The Pre-amp arrived in the mail yesterday, on 12 days from Hong Kong, not too bad! The difference having a pre-amp in line with the amp is really night and day. I'm really able to drive the speakers now, and I have not even attempted to turn the volume all the way up (I have had it as high as about 60% and that was more than enough). I've also tried using it as a headphone amplifier and it sounds great that way as well. There are only 2 issues I have with it, and I knew about them before I bought it. First, the black heatsinks get INCREDIBLY hot. I shot them with my infrared thermometer, and they were about 75C. Since this is a class A amp, it seems to always be this temperature when on, regardless of the listening volume. Supposedly this temperature is okay. The next issue is interference. Since the amp is not in a shielded enclosure, you do not want to bring yor iPhone within about 8 feet of this amp. One of the guys on another board fixed this by plating the top and bottom acrylics with aluminun foil and tying it all to a common ground. I may enclose it in the future, but for now it's okay since I play music from my iPhone to a Bluetooth receiver... No issues with that.
Anyway, I love the pre-amp. It's a great deal for $119 shipped.
