NGD: D-TAR Solstice!

racman

I have been looking at one of these for some time and after much research and discussion with users I decided to order from Shoreline Music in the USA. To my surprise it arrived today after only about a two week wait, which is certainly a record for me from USA.

I have gone from an LR Baggs Para DI to a Fishman Spectrum Aura (which is not suitable for dual source with mic) to this. I will compare to the Fishman tomorrow hopefully and give feedback.

Anyway here are a few pics I found on the the wed but wll take actualls soon and post:

D-TAR Solstice Preamp:

AlanRatcliffe

Excellent choice! The Duncan-Turner stuff is top notch. The Solstice is like two channels of a good , clean mixing desk. To be honest, I would have preferred a parametric midrange control, but that's just to make it more usable for a variety of other instruments too.

racman

Thx Alan, strangely enough I always thought from looking at pics that the unit was a large, bulky item wheras in person it is actually quite compact and not much bigger than teh Fishman in dimensions, although a little higher as it is not a pedal.

The upacoming builds will most likely all have a K&K dual source/trinity system with mic so the D-tar was an obvious choice to me. I was also initially thinking of teh Radial PZ-Pre but settled on this....I think I made the right choice but who knows....?

AlanRatcliffe

Their form factor have always been different, not pedals, not rack units (or easily rackable). One of the reasons I never bought a Mama Bear.

BTW - is the power supply switch-mode or are you going to have to look around for a 16V supply locally?

racman

Actually Shoreline was great Alan and asked what adaptor I wanted. They could only get a Euro plug (I think it is the Euro - the flat ends) which I got and just picked up an universal adaptor from HifFi Corp so it's all good.

racman

zohn wrote:
racman wrote: The upacoming builds will most likely all have a K&K dual source/trinity system with mic so the D-tar was an obvious choice to me. I was also initially thinking of teh Radial PZ-Pre but settled on this....I think I made the right choice but who knows....?
K&K's Quantum was designed for K&K combos like the pure/mic.

http://www.gollihurmusic.com/product/1690-KANDK_QUANTUM_BLENDER_PREAMPLIFIER_US_110V_ADAPTER.html

Thx for the link Zohn- much appreciated. However, I will be going with the K&K passive dual source system on teh Bashkin (which may well work with the Quantum as well) and after much deliberation and discussion with a number of musicians who use it they have all suggested the D-Tar rather than any of the K&K PreAmps. The one downside of being this side of the pond is that one cannot try all the options .... ☹

racman

Thx, so the D-Tar will supply phantom power to the K&K .

Cool link though - I see they have a good variety of stuff as well. Will add to "favorites"