@Three EP
If you are fortunate, you may find a used Whest out there to run for a while... I'd suggest the Whest Two as it won't kill you on price. Don't expect it to perform like the upper level Whest preamps, but it will definitely play like them and that will tell you a lot in terms of whether you like what you hear or not.
I did the same thing; I picked up the Whest Three Signature through a guy who wanted to get into vinyl so badly that he bought a pretty high end set up to try it out. He decided very quickly that he didn't like all of the hands on work involved with records and went back to digital format. I picked up the Whest Three at a good price and it wasn't even broken in. I used it for three months and fell in love with it. I had it in parallel with several other preamps so it gave me a good reference point for comparison. That drove me to James at Whest to have a customized latest configuration 30 series built using much of the 40 series internals packed into the 30 left over case work. It came in and sounded very much like my Three SE except it took things up to an even higher performance point.
If you get into a Whest Two, you'll be able to test drive what they are about; if you are pleased, you sell it and most likely break even and then order in an upper level Whest for obviously a lot more money, but you know what you are getting.... no surprises. If you don't like it, you still sell it and most likely break even. You win either way.
If you are fortunate, you may find a used Whest out there to run for a while... I'd suggest the Whest Two as it won't kill you on price. Don't expect it to perform like the upper level Whest preamps, but it will definitely play like them and that will tell you a lot in terms of whether you like what you hear or not.
I did the same thing; I picked up the Whest Three Signature through a guy who wanted to get into vinyl so badly that he bought a pretty high end set up to try it out. He decided very quickly that he didn't like all of the hands on work involved with records and went back to digital format. I picked up the Whest Three at a good price and it wasn't even broken in. I used it for three months and fell in love with it. I had it in parallel with several other preamps so it gave me a good reference point for comparison. That drove me to James at Whest to have a customized latest configuration 30 series built using much of the 40 series internals packed into the 30 left over case work. It came in and sounded very much like my Three SE except it took things up to an even higher performance point.
If you get into a Whest Two, you'll be able to test drive what they are about; if you are pleased, you sell it and most likely break even and then order in an upper level Whest for obviously a lot more money, but you know what you are getting.... no surprises. If you don't like it, you still sell it and most likely break even. You win either way.