BitLess Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 You can order them on ebay, from the guy who makes them. The T10 2.5, which is the one you want, is around $150 with free shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papercup Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 How much do these cost/where can I get them? http://www.amazon.com/Little-Bear-T10-Pro-Turntable-preamplifier/dp/B00O7U7ZTI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin8821 Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 I'm on the fence about a yaqin ms-23b. It seems ideal but anyone familiar with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jlegg Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 I'm on the fence about a yaqin ms-23b. It seems ideal but anyone familiar with it? It has decent reviews from what I understand, certainly looks nicer than the Little Bear. With that being said, I believe it is a hybrid and not a true full tube preamp. I only found one link discussing the two. http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=77932 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin8821 Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Well after reading all that I'm definitely swayed towards the little bear t10 pro. I have time to figure it out, I don't plan on making my purchase until November as a little birthday gift to myself from my wife and little one. Right now I'm breaking in my current set up getting used to a new receiver, equalizer, and reverberation amplifier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 It seems there is a lot that needs to be done to these for optimal quality. How hard is it all for someone with next to zero soldering experience? Tube audio has peeked my interest lately. Is the newer version any better on the voltage? The old ones seems to be quite a bit high, according to some other forums talking about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jlegg Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 It seems there is a lot that needs to be done to these for optimal quality. How hard is it all for someone with next to zero soldering experience? Tube audio has peeked my interest lately. Is the newer version any better on the voltage? The old ones seems to be quite a bit high, according to some other forums talking about it. My soldering experience with electronics before getting this thing was very minimal. What I did was purchased it and used it for a bit while I waited on my materials to come in. In the mean time I practiced soldering. I watched a few videos and just generally messed around with a cheap soldering iron and some old equipment that was broken for practice. This gave me time to get familiar with the sound of the amp and allow for a little tube burn in. The only things I've done that required soldering was replacing two capacitors, making a tube shield out of wire mesh, running a ground wire from the shield to the boards ground and soldering it in, and I made an adapter to be able to use an American rectifier tube. Aside from making the adapter, these were very very easy to accomplish. Making the rectifier tube adapter is not necessary, or really even recommended by me. As far as voltage, mine is a bit high. Within "acceptable" range at least. What should be 110 V reads ~117, so what 5-6% over. I'm certainly not an EE, but I don't think this affects much other than maybe shorten tube life? (I've tried reading about it, but have mostly came to the conclusion this was common with older tube gear) A couple of the other mods from the past model are no longer required as far as I understand. The pin 9 ground has been done for us, as well as gain reduction (via an onboard switch), and the RIAA curve should be significantly better though I do not own the proper testing equipment to tell you with any certainty. I learned a lot about electronics and tube audio since I've recieved this thing and continue to learn a ton so it has been really fun for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Good to know. I'll practice a ton before I decide to buy or not, not ready to upgrade the mani quite yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinylfilmaholic Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Really want to grab one of these but would prefer not to have to do anything with it out of the box, just plug in and that's it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BitLess Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Really want to grab one of these but would prefer not to have to do anything with it out of the box, just plug in and that's it. I used my Little Bear T10 Pro 2.5 right out of the box with no modifications, and to my ears it sounded great. There was some hum when I cranked the volume way up, but nothing noticeable during regular listening. I also had the gain switch set to high, and never tried switching to low gain to see if that made a difference, which I hear it does. I wouldn't let all of the talk about this thing needing upgrades hold you back, as long as you understand that what you're getting isn't a top of the line piece of audio equipment, and its price is indicative of its build quality. However, if you've only been using the built in phono stage on your receiver or integrated amp, you will get a lot of bang for your buck with this little pre. You should definitely notice an improvement. Personally, after using the Little Bear for a few days, I decided to switch to a higher quality solid state phono preamp, the Phenomena II+, as my daily use phono stage, but I plan on holding on to the Little Bear for the time being, for whenever I get a hankering for tubes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinylfilmaholic Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 I used my Little Bear T10 Pro 2.5 right out of the box with no modifications, and to my ears it sounded great. There was some hum when I cranked the volume way up, but nothing noticeable during regular listening. I also had the gain switch set to high, and never tried switching to low gain to see if that made a difference, which I hear it does. I wouldn't let all of the talk about this thing needing upgrades hold you back, as long as you understand that what you're getting isn't a top of the line piece of audio equipment, and its price is indicative of its build quality. However, if you've only been using the built in phono stage on your receiver or integrated amp, you will get a lot of bang for your buck with this little pre. You should definitely notice an improvement. Personally, after using the Little Bear for a few days, I decided to switch to a higher quality solid state phono preamp, the Phenomena II+, as my daily use phono stage, but I plan on holding on to the Little Bear for the time being, for whenever I get a hankering for tubes. Thanks, I'll consider it still then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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