By mrgoodsound
Fast forward to 2022 and I was still sleeping on Bottlehead kits. I got into some pretty esoteric stuff, had the opportunity to own a boatload of tube amplifiers and pre-amps both new and old, and in general thought I was 'past' what Bottlehead was offering in their catalog. Parafeed, constant current sources and stepped attenuators? It was all a little too 'modern' for me. Of course this was a very foolish position, and the more I read about their circuits the more intrigued I became. I learned that parafeed topologies go back to the neolithic age of amplifier development and have very real world advantages. It turned out that these Bottlehead guys understood a thing or two about tubes.
The completion of a project involving restoring a Heathkit AA-32 to its factory schematic left me itching to build something new. I was set on amplifiers, headamps and phono stages so this left the equally interesting Moreplay and BeePre preamps in the Bottlehead catalog. Factoring in the cost of 'good' 300B tubes, the BeePre became a little too bourgeois to scratch the project itch and so the Moreplay was ordered. The idea of a single-stage triode-strapped 6V6 line stage was very interesting, and I especially like the 6V6 because good sounding vintage examples from the 1940s are still plentiful and affordable.
The Bottlehead Experience
Bottlehead is a relatively small shop, so kits take a few weeks to pack and ship from when you place your order. The anticipation builds, and you have plenty of time to study the digitally provided assembly instructions and decide on if/how you want to finish the included wood base and aluminum top plate. I had some leftover satin ivory spray paint from a Lenco restoration and had recently ordered a copious amount of instrument-grade varnish from Italy, so I was all set.
Once the kit had shipped, Bottlehead reached out to let me know there was a misprint with the aluminum top plate, and before I could even reply they had overnighted a new one with DHL. It ended up arriving before the kit did. Talk about customer service! I used the spare misprinted top plate for testing paint finishes before committing to the build.
The build itself was very straightforward. If you have a modicum of experience with tools like a soldering iron, wire strippers and a digital multimeter; then building the kit is much like putting together Legos. Step-by-step instructions with photographs coupled with frequent resistance checks to ensure everything is going together correctly should make the Moreplay a satisfying experience for a first-time kit builder. If you don't have any experience soldering, you can easily get started with an inexpensive breadboard project from Amazon or eBay. Bottlehead also has a series of YouTube videos which cover everything from base & hardware assembly to soldering tips to help build their kits.
Building the kit was a blast, the electrical assembly took me 2 and a half evenings and everything worked the first time I turned it on. There is a quote on the Bottlehead home page: “No one ever eats just one potato chip, and no one ever builds just one Bottlehead kit. I’ve now built 6.” Unfortunately I can confirm this is true, I am already considering which Bottlehead kit to build next, even though I don't need any of them!
Moreplay Performance
For simplicities sake I have mostly gravitated towards using amplifiers with built-in volume controls. My experience with pre-amps has largely been confined to vintage units such as the Eico HF-85 which despite having fantastic tone also has a frustrating amount of self-noise, too much gain and a plethora of functions modern users will not appreciate. The 'best' pre-amp I have used is the Truth unit I wrote about previously, but that has no gain and will only slot into a select few systems from a usability and synergy perspective.
The Moreplay is now the 'best' pre-amp that I can recommend with very few reservations (being a kit, using tubes) and represents an insane value for the $450 base price. Add $100 for a decent pair of 6V6 and materials for finishing the base. When I first hooked up the unit with the stock tubes (late 60s Soviet surplus) the frequency extremes were truncated and soft, but the unit immediately impressed with its midrange, depth and presence. I expected this and immediately replaced the tubes for a pair of 1940s Marconi 6V6G. High & low frequency presence returned, the sound became sharp and lively, beautiful overtones appeared, and overall I was reminded immediately of the sound of the Truth pre-amp with just a hint of 'tube' richness. Really, just a hint.
No noise. I cranked it all the way and I could not even hear filament hiss with my ear right up to my ~97db/w speakers. I only heard a faint hum which was from DC offset in my mains supply affecting the power transformer on my power amp. The Bottlehead website states they placed the volume control after the gain stage to provide "a lower noise floor and a consistent sonic signature when used with highly sensitive amplifiers and/or speakers". Yup, confirmed! My speakers are really sensitive and I barely have the volume control up but the Moreplay sounds great even with the attenuator all the way near the bottom, and there is a large usable range of volume across many different recordings.
Experiments with headphones
I went from impressed to really impressed when I had the idea to connect the Moreplay in-between my MacBook's line out and a solid-state headphone amplifier (Eddie Current SS) I had on hand. Using the Sennheiser HD600 headphones without the Moreplay they were driven well: the sound was very clear and direct, with good dynamics, but a little monotonous and with dull overtones. With the Moreplay, the sound became richer, the bass became big and juicy, and again appropriate sharpness returned to high frequency harmonics with no perceptible loss in clarity or intonation.
Of course this test was purely academic, I do not plan to use a dedicated line stage in a headphone system, but it demonstrated the Moreplay belongs to an elite class of components which lengthen the signal path but also improve the transmission of music. I bet many passive pre-amp diehards would consider switching camps after trying the Moreplay in their systems. The best part was when I turned the volume control on both the headamp and Moreplay all the way up and still only heard a faint hiss in my headphones coming from the AC filaments of the 6V6s.
In summary the Moreplay represents a fantastic value, even if you were to pay a modest sum to have one built for you. I can only fantasize about how much better the BeePre is. With no boutique components and a very simple circuit, it has that bold and direct octal-base sound that the sea of faceless commercial 12A*7 line stages cannot really hope to contend with. Highly recommended.
Posts
Very nice write up. I'm digging the vintage-looking appeal of the ivory paint.
ReplyDeleteWow, what a blitzkrieg surprise! This resonates with me on several levels:
ReplyDelete1. A friend and I in HK had been Bottlehead customers and aficionados since the start (ancient lore). I built a Foreplay (quite conventional), which sounded good, and my friend built at least 2 monoblock amps, one of them the 2A3 Paramour. They were all good. Then they had this solid state mod which we did not try. And with time, prices crept up and we just forgot about it (we had too much anyway). May research and write a supporting article one day.
2. I am particularly happy because the 6V6 tube is a glorious one! Great tone and reputed to be the best reproducer for strings (I agree). Even guitar players know this. Ahhhhh, if I were in NYC, I'd send a boatload of old stock 6V6 to mrgoodosund. Mind you, the GT has a faster and leaner sound than the ST bottles. The best of the GTs are old black glass ones, but any old stock is superior to the Russian and Chinese tubes (as mrgoodsound mentioned, you haven't heard 6V6 until you use old stock).
3. A tube preamp, with gain or not, is beneficial in being a buffer. This is always the case. Of course, no configuration suits everyone and there are many ways to do it, like an input transformer. I happen to be thinking of a buffer here in China. After reading this article, which re-kindled my long-buried Bottlehead memories, I'd not mind ordering one, BUT shipping logistics now is terrible across half the world. So I put it to the back burner. There are actually many Chinese variants here, which I may investigate.
4. Over the years, I had occasionally re-visited Bottlehead website, but the prices were far from what I expected - they had gone upscale, with not much noticeable rationale. THIS offering I hope jumpstarts a new era! And they have plenty of competitors. The Bee-Pre has to contend with OTL rivals too. IMHO, a backstep in the right direction. What they need to do next is to introduce more affordable amp kits.
id have to agree on the last sentence in the post. i do have quite a few 12a-7 tubes i never use, coming from old console amps i source for the iron. one can make a killer el84 amp or 6v6 with not much money, ebay sells all kinds of ugly old console amps. make your own chassis.
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