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Phono Pre Upgrade from Parasound JC-3?

Hi there,
I've owned my JC-3 for about two years and have no complaints about it.  It sounds very good, but I'm curious about upgrading to a preamp that would be a significant improvement.  
I've thought about upgrading to a tube phono preamp as I like the warmer sound of tubes and my amplifier is a Lyngdorf TDAI-3400.  
Given a budget of around $6K, what would you recommend?  
Thanks,
Peter
128x128snackeyp
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Herron VTPH2A. Punches way above its price. Way above. Like, hard to beat, regardless. Put the savings into a Synergistic Level 3 Euphoria interconnect, amazing combination. Selling what you have now you could probably get both and come in well under $6k. Maybe even enough for a baby Koetsu. Be in heaven then, you will.
snackeyp's avatar
snackeyp OP
455 posts
 
I've heard that's a real good one.  Unfortunately it doesn't have balanced outputs.  I should have mentioned this in my original post.  The JC-3 has balanced outputs and when I switched to balanced cables after using standard RCA I was blown away by the improvements.  

I'm looking at the BAT VK-P6SE as it checks off the boxes and has great reviews.  Also consider a Manley Steelhead.  
mattmiller's avatar
mattmiller
1,504 posts
 
Manley Steelhead= RCA only!  I highly recommend if your amp has RCA inputs you should give this unit a try. It will deliver what your looking for balanced or not. 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
You will have to spend a lot more than 6K to get something noticeably better than the JC-3. Until you can spend 14K be happy where you are.
The John Curl designed Constellation Orion is $80K.  
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