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Replacing my MFA Luminescence B2 preamp

I have in the past year returned to high end audio after a ten year lapse. I just got my JC Verdier La Platine TT out, purchased a brand new ZYX Ultimate 100 mounted on a 25 year old SME V. The only other source equipment is a Wadia 16 of 1990’s (?) vintage. Amplification is through Von Gaylord / Legend Audio mono block amp.  I dug out an old pair of Morel MLP 202 bookshelf speaker. And I started playing music through my thirty year old MFA Luminescence preamp.  ( I know, It’s an eclectic mix ! )

My question has to do with the preamp. It’s a vintage piece of gear, apparently still sought after.  But I am decidedly not technically oriented. Every so often, it requires maintenance. As I write this, it is sitting in a shop, because the phono section works only in one channel. MFA Luminescence is brilliant in action, but it’s the down time that has me thinking I should move to a simpler setup. I wonder if moving to a Coincident Phono preamp might not be the answer? It fits my set up of  only two source equipments. Would it be a step down? Any other options?

please help!
ledoux1238
jafox
1,447 posts
 
It's exciting to read about the MFA Lumi again.  I came close to buying one in the mid 80s from a Phoenix dealer but I just barely preferred the ARC SP-10 for its most impressive dynamics. The MFA had a bass foundation the ARC simply could not touch.

So much has improved in the 30+ years since.  Line stages and phono stages have come so far with refinements in resolution, tonal coherency and much lower noise.  I could never be satisfied with the SP-10, and the same for the MFA.  But these were atop their class at the time.

Perhaps cap updates, a new generation volume control, an IEC to support a removable power cord, would take the MFA to another level of performance.  But like the SP-10, the MFA is more of a collector's piece today than competition to preamp products of the last 10 years or so.  And I would certainly not chase down the Vendetta for the same reasons above.
opus111
58 posts
 
I beg to differ.  Owned numerous versions of the Luminescence including the last C version but they are all terribly colored and rolled off.  I tend to think of it as one of the most overated piece of audio equipments.

That said, MFA MC Reference is one of the best preamps ever built and one of the few pieces I really regret selling
ledoux1238 OP
276 posts
 
The posts by Jafox and opus111 are very much appreciated. I think they touched on the intent of my original post. I was really wondering about Lumi’s place in today’s hi-end audio world.

There is no question that Lumi has become a collector’s item, overated or not. But how does its past reference quality performance rate today? Arthur Salvatore’s ‘B’ class rating for the Lumi was my initial guide. I knew I wasn’t getting a top-of-the-line full function preamp with my purchase. But for the money, during the early 2000’s, it was still very good. My initial query was how it would fair compared to a well regard percent day Coincident phono amp, which retails around $ 6,000. 

Finally, if we are talking about reference level full function preamps nowadays, then it  would be, at least, in the $15,000 level, no? Prices have really gotten out of control even since the 2000’s.  It would be silly to expect greatest from a Lumi  against these, right?


teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
circuits don’t change much, refinement of them is usually the deal. Some parts changes, some minimal changes. Not much else. The Lumi does phono right.

Those who love music over audiophilia and still have a extreme amount of capacity for discernment for nuance over grossness of signal, well, in my experience..it is the Bruce Moore phono/pre circuits that sets their heart on fire.

(I have what is probably the one and only Venusian three chassis MFA prototype preamp, it will swing about 165V into a standard load. It has ’overload margin’, one might say)
ledoux1238 OP
276 posts
 
Within the span of two posts, we have responses from a past owner of the MC Reference and a present day owner of a Venusian!!! Very impressive.

One of the corollary of what teo_audio982 is suggesting is that certain vintage gears, by virtue of their longevity, represent well established  sets of values in music reproduction that tends to endear themselves to music lovers, rather than the flavor of the month crowd. They illicit emotions of joy and contentment , rather than doubt or  confusion. 

I like that very much. 

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