Agree with Runwell.... I just bought a Zesto Leto , it was NIB leftover but never sold. I paid $3500, worth every penny. I would look for something out of your reach new that you can afford used . That Zesto made it sound like I literally got a new system the upgrade was so night and day. It was not subtle!!! The preamp is the heart of a good system and one of the best places to put your money.
|
The Zesto was $7500 new, it was praised as the best sounding pre under 10k by several magazines... a clean one is a steal for what they go for used , when they pop up.
|
I almost bought a Backert Rhumba, heard great things about it. The most impressive thing about the Zesto is despite being tube it's super quiet. 99dB speakers, no signal, turn the volume to 3 o'clock and nothing... silence. Not even the normal slightest high frequency hiss that you hear in most systems. Complete silence . From that silence comes explosive dynamics , the Zesto is incredible . My former cj preamp was great, it served me well but this is in another league altogether.
|
There were some really nice preamps at $2999 recently, a used Zesto Leto 1.5...., a used Audio Valve Eclipse, Backert Rythm 1.1. For a little more than$ 2500 used you can step into some serious tube preamps if you are patient.
|
Keep saving, get the best preamp you can reasonably afford and you will have no regrets. Of course everything counts but the preamp handles switching , and it drives your amp(s)... it’s importance is often overlooked....
|
Unfortunately I think there are a lot of systems out there where the preamp is the bottleneck.... that said there are great speakers that aren’t realizing their full potential, sold off for the latest and greatest.... it’s a vicious circle
|
People are saying a lot of good things about the Backert but still it’s $4500 so not cheap ... Rogue is probably best bang for the buck and fits price wise. Rogue consistently puts out good stuff.
|
Regarding the Quicksilver preamp..... if it uses 6922 tubes and it eats them up try the Gold Lion 6922. That tube is rugged and long lasting and you'd be surprised how good it sounds. I needed to use one in my cj Classic 2se , it would get noisy in six months
If it is the 12AT7 I would try a NOS Mullard 6201....
I tried using 6dj8 NOS tubes in my CJ and they didn't last long.... im surprised he said 500 hours for the Chinese tubes....thats not very long.
|
If you really love Dons preamp I would caution you about switching to SS .... I think you will spend a lot more to better it with a SS . My “end game” solid state would be something by DartZeel or Dan d’agostino or something along those lines
Why? Because that is the caliber of solid state gear that I think really beats or equals the best tube gear I can ever hope to own , or own
|
I am trying to decide whether to keep my CJ Classic 2SE or my Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 for a second system. I do like how the 3 varieties of 12AT7 in the SFL-1 sounded. Can’t really say that about the 6922 I’ve used in the CJ. NOS 6922 are $$$ and new production leaves only a few choices.
|
Mullard 6201 is a ruggedized 12AT7 made for the British Military
|
Some things are worth the wait, plus that’s not a lot of money when you think about it. I am having an amp built. No date promised , but that’s ok because it’s only a couple of months away . I got on the tail end of the 2021 queue , there are a few pieces ahead of me. Mines in progress, I’ve seen pics of the casework and it looks awesome.
If you stay on Dons list someone may grow impatient and drop out ....
|
That’s the problem with this hobby , every thing is “End Game”
Until you get to try something better....
|
