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
1graber2's avatar
1graber2
303 posts
 
Interesting complaint by the OP. Painting with a VERY broad brush. 

Interesting b/c a self-professed mastering engineer who,on the one hand, implies how expert their ears and audio equipment knowledge are. Yet, on the other hand, is unable to match a simple preAmp to their well-known 15 year old system.

Then, on top of that, not only complains about it, buy blames their own inabilities on the entire audio industry, purporting that preAmp prices are jacked up and the preAmp manufacturers are either incompetent or audio-robbers.
???



phd
1,320 posts
 
Results will vary depending on room acoustics, compatibility of different components/speakers being tested and personal preferences. Doesn't mean that the components involved are inferior.
decooney
2,109 posts
 

kw6Brian pls try a Linear tube audio Micro z2 or Audible Illusion L3A or Cary Slp-98! Thanks

Interesting I wondered the same reading this thread, and with those exact same units, and not the most expensive either. None of my own modified Cary tube amps sounded as well as I had hoped until a synergy occurred with a well modified matching preamp and the right NOS tubes. My buddy has the AI L3A and enjoy my upgraded SLP-98. Have not tried LTA yet.
archguy's avatar
archguy
46 posts
 
It adds a degree of 3D imaging that direct to amp alone can't match.

Wish I understood exactly how a pre-amp accomplishes this.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,861 posts
 
Wish I understood exactly how a pre-amp accomplishes this.
Less phase shift and wider bandwidth.
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