2. amps-preamps
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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
Post removed 
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. 
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,587 posts
 
Brian,  Thanks for stopping by for this chat.  I think your sample of audiophile preamps was too small. I'm pretty sure you could find something at a reasonable price that could outperform your current pre.  I'm a little surprised that you jumped to the conclusion that audiophile preamps are poor quality/value when all of your other gear is audiophile gear.

Can you tell us what is going on with overcompressed recordings?  I can see the argument for dynamic ranges of 5 or 6 for hip-hop or contemporary pop, but why is everything else being squashed too?  Who is responsible for this and what can be done about it?
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,212 posts
 
Here's a review of the Cranesong Avocet by Bob Katz
maplegrovemusic's avatar
maplegrovemusic
1,113 posts
 
Anything in the pro audio world for volume control has worked with a multitude of amps , speakers , etc... in my experience .  Only the HIFI preamps have I had problems . Go Figure!  
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