I am looking to upgrade - looking for advice
So I am the guy who recently asked if a Rotel 1572 preamp would work with a Parasound A21+ amp. So I was asking because I was thinking of upgrading my current amp which is a Rotel 1552. The rest of my system is Yamaha CD player and project turntable (both approx $400 each), Bluesound Node, and B&W 705 S2 speakers. Right now I primarily stream my music through the node. So I was interested in the next step to improvement and I thought it would be what the amplifier. After reading some of the posts on my original question (would the A21 work well with my Rotel preamp I am now thinking that I need to look at both the preamp and amp. Of course that is you agree with my assessment. Here are a few of the amps I was looking at: A21, Vincent SP-332, and Bryson 3b3. The preamps that were suggested all look outstanding: Benchmark LA4, Backert Labs Rhumba 1.3 and the Audionet Pre 1 G3. It looks like with these I would need to also get a DAC, not sure about the phono stage. Any advice is appreciated. I am knee to this.
@ghdprentice There is a reason the masters of wine exam is done entirely blind (applicants are not told what wines they are drinking). Its impossible to not be influenced by what you read or know about a piece of gear or its manufacturer. If you really want to develop your listeners ear and provide real advice rather then encouragement, get a switcher and integrate blind testing into your process. This video makes some great points -
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So I got the H390 and the EverSolo streamer and I have been listening for 2 days. First the EverSolo: it has a nice display and a lot of options. However from a Bluetooth perspective its connectivity to my phone is inferior to my node. The EverSolo might be better through connectivity directly to internet. I don’t know yet since I have not done it. Right now I will continue to use the node. Now to the Hegel H390. Oh boy it is a jewel. At lower volumes, which I have mostly listened to since the wife is home, I can hear more detail and it is really clean. Have mostly been listening to classic because I am working. The sound is warmer than the Rotel which with the B&Ws is a good thing. I finally put on a blues song with a female vocalist and played it a little louder (probably 4 out of 10) and it was sublime. Just a beautiful thing. So much detail and a greater soundstage and so clean. |
Glad to see that you like the Hegel and notice the improvement. Yes, you should be able to use the Rotel for its phono stage, but you'd have to configure one of the Hegel inputs into its "Home Theater" or fixed level input mode so it operates as an amplifier only. Then control the volume via the Rotel pre. I'm not sure how to do that, its been a while since Ive owned a Hegel, but it should be in the device menu. I'd list the Rotel pre/power combo for sale as a pair and then get a dedicated phono stage to clean things up. As for the streamer, Wifi is my preferred method, I try not to use bluetooth which limits resolution. But if you are looking to claw back some of your investment, I'd list the Eversolo as well. I think the Node is good enough on its own and imo has a better app. |
