A month back I became a happy member of the DIY Pass B1 preamp owners club. Here is the story of this integration, I am sharing with all of you.
It was a lazy Sunday afternoon when FM Omishra accepted my invitation to visit my place and listen to my setup, he came along with his recently built Pass B1 preamp.
we played through the following equipment chain setup:
1. PS3 - HDMI - Headphone out of Onkyo AVR(R590) - Norge Preamp - Norge Power amp - Focal Chorus 706V
2. PS3 - HDMI - Headphone out of Onkyo AVR(R590) - Pass B1 Preamp - Norge Power amp - Focal Chorus 706V
I will refrain myself from describing the sound output, it will be injustis to Focal's as the source used above is a let down for music listening (I came to know this after adding Gatorized Caiman to the chain), I will only tell you what change the B1 brought.
After listening the setup 1 for some time with diffrent types of music, we connected Pass B1 to the chain (setup 2), and suddenly the feel and atmosfere changed, the sound was more musical in addition to the well known B1 characteristics the "clean and clear sound".
To confirm our finding we played a mono CD, and the tabla peice in 'Huzoor aapka bhi ehtaram karta chaloon' by Jagjit Singh, and it was clearly evident that B1 had the honest sound.
Immediately after Omishra left, I opted for B1 PCB's (Thanks again Sachin) and started procuring components.
I did not want a separate preamp cabinet and thought about housing the B1 in the Norge preamp cabinet, once the soldering was complete, I started discussing about the layout, input selection, switching and other things with Omishra, he advised me to keep the input path short and switch the inputs close to the source, and offered me to build a relay switch circuit, I took my preamp to his place and the surgery started.
The pre amp looked like this before
on the operation table
Everything fitted, the 5V relay board could be seen on right, the source selector is at front, which switches the input close to the input source.
There is one relay for o/p as well, which is operated by a toggle switch at front used for switching between B1 and the Norge preamp.
I action
I did a lot of listening tests as it has become very easy to do the A/B between preamps using the switch in front.
Here are my observations:
1. The Rcore transformer and the new PS which powers the Norge preamp as well, has improved the Norge pre performance.
2. B1 gives clear vocals.
3. The Norge midrange seems colored, and forward sounding.
4. Overall listening to B1 is more soothing.
The toroidal transformer which was removed from the preamp, is used to make a linear PSU for Caiman. Will write about it later.
Thanks to Omishra, for spending your time during the weekend, doing everything needed for making this happen. Without your help this wouldn't have been possible.
Thanks for reading.
-Happy Listening
-Sann
It was a lazy Sunday afternoon when FM Omishra accepted my invitation to visit my place and listen to my setup, he came along with his recently built Pass B1 preamp.
we played through the following equipment chain setup:
1. PS3 - HDMI - Headphone out of Onkyo AVR(R590) - Norge Preamp - Norge Power amp - Focal Chorus 706V
2. PS3 - HDMI - Headphone out of Onkyo AVR(R590) - Pass B1 Preamp - Norge Power amp - Focal Chorus 706V
I will refrain myself from describing the sound output, it will be injustis to Focal's as the source used above is a let down for music listening (I came to know this after adding Gatorized Caiman to the chain), I will only tell you what change the B1 brought.
After listening the setup 1 for some time with diffrent types of music, we connected Pass B1 to the chain (setup 2), and suddenly the feel and atmosfere changed, the sound was more musical in addition to the well known B1 characteristics the "clean and clear sound".
To confirm our finding we played a mono CD, and the tabla peice in 'Huzoor aapka bhi ehtaram karta chaloon' by Jagjit Singh, and it was clearly evident that B1 had the honest sound.
Immediately after Omishra left, I opted for B1 PCB's (Thanks again Sachin) and started procuring components.
I did not want a separate preamp cabinet and thought about housing the B1 in the Norge preamp cabinet, once the soldering was complete, I started discussing about the layout, input selection, switching and other things with Omishra, he advised me to keep the input path short and switch the inputs close to the source, and offered me to build a relay switch circuit, I took my preamp to his place and the surgery started.
The pre amp looked like this before
on the operation table
Everything fitted, the 5V relay board could be seen on right, the source selector is at front, which switches the input close to the input source.
There is one relay for o/p as well, which is operated by a toggle switch at front used for switching between B1 and the Norge preamp.
I action
I did a lot of listening tests as it has become very easy to do the A/B between preamps using the switch in front.
Here are my observations:
1. The Rcore transformer and the new PS which powers the Norge preamp as well, has improved the Norge pre performance.
2. B1 gives clear vocals.
3. The Norge midrange seems colored, and forward sounding.
4. Overall listening to B1 is more soothing.
The toroidal transformer which was removed from the preamp, is used to make a linear PSU for Caiman. Will write about it later.
Thanks to Omishra, for spending your time during the weekend, doing everything needed for making this happen. Without your help this wouldn't have been possible.
Thanks for reading.
-Happy Listening
-Sann
. If this were an automobile, it would be called a "sleeper". 
