Need suggestions on preamp

@hikaru126 
IMHO you’re doing an awful amount to try to make these Maggi’s work. Based upon the musical tastes you stated in your OP these really aren’t the best choice… Maggi’s are more acoustic guitar than Rock…and now they’re causing you to dive deeper into the rabbit hole. I can assure you, by this time next year you’ll be in one of these many scenarios…

1. You’ll have just about swapped out every piece of equipment you have thinking each swap will get you closer to your desired sound.

2. You’ll be Listening to music that sounds great on the Maggi’s but not your favorite…The good thing with this is it will open you to music genres you may have written off in the past.

3. You’ll have learnt the ropes of Ebay, US Audio Mart, Audiogone, PayPal, etc. because of all the online postings of your system you’ve been trying to unload all because you tried to make things work that don’t add up.

4. Possibility of you not enjoying your system because the sound coming out is frustrating being all the time, money and effort you put into it causing you to not want to listen to your rig as much as you’d want to.

I’m not trying to preach, just did the Maggi Route,Yes they can be great speakers with the right music and a lot of effort, heck even in one of the prior posts a guy mentions took 3 years to get em to sound right. Everyone who came to my place thought they sounded great, that’s because I knew what to demo on them, but when it came time to my critical listening, I cringed more than I wanted.

I went thru several PreAmps, (Parasound P5 & P6, Rogue RP-1, Tubes For HiFi SP-13, Odyssey Candella), Several Amps (Chi-Fi EL34’s, Carver 275, Adcom 565, Odyssey Stereo Khartago, Odyssey Kismet Extreme Monoblocks).  Did the Interconnect & Power Cable Upgrades (Cardas, Wire World, Gronberg), Added GIK Room absorption panels & Bass Traps…So believe me when I say you’re on a up hill battle.

Just speaking from my experience, take it for what it’s worth. I hope you find your happy place 🔊

@skiznfliz - thanks for your honest impressions. Unfortunately if I went with speakers that catered to my favorite genre it would be some cheap Elacs or something because I like a lot of poorly recorded Rap haha. I have a lot of musical tastes though from old country to instrumental music and most speakers aren’t great with everything.

Ideally, my V1 Headphones are unique in that they are warm (no weird peaks like the Aryas or HEK SE) but spacious and detailed so instrument separation, soundstage, and micro detail are all preserved. I haven’t been able to find speakers at my price point (of about $1500) that have all 3 (wide disappearing soundstage, micro detail and organic warmth). That’s why I have a specific set of albums like you do that caters to the Maggie’s strengths which has 2 out of the 3 things I like (midrange tonality and/or warmth and soundstage).

Adding the CJ preamp would accentuate those traits at the expense of even more detail. Maybe I’m being unrealistic with my expectations attempting to put together a system with those price points in mind (especially compared to headphones). Ideally, I would like to spend about $1k on each component including cables.

@jfk011 - have you used any of CJs SS offerings like the PFR or the PF2? Wondering if those would be worth it otherwise I’m thinking of going with the Classic as it doesn’t really have many tube rolling options and they’re relatively cheap. 

I’ve got a variety of speakers (Harbeths 30.1 & 40.2, Linkwitz Orions, Emerald Physics 2.7, LeHave Melas, Magnestand Maggies, etc, etc) as well as a new pair of LRS+. And the LRS+ with the right setup sounds as good or better than any of those. But, the “key words” are “the right setup.” And... many reviewers say they can sound as good as most any speakers available.

I also have a lot of different setups – which I have not yet tried with the LRS+ (ARC, Hegel, Parasound JC-1’s, etc.). To this point I’ve driven them with a Parasound JC-2 Preamp and A21 amp with a Bryston BDP2 and BDA 3. The LRS+ can have all the dynamics and detail resolution you can want coupled with phenomenal mids, soundstage and imaging, which rivals or exceeds the other speakers I have.

But... I think my Class D Audio SDS470C amp (300 watts / channel into 8 ohms - only $700 new) has provided better detail resolution and dynamics than the A21, while matching or exceeding the other aspects of the sound – which is truly phenomenal. Those who haven’t really experienced the LRS+ with the right setup really haven’t heard that speaker. But, it can rival or better most any other speaker out there with the right setup in a medium sized room.

If you doubt me – just review any of the video reviews by OCD Audio Guy on YouTube (among others). I can’t speak for the LRS, but I suspect it can sound very similar to the LRS+.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2zysKBl22A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLdlZ5bJXIY&t=466s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLQSYKIItDY

So... you might try to find a used JC-2 preamp, and a Class D Audio amp (which are “giant killers”), as well as listen to OCD Audio Guy’s suggested tweaks to the LRS / LRS+.  And the Bryston digital equipment likely also contributes to the detail resolution - which I suspect several other players / DAC's can provide.