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
If I could configure a system without an active preamp and get the sound I aspire to I'd do that in a heartbeat. Based on considerable listening experiences it hasn't happened. For what I find to be essential sonic attributes for my system an active is irreplaceable. They are capable of reproducing music in a manner that I have not heard approached in their absence.
For those who believe that passives or direct source to amplifier is as good or better I say congratulations, good job and continue to enjoy what you have. This method wouldn't satisfy me and I'd be overtly aware of all that's missing from the music. So there'll always be two camps regarding this issue. I want what I consider a complete and realistic sound and thus far only the very good quality actives deliver.
Charles,
Charles and I are on the same page and no other way to achieve the music we want without the pre of our dreams. No buffer, no other combo etc... I have tried does it. I wish it weren't so, but it is up till today.

I remain open minded will will try other "things" in the future.
I agree with Charles and Grannyring, theory notwithstanding, I have found that I like the sound of active linestages in my system. Moreover, I like tube linestages even though they measure poorly compared to solid state, and I currently use and like one that is fully transformer coupled (transformers on inputs, output transformer feeding input transform on the power amp) even though transformers are both "unnecessary" and have inferior performance characteristics.

If there is a disconnect between theoretical ideals and what I hear and prefer, I disregard the theory. That comes from a LONG list of experience with design "breakthroughs" in not just audio--not all of them are as claimed.

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." Yogi Berra.
i think that the new darTZeel NHB-18NS must be considered at the very top level of preamps. i've had the one-only prototype 18NS in my system for the last 10 days and it's a revelation both as a line stage and phono preamp.

my 8 year old current model (with the latest boards and battery charging system) 18NS is still very very good, but the new one has a much much lower noise floor, is more dynamic, and has the best sounding phono stage i've heard.