last edited by Dickie Whitley on 7 Jul 2012 12:26 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 7 Jul 2012 12:22 pm
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| It'll take a lot of box-tops to get one of those! |
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Dickie Whitley
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Posted 7 Jul 2012 12:28 pm
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| Dave, I'm with ya on that. Brad, what kind of box tops do we need to send? |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 7 Jul 2012 1:10 pm
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Really, I didn't charge any more than I normally do for the Rev. I just let him pay for the exotic components. I think all in all cost him around $2k all said and done.
B |
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Dickie Whitley
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Posted 7 Jul 2012 1:28 pm
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| Brad, with that said, would this be something you'd consider on a regular basis? If someone requested the same? |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 7 Jul 2012 1:38 pm
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Sure.
It's all fun for me.
B |
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Ray DeVoe
From:
Hudson, FL
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Posted 8 Jul 2012 1:03 am Revelation
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Hi Brad
It's terrific that you are always improving your equipment line. I know that the last mod you installed in my one Revelation made it stand out and above the other one as to sweetness and sound.
I do not play out enough these days to justify the cost of a Revelation with all of the superior quality components but I will be the first to ask.
Can the new superior quality components be retrofitted into an existing Revelation or are there too many parts to change out?
I imagine in the long run it would be easier to sell the exisiting model and have a new one built from scratch.
Anyway, thanks for all of the great products that you have developed and made available to us. Your preamp line, combined with TC's splits make for top shelf setups, and the service and backing of this equipment by both of you is unparalled.
Ray DeVoe
_________________
Zum SD 10 Hybrid, Zum D 10 Hybrid, Emmons SD 10 P.P.
SMS: Revelation & Classic Preamps: Furlong 12" Splits.
Webb 15" Splits: Telonics 500 C: Quilter-T.T.12": |
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Hook Moore
From:
South Charleston,West Virginia
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Posted 8 Jul 2012 4:13 am
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Now you've done it Brad, my Revelation has been sounding great day after day, week after week, year after year without even an upgrade. Now you got me thinking again 
Hook
_________________
http://twitter.com/hook_moore
www.facebook.com/hook.moore
Blaine Moore
Last edited by Hook Moore on 8 Jul 2012 8:16 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Jay Fagerlie
From:
Lotus, California, USA
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Posted 8 Jul 2012 7:08 am
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Great looking pre amp Brad
J |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 8 Jul 2012 9:18 am
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Older Rev's can pretty easily be modded to take on some more exotic components. The normal, stock Rev already has a great, high-grade signal path with a lot of attention to the tonal qualities of components, but at the same time using tried and true parts that don't have these exotic costs. What I'd like to do is see about some upgrade options or paths that aren't nearly as extreme as this V-Cap approach but may give certain audible benefits that can be justified for the hardcore audio tweaker types. Maybe a few hundred bucks for a premium upgrade, but not so much that it more than doubles the price of the Rev. This V-cap/tantalum-resistor mod is WAY the high end extreme approach. Extreme. The ultimate.
B |
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Len Amaral
From:
Rehoboth,MA 02769
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Posted 8 Jul 2012 7:02 pm
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Brad:
You make such great gear! Keep up the good work and so I'll send one of my 3 Revs back for sweetening upgrade. What a tone party! |
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Hook Moore
From:
South Charleston,West Virginia
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Posted 8 Jul 2012 8:02 pm
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| Brad Sarno wrote: |
What I'd like to do is see about some upgrade options or paths that aren't nearly as extreme as this V-Cap approach but may give certain audible benefits that can be justified for the hardcore audio tweaker types. Maybe a few hundred bucks for a premium upgrade, but not so much that it more than doubles the price of the Rev. This V-cap/tantalum-resistor mod is WAY the high end extreme approach. Extreme. The ultimate.
B |
I would be up for that ..
Hook
_________________
http://twitter.com/hook_moore
www.facebook.com/hook.moore
Blaine Moore |
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Jay Ganz
From:
Out Behind The Barn
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Posted 9 Jul 2012 4:37 am
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| Brad Sarno wrote: |
| Older Rev's can pretty easily be modded to take on some more exotic components. |
Howzabout the Classic Tube Preamp? |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 9 Jul 2012 6:46 am
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| Jay Ganz wrote: |
| Brad Sarno wrote: |
| Older Rev's can pretty easily be modded to take on some more exotic components. |
Howzabout the Classic Tube Preamp? |
Sure, why not?
