Advice on a preamp

@shamus2211

Your Sanders Magtech Amp has 100kohm input impedance, a perfect candidate for a passive preamp.
You could try the Schiit Sys for only $49 and it’s returnable, it also has 2 inputs.
This should give you more transparency/dynamics and a tighter/controlled bass than what you have now.
http://schiit.com/products/sys

Cheers George

Any one knows how much does it cost to upgrade from Calypso to Calypso Signature. From what I read, Aesthetix provided such a service.

According to an email from Glenn back in June of ’16. It’s usually $2500 to upgrade from a Standard to Signature, but I think it depends on when the Standard was made. It’s $3500 to go from Signature to Eclipse and $5500 to go from Standard to Eclipse.

I thought about being the guinea pig for the Calypso Eclipse but decided just to get an ARC Ref5SE instead.

Your Sanders Magtech Amp has 100kohm input impedance, a perfect candidate for a passive preamp.

So the specs on Sanders' site are incorrect for the Magtech.  According to an email from Roger, these are the correct specs:

"I designed the Magtech using a FET input stage so that it has a very high input impedance (100K) when used in single-ended mode. When used in balanced mode, its input impedance is only 1K, which is too low for many tube preamps."

No one suggested a McIntosh or an Audio Research preamp. Is that because of the price or incompatibility? Just curious.

I just got an ARC Ref5SE this week and am running it with a Sanders Magtech. My initial impressions are that it's quite a step up from my Aesthetix Calypso Signature (weightier and purer sounding), but I'll need to do further testing.

Limniscate, does your Aesthetix has noise issue.  From time to time, I heard people talking about importance of tube matching, and the consequence off mismatch.  I am considering to get one.