Something about this SOTA keeps “drawing” me to it, so I have spent more time delving into it, making some tests and the result is a more (yes even more!) detailed description, my thoughts and yes the asking price has increased slightly – surely you don’t think I am going to spent a lot of time on these descriptions for nada zero/zilch return? Time is money … I have a LOT of equipment to work through and I really don’t want to spend more time on the SOTA but it does keep “drawing” me to it!

WARNING!
I am passionate about “some” gear and tend to talk and talk and talk in my descriptions …. this is a LONG one, so brew a coffee, grab a snack and read on!

As a very famous person once said “I have a dream ….”
A long time ago, in the mists of time, I planned to turn this SOTA Head Amplifier into a very special “tube”, including a Silver or Gold plated body so it looked as good as it sounds and something that fellow audiophiles would be in awe of …. well, as with so many of my dreams, this one never came to fruition!

HISTORY:
If you move in the world of the audiophile, moving coil cartridges and general turntable equipment that occupies rarified space, the SOTA equipment and specifically this head amplifier will be very familiar.
Never heard of a “head amplifier”? No problem, basically this allows your nice vintage amplifier to correctly receive the audio signals from a moving COIL cartridge. These MC cartridges provide a substantially lower signal level than “normal” MM cartridges but a far superior sound quality. So the head amplifier’s task in life is to substantially lift the level of the audio from the cartridge while at the same time not introduce any unwanted/additional audio nor alter the original audio signal characteristics when it is presented to your amplifier input.
Even though this is an old design and based on dated technologies, this head amplifier is still extremely well considered and sought after by the audiophile (commonly being offered at various audio outlets from US$1000 and upwards!) an alternative to a transformer based solution.
Did I say “dated”? Sure is, this equipment is from the 1980’s, uses a simple double sided PCB and discrete through-hole components – no SMD and absolutely no integrated circuits to be seen!
The secret of this head amplifier’s success is in the design, by the American audio engineer, John Curl. To read more about the design philosophy used by John in creating this Head Amplifier, go HERE

YOUR TASK, WHAT LIES AHEAD …
Lets be frank about this, someone (a prior owner) had taken this lovely old SOTA head amplifier and turned it into an abomination!
I rescued this equipment from an estate sale a long time ago and my intention was to bring it back to it’s former glory, I already had a couple of very nice MC transformers/pre-amps in my professional capacity but this SOTA represents something very special from the past and was considered a worthwhile restoration task.
Problem is, I didn’t take into account the time I would need and the “project” sat in its own special box waiting for me to look at it. I never did until yesterday (30 years waiting)!
The basic original SOTA head amplifier is “as original” meaning the casing, the PCB and the components are originals but heaven forbid, someone has decided to add their own pre-amplifier INSIDE (like a daughter board) and attached this extra board to the original SOTA printed circuit board using wire links – reminded me of the ALIEN series of movies where the alien lives inside the human host, a true horror story!
I almost cried when I first saw what the original owner had done! The “alien” daughter PCB is not even anything great, just an integrated circuit (LM833) used as a low noise pre-amplifer, a design from an Australian electronics magazine – sacrilege!
*** Update note ***
I now know why this SOTA was “infested” with the foreign board …. I give full details below but I have now di