Anthem STR vs Parasound JC 2 BP vs any other sub $5,000 Preamp?

Really only two, Anthems and Lyngdorf... both have pretty great reviews from the people who give them a chance.

Audioholics (Gene) has chosen to purchase Anthems STR Pre and Pro after doing some pretty in depth testing... far more than I see most big review sites doing which has me leaning heavily towards them. 

I've heard the STR integrated and the Lyndorf both in the same room and both are very good specially after the room correction software has had its go. Actually really surprised me to be honest how well it works. I've had serious thought about dumping my tube amp and going that route as I also have a hard room to deal with. Hard to say what ones better both do many things really well. I'm not getting into which I prefer as I was in a room at my local audio shop listening to speakers I've not heard before, Dynaudio 3 ways don't recall the model mid sized floor standers think around $10K. That said both do some great things in hard to treat rooms. Both are easy to listen to as well, regardless of the class AB-D conflict lol. I think the Anthem was the nicer looking amp though if that means anything to you. 

I've been a tube guy for a long time and neither of those two amps had me running for the door both were engaging and non fatiguing. I could easily live with ether that's hard for me to admit. 


glen

I own a Lyngdorf 3400 and room correction has really helped me get the full, deep but not bloated, bass I was after. Liked it well enough to replace a Mark Levinson pre and amp. 

Another option is to run the JC2 BP with minidsp SHD (which includes Dirac).  Depending on what sources you use, this might make a lot of sense.  The SHD does digital correction in the digital domain and then you can pass to your DAC of choice (96/24), then JC2 BP.

I went this route, to have the modularity of room correction and an amazing preamp separately and because I just lived the JC2 presentation (jet black noise floor and separation).

Anthem makes a great product with outstanding room correction, I had an MRX510 paired with a Rotel then my Mark Levinson 532h. Until I listened to a very seasoned high end dealer I loved using the room correction, but he suggested to leave off that the never setup on systems they install. After doing so a few days then switching back and forth I never went back to using room correction on 2.0 channel listening. It does blend sub better but is still more natural and full bodied without as room correction is adjusting frequencies. For surround sound and movies it's a must. If setting up your system for mainly 2 channel music you're better off without. The one great thing about Anthem systems are you can set different settings and store them and turn off the room correction so you get best of both worlds.