World's best Pre-amp for $10K and above?


Looking for the HOLY GRAIL in Audio? Here it is. I'm in my early sixties and retiring to my final system, which I was going to purchase during the past twelve months and decided to put on the brakes, and investigate whats out there as the most advanced engineered high end audio products for the money in the market place. As far as I'm concerned, the two top engineers in the world for the best Amp and Preamp at low prices are Bent Holter with Hegel Audio in Norway and Roger Sanders with Sanders Sound in Colorado. Why? The Hegel P-30 Pre-amp is a game changer, and will easily compete with Pre-amps at $30K and above. The FM Acoustics 268 Preamp that retails for $107K, uses a technology thats called "feedforward" instead of feedback.
Amps and Pre-amps since the early 80's have all used either global feedback, zero feedback or local feedback to filter out noise and lower distortion by sending and filtering the feedback current to filter capacitors or or an extra filter transformer. A small amount of voltage feedback occurs at the output stage in amps and preamps which goes back into the parts and boards causing noise and distortion which smears the quality of the music.The best Preamps in the world all have S/N noise ratios at 125 db's or above. The Hegel P-30 Preamp uses the same feedforward technology as FM Acoustics but is a more current design that Bent Holter calls "Sound Engine" patented technology that eliminates feedback which is why the P-30 Preamp has a S/N ratio of 132 db's, which has never been accomplished in high end audio with a Preamp costing $10K or below. The same applies to Roger Sanders Magtech amplifier which uses a patented linear voltage regulator that controls and regulates voltage with no excess voltage going back into the amp causing heat and distortion problems. The amp puts out 900 watts into 4ohms. Krell makes a pair of mono blocs that also use a similar voltage regulator. The amps are $100K a pair. HERES THE PERFECT SOLID STATE SYSTEM. A Hegel P-30 Preamp. A Sanders Magtech amp, A pair of Aerial Acoustics 7T speakers. The worlds finest SACD player, the Playback Designs MPS-5, designed by Andreas Koch, who invented SACD technology when he worked for Sony. He built the worlds first outboard DAC in 1982 and is legend in digital engineering. The MPS-5 is the most analog sounding player on the market which costs $17K. The Hegel P-30 is only $7500.00 and the Magtech amp is only $5K. The Aerials are $10K. Buy the solid core cables from Morrow Audio. They are low capacitance cables which matches up perfectly with these components. This combination sounds like the very best tube and solid state gear on the market. The whole system will cost about $42K but will sound as good as any system costing $200K. All of these products are game changers. If you want better looking cabinets and faceplates, then blow your money, but you will not get better performance for what this system has to offer. It is the HOLY GRAIL you are searching for and there is no better combination for the total cost of the system.
audiozen
Before you jump in too deep you may want to look into a "Passive Preamp" as you are probably aware the shortest signal path, and the most natural and dynamic sound will be from a direct connection from source to amplification.

IMO, preamps do more harm than good. Even the most expensive ones.

Have you ever counted the number of parts in a preamp and know their function and what they are doing to the very delicate signal measured in Micro volts and preamplified into volts?

A good primer on the subject can be found at: http://www.high-endaudio.com/RC-Linestages.html from Arthur Salvatore.

Try the Bolero test for yourself on your own equipment and see if the Preamp you select can match or better it. If not, the answer is clear and you can spend the extra money on music or a fine bourbon or wine.
Shut the doors, turn out the lights & close the forum; it was good while it lasted -- the best equipment, based on history, logic & specifications has been identified! No need for further discussions!

I've read a lot of head scratching, jaw dropping comments in my life, but this post or should I say pronouncement -- prefaced with a subject line containing a question mark -- is one that must be delusional, farcical, or a combination of both.

Please tell me that you're not serious and that the tug I think I'm feeling is my leg being pulled. Or, might it be that after discovering the "unified theory of everything" --that had until now, eluded Einstein and every other physicist -- you have really found the meaning of life?

Geez, beam me up Scotty.....
If your intent was to persuade any of us to give serious consideration to the Hegel (or any of your other components for that matter), it doesn't seem to be working. Claiming "HOLY GRAIL" status of a thing followed by a bunch of marketing speak and technical specs tends to have that effect in this subjective and highly personal hobby of ours...just saying.
I always like to start my day with something funny. Now that I've found it, my day is ready to unfold.

As my coffee is kicking in I had this thought:

The thread topic is what I would call a "digital" post in that digital processing has its errors and error correction steps in to make things nice. Maybe that's why some people feel analog is nicer...no correcting going on.

When I read things like the above, "The whole system will cost about $42K but will sound as good as any system costing $200K"....that's an error that my brain has to correct/reformat into a "his opinion" read. Many things he says aren't true until I "correct" it to his opinion.

An "analog" post would read something like, "the best ???? I've have found/heard is a ?????". Easy to read, no correcting needed.

We haven't heard back from him "yet". Maybe it's an ad, maybe he's a shill, maybe his writing skills need to be more analog. Who knows.

So, at least until I've had my 2nd cup, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. btw, I drink Kirkland (Costco). It's the best coffee in the world. The rest of you don't know what you are missing. :-)

And I was looking forward to going to my first RMAF this year.

You need to hurry & send should a link to this post to the RMAF organizers & exhibitors alerting them to fact that their efforts are for naught. The audio holy grail components have been discovered -- there is no longer a need or purpose for those pesky auditions, R&D, manufacturing, and marketing!