McAlister Audio

Has anyone ever heard a McAlister Audio product?
http://www.mcalisteraudio.com/

He’s a small time guy (possibly just a couple of people) in Canada that makes some nice looking, smart designed tube gear so it appears.

I heard of his tube amps here on Head-Fi for use with electrostatic headphones. Apparently they are popular and are very reasonably priced.

Currently he just five products; his electrostatic headphone amp, three tube amps and a preamp/headphone amp that I am interested in.

The preamp is called the PL10 Custom Triode Line/Headphone Amp.
He states that this amplifier is a mu-follower design with a 12SN7 (both sides paralleled for the lowest noise and output impedance) as the gain tube and a 27GB5 horizontal sweep tube in triode mode as the current source. “This is an extremely stable natural sounding pre-amp that uses no feedback and has no electrolytic capacitors in the signal path- only in the power supply. The power supply uses vacuum tube rectification with an oil filled capacitor feeding a large choke coil. Secondary filtration with electrolytics are by-passed with film caps. Regulated D.C. filament supplies are used for the 12SN7’s.”

Front panel selector switch selects four inputs that are relay operated (the audio signal does not go through the selector switch as this control just supply’s 24 volts to the corresponding relay for each input). There is a front panel mute switch (relay operated) that is useful when changing cables.
Two sets of pre-amp outputs and two headphone outputs on the top front chassis.
92 volts peak to peak that will sufficiently drive any headphone from 10 – 2,000 ohm impedance.
This preamp uses no feedback, no transistors; no electrolytic capacitors in the signal path, vacuum tube choke loaded rectification with a D.C. filament supply.

This unit comes with all new or NOS tubes-
2x 12SN7
2x 27GB5
5Y3 rectifier tube
detachable power cord

The price is just $600!


I need some opinions on this preamp, I‘m not familiar with the tubes. I search on eBay for these types and found enough and they are very reasonably priced.

Isnt the HEV90 close to $7,000?

I spoke to Peter McAlsiter in length the other day and he is one hell of a nice guy that has true love for all things musical. His primary expertise is audio repair/service and he has been developing his line of audio gear for a few years now.

His design approach is different and well thought out.

His prices are insanely low, he is well aware of that fact. It’s quite intentional and necessary to get his stuff out there and listened too. He’s also a one-man operation up in Canada and is making plenty even at these low prices, he sounds content.

I ordered a Custom Triode Line / Headphone Amp from him with all the options I wanted.
- 6 selectable inputs, two outputs with an additional monitor outputs
- Two headphone output jacks
- Tubes 2x 6SN7, 2 x 27GB5, 1x 5AR4
- zero negative feedback
- no transistors
- only film capacitors in the in signal path- no electrolytic
- virtual plate load, power supply is entirely independent from signal - vacuum tube rectification with an oil filled capacitor feeding a large choke coil
- ultra low inpedance output
I’ll have it in about 6 weeks (mid July 06), once broken in I’ll post my observations.

I’d like to share some photos with you of his gears ‘new’ look.

His phono line stage:


150 watt Mono Blocks

The two units in the top photo are the phono preamp, the small unit to the left is the power supply for the gain stages to the right.
He said his expertise has always been in phono sections!

He said the preamp / headphone amp will be much like the mono blocks. He also uses led’s for indicators (power, bias) and you have a choice of different colors.

The body is black lacquer with three coats of clear and a screened face with logo.

His second love is apparently headphones from what I gather. He felt not a single manufacturer of amps and preamps actually provide a real audiophile headphone amp, that they are usually just after thoughts. This is something I’ve thought for some time. His PL10 pre/amp is a true headphone amp ‘and’ a preamp all in one. The headphone amp can drive loads to 10 ohms and easily as high as 1000ohms (he claims 2000 ohms) and 92 volts! He can also wire it balanced if so desired.

For balanced operation the units design is altered and I’m sure there’s a additional cost. He will most certainly try to talk you out of balanced operation if you absolutely, positively don’t need it.

He’ll put in an XLR connector that defeats the balanced connector but you can do that with a simple converter plug.
I want it without a balance control and he too likes gear without but is strongly suggest doing something because you never know. Still its my choice. What he likes to do is put very little resistance between channels making only a 20% change in right or left, he feels it’s a very good compromise.

The amp requires no bias setting or adjusting, its set.

I’m switching the input tubes from 6SN7’s to 12SN7’s which he said he does equal numbers of and feels there is just no difference between the tubes except the heater core voltage. 6SN7’s are widely used in audiophile and have gotten expensive. An easy $50 for a good quality 6SN7 while the equivalent made 12SN7 sister is $9 and readily available.

All wiring is point to point, solid silver core wire in all signal paths, stranded heavier gauge copper in all poser supply components. Unit has three irons and weighs in at about 25 lbs.

Nothing is precut, each chassis starts off as a solid blank and he drills to order. Having 6 inputs and three outputs with two headphone jacks is KEY for me.

He uses a variation of this preamp on his own system consisting of a 42 tube 260wpc amp to drive a very inefficient set of electrostats. He says its very transparent and delivers a very large soundstage, first and foremost with all the weight and midbass that it should to be musical. Sicne the headphone amp and preamp ‘are’ the same circuit, the signature sound is also in the headphone amp which, according to him, way better then most at three times the price.