upgrade emm labs preamp or speaker???

i'm partial to supratek and always wondered how a cabernet would stack up against the uber-big boy gear. i love my cabernet dual.

for the price of another pair of evolution acoustics power woofers, you could get two cabernet duals. i say try a cabernet and if it isn't to your liking, you could always resell it for 80-90% of what you paid for it.

I cannot speak to your speakers (pun intended), however I can speak to the preamplifier section of both the dcc2 and the se upgrade as I had mine upgraged to se, after a fair amount of time. I was using the DCC on a mac amp and alto be speakers. A dealer brought by the MBL6010d on his way to another demo. I bought it on the spot. It was much more transparent, much more open, had more flexibility and brought alive the music. I had a Ref II sitting around, and I tried that. Different than the MBL but definitely lifted a veil off of the music as well. I am not a fan of either the emm preamp or the volume control in the Wadia, it just seems that although theoretically they should be pretty good, in reality a really good preamp blows them away. Borrow a good preamp from a dealer you know, and see for yourself even better. Too much money to spend, and any good dealer will bring over a preamp for a couole of hours at the minimum

Cheers!
Chris

chrisla,

thanks for your input.....you got some great equipment there and a wonderful view from your home. I can't afford the mbl preamp even used (not much less than the dartzeel preamp). Did you hear the Audio Research Ref 3 or the Ayre K1xe?

Just the ref 2. The ref two added some gain, a little grain (which took me awhile to hear) but some definite palpability and air. A little more "there". Those are pretty inexpensive used. I hear that the Ref 3 is much better, but have never heard it. I've heard the Dart is a "sweet" amp, so I would be a little careful with tubes, it could potentially be too much of a good thing... or ..then again.... it could be a perfect match.
Cheers!
Chris