What should I do?

I'll add my congratulations and best wishes, but take a bye on those new speakers. I did buy some green bananas though :-)

Dave

Jack
You have given me renewed hope.I am 68 and was hesitant in purchasing the new speakers I desperately want.
After reading your posts I was on the phone this morning completing the deal.Thank you and the best of luck with the
17 LS2

Thanks guys for youre help. Partially on the basis of your input I have purchased the 17 LS2. and am anxiously awaiting its' arrival. It comes from the Minneapolis area, and luckly my daughter who lives in Minneapolis is coming down Thurs... and will pick up the new baby and void the shipping cost.Up AT FIVE. hAD MY PRUNES AND READY FOR A NEW DAY. Have a good listen Jack North11788

Jack, I think that the 16LS is a better sounding preamp than the 17LS, but I don't know about the 17LS2. The 16LS had a lot of the ART technology in it's construction. I have read that the upgrades from the 17LS to the 17LS2 are like night and day and the LS2 is far superior. However, I wasn't insinuating that any of these preamps were unacceptable. They are all excellent and in all likelihood you will be very happy with the sonics of any of them. I hope that if I ever reach your age that I will still enjoy my music.

On the other hand, my Raysonic 128 sounds like hell without an active preamp for it to feed. But yes, it's awesome.

My God, 90? I thought I was an uber geezer at 79. I heard both the 17LS and 17LS2 in my system and there's almost no comparison-- the 17LS2 is superior in every way, well justifying the $1500 increase in MSRP. Hang in there, you've given me new hope :-)

Dave

If your source is CD you will be amazed how good the Raysonic 168 or 228 variable tube outs are. I replaced a $3K preamp and never looked back. Plus, one less shelf, power cord, interconnect... oh and they are awesome CD players to boot

Re:Cyclonicman. Thanks for your comments. May I pick your brain a bit further? You were speaking of the 17LS. I have assumed that the 17LS2 is an improvement over the 17LS. I am told that it has the teflon caps instead of the polyestine (sp). And among other improvements they have gone to vishay resistors which I understand are a great improvement. I am sure you are aware that you are talking to an illiterate as far as audi0o goes. I am trying to put the final piece together in my systrem. I apppreciate good music and I can tell when it is coming thru a good system. I like my present system but have felt that adding this final CJ I would have the best that Icould ejjoy. After all I am a 90 year old codger who loves his music I may be able to get a 17L
S2 at a price I could afford. But I can't stretch it much farther.As is I am spending my kids inheritance. I would appreciate further cxomment. Thanks Jacknorth1178

I think that you would be better off with a Premier 16LS. It may cost a bit more than the 17LS, but it is the better preamp. You would do well with the Calypso as well.

I had a Premier 17LS2 and liked it sonically (sounded much better than my previous Premier 14) but switched to an Aesthetix Calypso. My CJ had severe static electricity problems in my system. If I touched it or anything else metal in the system, the preamp muted, often with a bang (and yes I tried everything known to man to mitigate this). The Calypso does not have this problem, sounds superb, and because of its balanced inputs and outputs is more synergistic with my other components. Good luck, Dave