While bored stiff and recovering from surgery last year I came upon the Foreplay 2 schematic from 2001 and decided that I had everything I needed, minus the transformer, to build one. This 'parts box' Foreplay was born.The original had the most basic parts and a reputation for humming (waddaya want for $149?) but the circuit design Doc wangled from George Wright is elegantly simple and good sounding. The cathode follower is one of two basic topologies that all preamps utilize and among other things, allows long interconnects to be used. My parts box has pretty high end parts so this unit has Schottky diodes, Kiwame, Mills, and A-B resistors, Auricap output caps by-passed with Russian Teflon FT-3s and an unobtanium Radio Shack Alps volume pot. The input selector is an NKK with silver contacts. The power supply and grounding scheme is what makes this a 2.1 and elevates it from the cheapest way to get a tube pre-amp to a near high-end unit. Instead of the original CRC, this CLC power supply substitutes a 7H Hammond choke for the resistor. There is now a Star Ground and shielded wiring to the outputs. At my house, there is no hum at my 97dB speakers. Just music. The signal input has also been padded down a bit to eliminate the "hair trigger" volume control of this design. I've recently completed what has turned out to be my Bucket List pre-amp which leaves this little guy sitting on a shelf. The very musical Auricaps combined with the more detailed Teflons result in excellent bass weight, high frequency extension, and a musical presentation. There are two inputs selected by the toggle switch and a pair of very nice OS RCA Clear Top 12AU7 tubes. The last two Fotos are of my latest line stage, the one I'll be buried with. It's just to show the work I do and not for sale. My price is firm and fair and includes Paypal fee. This isn't some first-timers kit being gotten rid of. You won't need to beg help from the Bottlehead Forum to make it go. Visit Audiogon for my feedback and especially my virtual system as kitch29.
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