Ayre K1xe vs First Sound Presence Deluxe Mk II

stringreen- I am curious what other cables you have compared the anti-cables to. I have read some good reviews. Thanks.

Great Review Shsohis!

With the way you describe the First Sound Mk II, it's scary to think how good the Mk III would be if it results in a significant improvement. I've always been fascinated by the FS preamps and may be getting one soon. The Ayre sounds like a terrific unit as well. Do you have any computer based source going into either the FS or the Ayre?

Kurt tank,

You are correct. I forgot it's there tube amps I was thinking of. Yes I've had most of the good highend amps. They are all good in there own right. I will never fault any of them but they all sound very different. I was a big tube amp guy but some of the solid state amps these days are very very good like Boulder and Goldmund, there a reason why those too are so expensive. A lot of it depends on your speakers when choosing an amp. I think CAT amps are amazing but they don't work for me because of the amount of tubes and the heat. You have to find the amp that works for you. The only amp's I really didn't care for was the Ayre MXR and Dartzeel. Those are way overpriced IMO.

The K1xe is still one of my all time favorite preamps. It works well with most amps but just make sure you use shorter cable length's with it. IT doesn't like driving long cables and you have to use it balanced.

I agree with you I don't see what people see in the Dartzeel. I much would rather have Lamm. I personally own Vac Phi 300 Monos.

Mtdking,

Thanks for the tip on the Boulder and Goldmund amps. I will make an effort to try to audition them. I agree that the CAT amps are indeed amazing, but like you, they have too many tubes and run too hot for my use. (My Lamms already run a bit too warm for my non-airconditioned room. But a few degrees warmer I can put up with, several degrees I can not.)

(And I don't use "really" long cables for my K-1xe preamp to amp run, as they are "only" about 4 meters long, which for balanced runs is not that long.)

Jwm and Mtdking,

I think that one of the reasons that the DarTZeel amp did not make a favorable impression on any of us, (I somewhat include myself in your opinion), is that its design while quite good for the most part, (IMHO anyway), is a somewhat flawed design, in as that as its not very powerful, especially in the bass region. IMHO, one of the strengths of solid state is that one can make them very powerful and with lots of power reserves, so that it has great bass response. The DarTZeel's bass response is merely adequate, at best, and especially so for a solid state design. In fact, if I did not know going in that it was a solid state design, I would have thought that it was a tubed unit, because of the somewhat weak bass response, and because I thought that the mid-range was very, very good (especially so for a solid state design, (i.e. no grain, and fairly liquid), and its treble response was pretty good. (But not as good as either the Lamm M2.2 or especially your VAC Phi 300 monos, which has the best treble response I have ever heard to be honest!). I do think that Mike Lavigne uses it in the perfect way, in as that as his speakers have an active woofer, so that all the power goes to the mid-range and treble. (This might even help the treble response, but I never had the opportunity to listen to them in this manner.) My two cents worth anyway.