PREAMPLIFIER UPGRADE QUESTION

Assuming that you are referring to LEFT and RIGHT balance levels. I had the same issue with my Holo Serene preamp. I wanted it in my office where I sit off centre and really need balance to make it perfect. My Benchmark LA4 (now HPA4) preamp had the analog balance control and thus worked better than the Serene in the office. However, for esthetic reasons I wanted the Serene in the office and the HPA4 in the Livingroom (no balance control needed there).

I solved this issue with the Serene in my office using the following approach:

Audiogon Discussion Forum

The result of this was even better than the analog balance control of the HPA4. The Serene sounds perfect now with the settings described in my link. Nothing is compromised with the approach I used.

There are a lot of suggestions made on this thread for preamps that could not only save you money but also get you better sound. You can learn a lot about the sound of any preamp from reviews and posts in places like this. You need to first figure out what sound you are after.

Your Bryston 4B3 is supposed to be slightly warm sounding. For my tastes adding a warm-ish preamp is too mushy with the 4B3. I go with something more neutral. Maybe your Bryston BP-19 choice would be what I would choose. However, I had a Bryston BP-20 preamp years ago and it is nowhere in the class of the neutral LA4 / HPA4 or Serene preamps.

Gentlemen,

We saw the mentions of our preamps here, and the critique of our website, backertlabs.com.  
We were confused at first, because we thought it was fine… Then we accessed it on a mobile phone.

We can now say in response to those comments, we are in violent agreement!

We just simplified the website.

Hope that’s better.

Keep on listening…. Andy

The only problem with the Conrad Johnson ET-6SE is the fact that there is not balance controls where I can control left and right speaker volume. This is made necessary due to my seating arrangement.

@kjl1065 

Your preamp, located between the source and the power amp plays two important roles in the audio setup - source selection and volume control, and should do without adding tonal colorations so "clarity and linearity" are the key to be a top notch preamp. If you have some knowledge of analog circuits and basic technical skills you can buy a used preamp such as Accuphase Esoteric (balanced inputs and outputs a must) on ebay and replace the volume potentiometer with a new Alpha or Allnic motorized pot (size of a soda can). Probably the preamp is the brain of your audio system. Or you can simply bypass it to connect the DAC directly into the power amp if your DAC has a volume control and digital inputs.