![]() ![]() As does the Manley, this little 834 also responded with a generous sound-stage way larger than life with palpable images projected as far as onto the side walls of my room. Stuff starts happening that can’t be described in normal Hi-Fi terms. You need to hear a medium output MC driving an MM stage on the 47Kohm load setting when the matching is just right. I tried it like this feeding it my Shelter 7000 MC’s 0,5mV output and almost unbelievably it did very much the same thing my $8000 Manley Steelhead does! With the correct cartridge, the little EAR has enough gain to just get away with the MM setting before everything is swamped in hum and noise. Just the right balance in my book of audiophile wishes. It has an inviting tranquility about it that makes you forget about the hi-Fi only to realize several hours of listening later you must have spun some vinyl in that time! It is unmistakably valve, but never bloomy or dripping with ripeness. They heard it at Hi-Fi ’96, one of the biggest trade shows at the time where the room that won “Best Sound of Show” ran a 834P into the newly released Audio Research Reference One Line Stage.Īs can almost be expected from a tri-12AX7 design, it’s main strengths are through the velvety smooth midrange. The boys at Stereophile Magazine wrote about it plenty and in-fact reported on the 834P before it even hit the markets proper. Back then and to this day, all you see about it is praise all round. I sort of knew what I was in for beforehand and bought the little EAR having never heard it myself. Hearing that magical improvement over all previously known standards just hits home like no other. One of the rewards Hi-Fi enthusiasts keep seeking, is exactly one like this. After a long and admittedly over stayed welcome with various preamps from NAIM, the little EAR834P came as a heavenly tonic to a dried out desert roamer. ![]()
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