EAR Testimonials

Unsolicited Customer Testimonials - Every client has paid The Upgrade Company LLC in full.   No kickbacks, no commissions, no fees of any kind for recommending our products and services.

May 2011

EAR P 834P Phono Preamp Upgrade

My EAR P 834P phono preamp from Tim de Paravicini of EAR cost me about $800 new in the early 2000's. I've been using it ever since.  My VPI Scout turntable has undergone many transformations over the years:  five layers of isolation underneath the chassis, upgrade JMW-9 to the Signature tonearm, TT weights, all VPI upgrades, 2 Origin Live DC motors and controllers driving a heavy steel Aerex flywheel, and a platter upgrade. One of the things that makes this hobby fun is talking to other audiophiles and learning from each other. A real nice guy recommended tubes that really improve the EAR 834P's performance before I had it upgraded: NOS 5751's or 12AT7's instead of the stock 12AX7's. Good tubes make a huge improvement in most circuits. But nowhere near fully shielding the unit inside from RFI/EMI and replacing parts with the very best available.

My Van den Hul Colibri cartridge demanded more from my phono preamp to really show what it could do. One audiophile mentor shared with me that the EAR 834P with good NOS tubes will respond very well to capacitor & other upgrades.  Working with David several times previously, I knew he was the guy for the job. David has a great ear and knows there's a lot of bullshit out there with high prices to match.  He will not perform a mod that will not live up to his reputation. He'll just say no.  I have learned to trust him greatly.

With The Upgrade Company's trade secret & proprietary shielding and part upgrades including V-Cap's, he felt they could voice this preamp just right, so Upgrade Co. undertook the job.

Shortly after sending it in, I had a good feeling when David said it had just starting burn in for a couple hours yet it was already sounding better then 2 really big name stock phono preamps they keep on hand for comparisons.  I could hear the excitement in his voice.  This preamplifier has its detractors aplenty, but EAR owner/designer Tim de Paravicini has done a lot of work for several big record labels including Mobile Fidelity and Island, as well as supplied his tube equipment for many recordings.  The EAR 834P has a few hard core fans.  I'm now one of them.  This preamp sounds supremely detailed and musical now.

The stock EAR 834P exhibits a warm tube coloration, as is often said.  However upgraded it now sounds super accurate and fast but amazingly still warm! It now sounds extremely open with great musicality, pace, rhythm, great articulate bass, and a sweet high end.  Acoustic bass sounds so realistic now. I can't stop playing my vinyl since I got this back. Jimi Hendrix's box set West Coast Seattle Boy and Valley's of Neptune-both released in 2010 put Jimi right in your living room with the genius himself.  Since Upgrade Company upgraded the EAR 834P, it is truly a "state of the art" phono preamp.  I haven't found anything that can approach it's performance now.  I'd gladly put it in direct comparison with anything at any price if anyone wants to come by to compare.

Every upgrade I've had from The Upgrade Company has exceeded my expectations.  For those of you with any upgrades done mid-2010 or older, you really need to get yours updated.  I had my NuForce Oppo 83SE universal player updated and it was truly night and day over their original upgrade from mid-late 2010. I've got the balanced output version. Even the digital outs now sound superior to the original upgrade, and now Blu ray and DVD movies look even sharper and more saturated over HDMI.                                          

Bret L. Miller
Springfield, Illinois