01a Preamp from South Korea

Time ago I made a set of gyrator boards for Chul in South Korea. His build skills are amazing and look at his work below. I love the structure and design, it’s simply beautiful.

Chul asked me also to engrave one of my cartoons on his preamp, a real honour. Look at it and judge it yourself

Hopefully Chul can chip in here and leave his impressions of the preamp. I believe he tried before other configurations and also is looking to build a 10Y soon!

My cartoon engraved on the preamp top plate

Author: Ale Moglia

"A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and always unacceptable. " (Robert Fripp)

3 thoughts on “01a Preamp from South Korea”

  1. Wow, thank you for posting the pictures. The load of my 01A pre was changed from a simple resistor and cathode follower, DN2540 CCS, plate choke and now Gyrator. Whenever I thought that a change was good and happy, I got to think again after long hours and days of listening. You cannot fool the time :-).
    Each different load was kind of compromising and filling up the weak points of whole system. So usually I try different power amps for some change in the preamp.(300B, 45, 2A3, 6V6 PP, SIT power…) I am now a happy listener of 01A preamp with Gyrator load. 01A always gives me the transparency and not-so- peaky sound.

    A little surprise was when I compared this 01A pre to my 10Y pre with plate choke load. At first, I liked the unique sound of plate choke and kept listening to it as a DIY honeymoon. A long honeymoon. But when I switched to my 01A pre I realized that I had forgotten for long about this 01A pre’s humble and musical sound. Gyratorload gives more objective and non-fatiguing sound. So I asked Ale for permission to laser engrave his cartoon. Now, this is a really unique and memorable DIY.

    I decided to use Gyrator to my 10Y pre. My first impression to simple 10Y pre was so strong then, I thought 10Y can be a king of DHT pre. Although my DHT experience is limited .. ha ha.

    Ale, I appreciate you for building the PCB for my 10Y pre. I expect some surprises again, about which our audio DIY is all about!

    1. Thank you Gable,
      The 9 pin tube below the cartoon is 6922 6DJ8 cathode follower. This is not in use after Gyrator. 🙂

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