Line Stage Preamps that blew you away $2500 Edition


Passive, tubes, solid state, jewel encrusted moon rocks, whatever. 
 

tell us what line stages blew you Away in the $2500 ish price catagory.

gochurchgo

@gochurchgo 

Tubes can be fussy for sure..  Try to wiggle the tubes up, then reseat them. I have found that the tube pins and the socket contacts sometimes need a good rub to get them noise free..  Its all part of their mystique.. 

@tyray 

It’s hard to explain until you here it. It’s an after effect of the sublime, spooky quietness of The Truth preamp. Owners of The Truth preamp know what I’m talking about.

Yeah and that has me curious but it seems like people mention passives have a lock of soul and also bass and warmth. All 3 are things I really like. Driving, propulsive bass makes me happy. I frankly don't care about fidelity, I just want good sound. The word "spooky" comes up often with that particular unit and admittedly it has me curious. I have been also looking at the Hattor as it also have an active stage so I can have both.

@mikem 

 Its all part of their mystique.. 

Yeah well about 40% of the total listening time I do in a year is done in the next 2 weeks and so now I risk have no music whatsoever. Seems like its not worth the BS, I don't know.

@gochurchgo,

I completely understand what you are talking about, but just to be clear The Truth is not a passive preamp, it is an active preamp with no gain. About 6 months ago I sold my (2) Power Sound Audio V1801’s subwoofers and ain’t nobody more of a bass head than me.

I just decided to go a different route and power my system with a stand alone set of main speakers and an amplifier with out the need of subs powered by inboard amplifiers that don’t match the main amplifier in clarity and quality of sound. Kinda like going back to the old school approach but with new school highly efficient speakers, amp and front end(s).

And to be perfectly honest with you, I loved the sound of my PSA subs, I just got tired of moving around two small refrigerators every time I wanted to fine tune my room and system!😊

You are right though, The Truth and outboard subwoofers may not be best matched. Finding a good preamp to match a particular system is not easy. I appreciate your thread and look forward to your choice(s).