B |
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James Quackenbush
From:
Pomona, New York, USA
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Posted 13 Jul 2012 5:47 am
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Hi Brad,
Folks talk about boutique amps and pre's as being way out of reach for them and how expensive they are ......and justfully so .........It's been my experience that the quality and tolerances of top quality parts , and the tweaking of said parts are what brings out the final EXCELLENT TONE or " ICING ON The CAKE " of an already good design .... It use to be that you could mod an amp with top of the line components for about 25% of the cost of the amp ....Now it's closer to 50% of the cost of the amp !!...... You will pay a good amount of money for a good sounding amp ....You will pay a GREAT amount of money for a GREAT sounding amp !!.....Thanks for the update on your pre and the mods being offered ....
One last question ....When you were installing these components , did you install them seperately to see how much the tone changed each time , or were they installed all at once ? .......I guess what I am asking is What mods made the most improvement in the tone ? ......Thanks again for your time and your experience reguarding tone !!......Sincerely, Jim |
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James Quackenbush
From:
Pomona, New York, USA
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Posted 13 Jul 2012 6:27 am
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Hi Brad,
Folks talk about boutique amps and pre's as being way out of reach for them and how expensive they are ......and justfully so .........It's been my experience that the quality and tolerances of top quality parts , and the tweaking of said parts are what brings out the final EXCELLENT TONE or " ICING ON The CAKE " of an already good design .... It use to be that you could mod an amp with top of the line components for about 25% of the cost of the amp ....Now it's closer to 50% of the cost of the amp !!...... You will pay a good amount of money for a good sounding amp ....You will pay a GREAT amount of money for a GREAT sounding amp !!.....Thanks for the update on your pre and the mods being offered ....
One last question ....When you were installing these components , did you install them seperately to see how much the tone changed each time , or were they installed all at once ? .......I guess what I am asking is What mods made the most improvement in the tone ? ......Thanks again for your time and your experience reguarding tone !!......Sincerely, Jim |
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Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
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Posted 13 Jul 2012 7:08 am
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Jim,
I wasn't all that scientific. We had a list of every piece we knew we wanted to take to the extreme and in locations in the circuit where I know you can affect tone. So the whole thing was built from the ground up entirely with the boutique parts. So there really wasn't a good scientific method that helped me isolate which ones were greater contributors than others. I'd like to do that, and actually I'm kind of planning on that. I'm really not sure how I'm gonna proceed with offering the fancy upgraded. My mentality with the Rev has always been that I use parts that are already very carefully selected to sound better than most others. The plate resistors are carefully chosen. The cathode bypass cap's are very carefully chosen. The high voltage coupling cap's are very carefully chosen, as are the tone-stack cap's. So the stock Rev is already tweaked, but just not with the extra-extreme-boutique hundreds of dollars parts.
But like I think you may be suggesting, it would be cool to find which parts were the biggest contributors to the tonal changes for the better and maybe find a way to economize the upgrade and hit a few key spots. I'd like to also see if there is a happy middle ground that gets you nearly all the way there like this V-Cap mod. This V-Cap mod with all the other stuff too has definitely set the highest bar I can imagine. But if there's a mod that's only 20% that price that gets you 90% of the way there, that would be desirable and affordable too. I've got some parts testing to do. It'll be a little while before I know exactly what I may plan to offer. Maybe some tiers of upgrades like: stock, silver mod, platinum mod or something like that.
B |
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James Quackenbush
From:
Pomona, New York, USA
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Posted 13 Jul 2012 7:58 am
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Hi Brad,
You understand completely where I'm coming from .....BTW , I did not mean to imply that the parts already offered in your pre as it stands are sub standard ..... Please don't feel that I was inferring that ......I think we both know that there is a price point whereby a build can be accomplished to a really good standard , and still keep it affordable ..... There are a few of us around that don't mind spending more money on the "Creme la Creme " so to speak .... We also both know that there are some components that are nice to have in a build , but don't nessesarily add "that much " to the tone of the build that could just as easily be eliminated to keep costs inline ..... You kow what I'm talking about as I said in my first statement ....Thanks again , and look forward to your findings .....I'm selling off a lot of my other gear and this pre is one that I am watching closely and will end up purchasing after you have done your testing ....Sincerely, Jim |
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Charlie Thompson
From:
South Carolina, USA
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Posted 16 Jul 2012 6:35 am
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Brad,
Maybe for those who can do the soldering an "Upgrade Kit" (or list) with instructions for the existing Rev? |
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