Preamp selection advice for rock music.


I am seeking the collective wisdom of the Gon experts.
I do not have the ability to A/B my picks or to audition
them in my system. I am fairly new to this hobby too.
I have an Audio Aero Prima CDP feeding into a Rotel 1066
prepro. The amp is also a Rotel, model 1095, that is going
to JM Lab Electra 926 Speakers. I have the CDP connected to
the prepro through the multi input so as to avoid the Rotel
DAC's. Not sure if this has an affect on the signal.
I like to listen to classic rock mostly and am looking for
a preamp that will help some of the 'HOT' recordings sound
listenable. Mostly helping with simbalance of the recordings
from Led Zepplin, The Doors and etc. I enjoy the detail and
extension that the Audio Aero CDP gives me along with the
expanded sound stage and would prefer to keep these features. The tubes in the CDP helped some but I think that
a tubed preamp would probably do even more and help with the musicality as well.
The two preamp choices that I have made are the Cary SLP
88 and the Conrad Johnson PV10BL. They are available here
on the gon for about $1000.00 and that would be my price
limit, new or used. I also would like to keep an eye to the future upgrade of my amp the next time upgradeitis rears its
ugly head ! Does it ever end ?
Any other suggestions would also be welcomed. HELP !!!
saki70
Well, I haven't heard the PV10, but for the last several days I've had the Premier 17 in my system and listened extensively to Echoes from Live at Pompeii. I just the Premier 17 out and went back to the Rogue 66 I've been happy with for a year now. The music doesn't seem to have the same weight and richness, the cymbals are a little mushier, and the soundstage is slightly more compressed. At your price limit though, I would give a serious listen to the Rogue 66 Magnum, because even though the 17 from CJ sounded better, I don't know if it was $3500 worth of better. You can usually pick one up on the Gon for around your price limit. Of course, I can't say anything bad about CJ stuff in general either.
Unclejeff;
According to your answer, does that mean that connecting
the CDP to the multi input of my prepro would be the same as others who can connect their CDP directly to the amp ?
Or, in other words, the Rotel prepro is not affecting the
CDP signal going through it to the amp.
So are you hoping to keep the RSP-1066 for HT, and add a 2-channel preamp? Or are you abandoning multi-channel and going dedicated 2-channel? I also have the RSP-1066, and while I feel that it is a top unit in its price range, I have been hit by the upgrade bug pretty hard, and I am looking to either add a high end 2-channel pre or (more likely) get a top pre/pro with respectable 2-channel performance (like Krell HTS 7.1 or Theta CasablancaIII).

If you are doing the 2-channel route, but still want to use your Rotel for HT, make sure that whatever preamp you pick up has a "processor" or "HT" pass-through. I know that all newer Audio Research preamps have this, and I would think that a used Audio Research preamp with this option would be a tremendous upgrade for you. Bot the Cary and the CJ are going to sound pretty nice, too, but I don't know about the pass through. If you were going to try and upgrade to another pre/pro, if you sold your RSP-1066, and added your $1,000, you could problably pick up a Theta Casa Nova, which are sonically very excellent, but going for a song because they are only 5.1 channel (and have no muliti-channel input).

Good luck, Tom.
I would try not to alter the signal coming from the Audio Aero. If you can pass the signal through your pre without alteration, and this means also trying not to change it into multi-channel.

I do suspect that, given the greater amount of information coming from your Audio Aero, you would still get a very decent result should you change it to multi-channel; I just woudld't do it.

I would only use a pre as a gloriied switch box and resist using tone/bass controls, etc.
Saki70,

I'm in agreement with what Unclejeff's suggesting. To that end, I love my Blue Circle 21.1 tubed linestage preamp (with Shallco attenuator and NOS tubes). Very musical, big soundstage and fun to roll tubes with.