2. amps-preamps
  3. 1214247760

Shall I add a preamp to my setup?

I newly setup a system with Thiel CS 3.7 speaker, driving my Sim audio Titan 5 channel poweramp, source with Simaudio cd5.3, I am very excited with the 2 channel performance, but it seems lack of warmth of vocal and extension of high, not enough airly extensions, base is fine. I doubt my weakest link is the Sherbourn PT-7010A pre/pro, all the above new gear has pretty much break my bank, I wonder if I should squeeze the rest of bank reserve for a descent 2 channel preamp in order to solve the problem.....the other choice is a better CDP, can someone walked thru the similar path give me some advice?
grandetech
grandetech OP
73 posts
 
Thanks Blindjim, replying to my ever first post, good inspiration.

May I know why specific TUBE preamp but solid state? What specific sonic nature do they different to each other?

I find my system is pretty fast (almost too fast), refine, big soundstage, dynamic, I compared to Dynaudio new sapphire, Watt 7, but mine lack extensions of mids and highs and air. Hopefully you know what I describe.
grandetech OP
73 posts
 
I am pretty lean to add a preamp now after speaking to some friends today, any suggestion for a preamp may work well to my system? Say under $6k.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
o_holter
975 posts
 
Just adding some possibly superficial comment...As regards "warmth of vocal and extension" and "high airly extensions" my first recommendation is go analog. The second is add a good tube pre. Three years ago, I found a used Aesthetix Io phono preamp w volume for ca 6k usd. Great value, not only for your turntable if you have one, but for your CD or whatever too (it has two inputs). I had Krell KAV preamps before, but have never looked back. Like going from forested hills to real mountains, to use a Norway analogy.
Oystein
tgrisham
1,291 posts
 
I was facing the same situation and decided to go with a tube pre-amp. I found what I was looking for with the Modwright SWL 9.0 SE tube linestage. Of course it depends on the synergy with your other pieces, but for my system, it works.
grandetech OP
73 posts
 
Seems adding a Tube preamp is a pretty good advice here, however, I have a home theater, is there any good tube pre has bypass feature? I read Modwright Tgrisham mentioned, any other choices? BAT does not mention one in his web info, does anyone know if it does?

More advice is welcome. I am considering Sim audio P5.3 s.s. pre which cost me $4k.
More to discover