Review on 🔊 Enhance Your Audio with rolls Tube PREAMPLIFIER, Black (PA555) by Matthew Watkins

I've been living with this Bellari PA555 for about 7 months now and I love it. Conclusion: For live sounding amps like my Musical Fidelity. M2si, this Bellari PA555 adds a pleasing depth and richness to the sound. Upgrading the tube to the gold-tipped Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7 ($50) makes the sound even deeper and richer with nicer mids. Upgrading the power supply to a Jameco Reliapro DDU150100D7051 transformer for about $20 offers a wider soundstage and more transparency. Using a standard power supply gives a smoother sound than the Jameco (perfect for poorly recorded material or for relaxed, casual listening). Jameco's effects are more noticeable on the standard tube than on the Gold Lion tube. Systems used for testing: 1. Musical Fidelity M6si / Musician Pegasus DAC / Canton Reference 9.2 DC speakers / Martin Logan Dynamo 500 subwoofer: I didn't like the Bellari PA555 in this system as it made the whole sound a bit muddy. In this system, the tube was "good" really just "good". Here the PA555 has probably done too much.2. Cambridge CXA60 / Musician Pegasus DAC / Bowers & Wilkins 606 speakers: nice sound; The Bellari PA555/Musician Pegasus combo sounded better than the onboard Wolfson DAC, but honestly it didn't sound much better than the comparison combo of the FX-AUDIO TUBE-03 GE5654 tube preamp ($50) with Massdrop x Grace. SDAC ($95 today) - The differences were too small (given the price difference between Bellari and the FX-AUDIO TUBE-03) to justify using Bellari on this system. Here PA555 is probably not effective enough.3. Musical Fidelity M2si / Musician Pegasus DAC / KEF LS50 speakers / Sony SACS9 subwoofer: winner, winner, chicken dinner! It was a great combination, taming the Live M2si and giving it amazing richness and depth of sound. It completely changed the M2si for me, allowing it to approach (but not equal) the M6si in sound quality. Definitely a Goldilocks "just right" combo. Incidentally, the B&W 606 speakers also sounded great in this synergistic combination (but not as good as the KEF LS50, to my ears). Twisting the tube: is it important to update the lamp? No, the standard lamp sounds very good. If you want "more" than anything a tube preamp can give you, I recommend the Goldkopf-Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7: other things being equal, the Gold Lion tube delivers a wider and deeper soundstage, greater transparency and a more pleasing sound (sweeter and musical). - it just sounds better). But the standard bulb is excellent, especially when you consider that adding a Gold Lion tube adds almost 20% to the cost. Power supply: I bought a Jameco Reliapro DDU150100D7051 transformer for $20. I was initially impressed when I first used it with my Bellari PA555, but the Jameco seemed to start to distort after a while so I put it aside for a couple of months. I recently took it back out and for some reason it sounds great now - maybe because I've learned to keep the Bellari preamp volume at 2:45 or lower in the meantime. Jameco increases the width of the soundstage and adds transparency to the sound, especially with the standard lamp. The difference is noticeable, but not that big with the Gold Lion pipe. When listening to a stock tube I use the Jameco power supply for a more "analytical" listening experience, but I switch it back to the standard power supply for relaxed, casual listening or for poorly recorded material - the stock power supply gives more from that smooth "warm" and flaky " sound. In my opinion, choosing a Jameco over a standard power supply is purely a matter of personal taste. Usage note: I usually set the preamp volume to 2:45. I find that 3:00 and up can cause too much distortion, especially at high volumes.I prefer to turn the amp on when I want to play loud and keep the Bellari at 2:45.Could you improve the tube preamp performance Sure, just spend another $600 or so and buy a Shi'ite Freya+, but at $275 I'm not sure there's anything quite as good as the upgrades g of your live amplifier. I'd love to hear about other inexpensive tube preamps if anyone has compared the Bellari PA555 to them.