2. amps-preamps
  3. 136421-89400

Pre amps cost vs. value ... what I discovered last month.

Greetings all.

I’m a mastering engineer. www.magicgardenmastering.com . We use Acoustic Zen balanced cabling, highly modified Cary 211 FE tube amps, Bricasti M1 SE DAs and Joachim Gerhard’s Allegra speakers. TORUS balanced power comes 220 from the street. The room is excellent, and you would love to hear it.

For 15 years the pre amp/router was a Crane Song Avocet. I paid around $1800 for it.

Recently decided to try a couple of audiophile products in the pre amp stage and was shocked and saddened how bad they were. Yes, the studio designed Avocet has a relay click for each 1db step, and yes it has a rack mounted 2U body with a corded remote, but it’s clear folks are really getting taken to the cleaners on pre amps. The older and highly regarded Boulder 1010 (used price $5500), was just terrible, truly terrible. The new and fully broken in BAT vk-43SE (demo price $7500) was much better, but still had a cloudy tone as compared to the class A Avocet. Not sure if that’s the cap or the transformer, but it made everything less clear and more generic, more distant from the music.

That’s all. Happy listening.
128x128brianlucey
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aalenik
67 posts
 

Hi Brian,

If we can set 'dweller' aside for a moment and talk about pre-amps...

Here's another endorsement for Zesto Audio.

Also... the Townshend Allegri+ passive preamp. A friend recently replaced a mega-buck pre with the Townshend with excellent results.

I'd be very interested in your response to the Townshend pre.

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brhatten
34 posts
 
Brian,

Thanks for your posts and insight which are very much appreciated given your credentials and experience. 

So many times in high-end audio we find and we believe that component synergy of the electronics can create  the best results. Many times it’s advocated to use electronics of the same manufacture to achieve this. Do you find that other audio engineers believe this doctrine? In the pro world do others usually use  electronics of the same manufacture to achieve this? From your posts it seems that you do not necessarily subscribe to this. Interest in your thoughts. Thanks for your time. 
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