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
I own the Hegel P20 preamplifier. I paid $2800 for it. Sonically it is superb in my system and sounded equally as good at my dealer demonstration. Bounced it directly against the Hegel P30 which is $7,500. The comment about the P20 being 90% of the P30 is just about right. The differences were subtle but could be heard. The differences to my ears were mainly in the area of refinement and nothing else. Just slightly better. The price difference of $4700 between the two I could not justify by the slight increase in sonics.

Listened quite awhile to both preamps in a system that consisted of Rockport Avior's, Hegel H20 amp, Hegel HD25 Dac, MIT cabling and a computer server setup. Switched in a Berkeley Alpha DAC series 2 and Berkely Alpha USB convertor during the demo. Brought the P20 home and ended up buying it. No regrets. I actually would have paid more for it than Hegels selling price if needed. I think it is a bargain.
Jimf..By chance have you listened to the Hegel H-300 integrated and does it come close to the Hegel separates? The reviews have been very positve and it appears to be Hegel's best selling product. Also, you probably are aware that Hegel will be coming out next Spring with
the H20 MKII amplifier with a larger power supply which will use the new amp platform that is in the H-300 integrated.
World's best Pre-amp for $10K and above? When I started this thread Peterayer I did not phrase the subject title correctly. So be it. The subject that was intended was to point out Pre-amps below $10K that would be on the same sonic playing field as Pre-amps selling in the range of $10K to $20K which Hegel has achieved. Another Pre-amp that has achieved that level is the Parasound Halo JC-2.
Thank you for the clarification. I was wondering why there was so much discussion about preamps that I thought you wanted excluded by the thread's title. I understand now.