Saturday, January 23, 2016

Le Solstice by Jean Hiraga




Searched for this elusive preamp many, many, many years, now... found it, today: it was sitting unused on a shelf, only about 800 m from my home… so goes the world.











Used with Cabasse Dinghy and 300B Partridge mono-blocks it's a truly rare pleasure: it's just a tad darker than I was used with Luxman Ultimate AT-3000 passive, but it is very natural sounding and much, much more dynamic than the latter... something which truly justify the wait and expense, indeed.


... from my personal collection...


The 36V battery XLR feature will have to be further investigated… a Zener Diode and 3 x 12V gel or lithium batteries and here we go!

Thanking Flavio, the seller, Kaneda-San for the project and Jean Hiraga for this sought-after almost unknown little masterpiece.


P.S. - anyone willing to share a scan of the user's manual and schematics? Thanks in advance...



6 comments:

  1. http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/amplificateurs-integres-haute-fidelite/qui-connait-le-preamp-le-solstice-t29858475.html

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  2. It was a real pleasure to listen my preamp on your set up Stefano!

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  3. According to that page , it's custom (it's always , isn't it ;) ) , version of Kaneda preamp.
    However , it's certainly best to check with The Man himself ....

    I mean , Hiraga San

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  4. I had to back engineer the schematics... had a little problem: it was a cold soldering near the on/off switch... easily solved... the by-product is: NOW I have the schematics;-)

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