2. amps-preamps
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The best preamp without a doubt..in my experience

I have always had a thing for preamplifiers. I tried many of the best brands—just to name a few: Shindo (several), Spectral, Klyne Arts, deHavilland, Berning, Placette, Marantz. I thought I had gotten close to the top as far as preamplification goes...until I got lucky enough to find an EAR G88, which is what deParavicini himself defines his masterpiece. Well, I am dumbfounded. The music flows more naturally, more realistically than ever before. You feel like being in closer touch with the instruments or the voices. The sound is just real, and for the first time I felt like I heard a real bass in my system. It’s an old product. It was produced in the early nineties, and only in 25 exemplars. But if you’re lucky enough to find one...don’t let it go.
ggavetti
ggavetti OP
143 posts
 
Jafant, I have had little experience with Pass Labs. I demoed one for a couple of weeks (an INT-30A). I went very close to buying it. So, I liked it a lot--probably one of the best integrated amps out there (it's on par with two other great integrated amps I have: An ASR Emitter I Exclusive, and an EAR 859). At the time I demoed it, I was running it against the combination of a Shindo Masseto and my EAR 509MKII monoblocks. The Shindo/Masseto combination was better to my ears. The G88 is considerably better than the Masseto.
milpai's avatar
milpai
2,413 posts
 
Listen to a nice TVC, which will match in your system. You will be surprised.
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
I think everyone will have a "best" preamp nd everyones best preamp will sound different in each others system. In MY system, Jeff Rowlands Criterion preamp has shown me he has the best preamp (to my ears)
larryi
4,081 posts
 
I own four different preamp/linestages: a Placette Active, a Mark Levinson No. 32 (with built in phono), an Emotive Audio Epifania and a custom-built preamp built by Aldo D'Urso. They are all different and I would not want to say which one was unequivocably "the best" among the four.
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
The best preamp IMHO should have ALL possible functions for the best preamp. Everything should be adjustable such as Line gain, Phono gain, Input sensitivity, Balance, multiple outputs, doubled inputs RCA/XLR, Phono input impedance, capacitance adjustability, Adjustable headphone output, Digital inputs(DAC) and Digital outputs (ADC).
Haven't found the best one yet tho...
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