Nickb, how do you like the Van Alstine amp ?
and your dac ?
Nice system.
Preamp Deal of the Century
Thanks gryphongryph. The Van Alstine is a great little amp and an overachiever for the money. It performs well across the board with the only caveat being I don’t listen to the very low bass recordings. So I can’t comment on that. It was recommended by a member here who is also a Chardonnay owner. I quite like the border patrol SEi dac as well. But I want to preface that by saying that there was a very nice improvement by adding the Jupiter beeswax caps. Cost me $250, but worth the money. I know it measures crappy, but I don’t buy based on measurements and I’m not technically inclined anyway. I will be getting JMR Voce Grandes in a couple of months, so I’ll be curious if the AVA amp, BP dac and iFi Zen streamer will be up to the task. Even though I’ve been in this hobby for over 30 years, these are new benchmarks in sound quality. My goal was for a very musical and engaging sound and I think I’ve achieved that so far. It took me a very long time to get to this point….. |
Happy to report my Grange LS will arrive on Monday via DHL. Ordered beginning of Feb - a real test of patience. I put up my current Chardonnay v3 for sale and it went within 12 hours, a real testament to the strength of the brand Mick has built. I am so excited… will have to ‘work from home’ on Monday…. |
deutscherhififan,
What color/finish did you choose?Please let us know your thoughts on its sonic performance. Beautiful piece. |
I ordered a black/chrome unit without tubes with a few minor modifications. My Chardonnay was wood/chrome and was beautiful. I figured I try something different this time... but really, they are all gorgeous. I will report on sonics once preamp and new EML 300B and EML 45 tubes are a bit broken in. xmas is coming early, for sure. |