Ohm Walsh Micro Talls: who's actually heard 'em?

Hey Guys,

I took the plunge! I'll be selling the Unico integrated amp on Audiogon and I bought a new-in-box Bel Canto S300 power amp here at a great price. :-)

By the way, John Strohbeen (I called today) said that his rule is "the more power the better, which is not the same as 'the louder the better.'" :-) He also said that in order to hear a real difference, he recommended tripling the wattage into 6 ohms from where you are now. So, in my case, with an amp that puts out 80 watts into 8 ohms, I'd want an amp that does around 240 watts into 6 ohms. The S300, at around 225 watts/channel at 6 ohms should do it.

Now I'll need a pre-amp in the $500 to $700 (used) range. Any suggestions regarding what I should be on the lookout for will be welcome. Tubes? SS? What do you think?

Bondmanp,

Ditto what others have said about the Walsh treble. I'm not sure exactly how many hours my 100's have on them, but after 6-8 months of ownership, they're really starting to bloom beautifully, and the highs sound anything but recessed... "just right" would be more like it. I'm very pleased!

REbbi, Nice move! I am very confident you will hear a difference.

3X power increase to hear a real difference based on power alne sounds about right.

My old Carver m4.0t amp that preceeded the MF A3CR was over 300 watts, about 3X that of the A3CR I replaced it with, but nt high current. It could shake the rafters at higher volumes, but was thin sounding at lower volumes. The A3CR cannot shake rafters at any volume, but sounds very solid at all volumes.

If you report back on the Bel CAnto positively, I may finally no longer be able to resist the urge to move back up to not just a more powerful but also juicier amp, Bel Canto or Wyred Class Ds, or bigger MF perhaps. I really do like the sound of the A3CR in my current system...it is hard to fault. More of the same would be just fine with me. Bryston is another possibility. The McCormack that Foster is using now is very appealing also but would cost a nice premium over the Class Ds I think.

Oh, and Rebbi, I vote tube pre for you for certain. VTL, DHavilland, ARC or Juicy would be the ones I would look for .

You might want to pay special attention to pre-amp output impedance specs relative to the Bel Cant input impedance as a potential indicator of general compatibility for best sound. You want the pre output impedance to be a good bit lower than the amp input impedance in general.

Mapman,

Thanks for the advice. From what I've seen so far, those preamp brands will bust my budget, but I'll keep an eye out.

The S300 was kind of a steal (by the crazy standards of high-end audio): 1/2 off retail, new in box!

"those preamp brands will bust my budget"

Juicy should come in well under $1000 especially since you already have the phono pre-amp. Juicy is a stylistic challenge for some, but the best bargain in a tube pre-amp that I know of.

The others will likely come in on the flip side of $1000 somewhere I would guess.

In your price range, I'd be careful about SS pre-amps given that you are used to the Unico hybrid integrated. The Classe pre-amps or the Musical FIdelity A3CR pre-amp were my two leading contenders, but I decided to try the tube pre-amp plunge and have not regretted it.