I do not think electronics create sound stage. They may be able to harm it but I do not know that for a fact. The job for electronics is to replicate whatever the source is and then perhaps modify it in a very specific way. Some tube electronics give you a sense of more depth which I think is why a lot of us like them but it is a distortion of the truth. The Atmasphere and ARC preamps do not do this. I think the MP 3 is a great choice.
As for as SS preamps go and if you really want to have a wild time with your system and are computer savvy check out the Anthem STR. Anthem is a Canadian company. This preamp has effective room control and great bass management. You will see exactly what your system is doing and learn what changes do to the sound. It is an incredible learning experience and the improvement is sound quality is very noticeable , particularly the imagine. The frequency response of any two speakers is not identical. On top of this they are in different locations in the room which generally separates them even more. I have seen identical speakers vary up to 10 dB at points. This smears the image as whichever speaker is loudest at any given frequency will own that frequency. You literally have part of an instrument coming from the right, part in the middle and part in the left with obvious results. Room control makes the speakers in their locations perfectly identical with obvious results. Then there is digital sub woofer management. There is no better way to easily integrate subwoofers. Not only can you choose cross over points and slopes but the frequency response of the subs is made flat and identical at the listening position and they are perfectly time and phase aligned with the satellites. The subs disappear and all you have is great bass.
This type of device scares the analog guys. IMHO there is no analog preamp that can compete with the Anthem STR or the Trinnov Amethyst a much more expensive unit made in France. I use a TACT 2.2X. TACT unfortunately went out of business years ago due to poor management
and a bad business model for that type of device. Boz (Radomir Bozevic) assumed that his customers were as smart as he was and that everything was obvious, a very bad assumption. He became swamped with customer questions and complaints. His owner manuals were particularly poor. Those of us that had an idea of what we were doing had to learn on the fly. I watched the forum and guess that 50% of the people really had no idea what to do or what they were doing which is understandable given the complexity of the units. The newer Anthem and Trinnov units have been simplified. You can get into the nitty gritty if you so desire but most will not. The Trinnov is usually set up by the dealer. The microphone costs $800 and is an option. With the Anthem you get everything. It is a much better value.
As for as SS preamps go and if you really want to have a wild time with your system and are computer savvy check out the Anthem STR. Anthem is a Canadian company. This preamp has effective room control and great bass management. You will see exactly what your system is doing and learn what changes do to the sound. It is an incredible learning experience and the improvement is sound quality is very noticeable , particularly the imagine. The frequency response of any two speakers is not identical. On top of this they are in different locations in the room which generally separates them even more. I have seen identical speakers vary up to 10 dB at points. This smears the image as whichever speaker is loudest at any given frequency will own that frequency. You literally have part of an instrument coming from the right, part in the middle and part in the left with obvious results. Room control makes the speakers in their locations perfectly identical with obvious results. Then there is digital sub woofer management. There is no better way to easily integrate subwoofers. Not only can you choose cross over points and slopes but the frequency response of the subs is made flat and identical at the listening position and they are perfectly time and phase aligned with the satellites. The subs disappear and all you have is great bass.
This type of device scares the analog guys. IMHO there is no analog preamp that can compete with the Anthem STR or the Trinnov Amethyst a much more expensive unit made in France. I use a TACT 2.2X. TACT unfortunately went out of business years ago due to poor management
and a bad business model for that type of device. Boz (Radomir Bozevic) assumed that his customers were as smart as he was and that everything was obvious, a very bad assumption. He became swamped with customer questions and complaints. His owner manuals were particularly poor. Those of us that had an idea of what we were doing had to learn on the fly. I watched the forum and guess that 50% of the people really had no idea what to do or what they were doing which is understandable given the complexity of the units. The newer Anthem and Trinnov units have been simplified. You can get into the nitty gritty if you so desire but most will not. The Trinnov is usually set up by the dealer. The microphone costs $800 and is an option. With the Anthem you get everything. It is a much better value.