@decooney im sure they are pricey, but HOW PRICEY ARE THEY LOL!!
I have a buddy with lots of spare kt88 to loan me to try. They are EH 88's so they are not the best but should give me an idea of the change in sound I would get.
Solid State Preamp to replace tube unit
I currently own a CJ tube preamp. Ive always owned tube preamps and I would like to get my first solid state preamp.I am fed up with buying expensive hard to find tubes that last 3 months or new production tubes with that not so great sound. I pine for consistency. I probably wont sell my CJ I'll just keep it. My power amps are NAD M23 for the summer and CJ Premiere 12's for the winter.
Since I dont dabble in the solid state world I am not sure what to get. I figure since this is my first SS unit 4-5k preowned??. Some brands I have considered CODA< Pass, AYRE, Classe, Bel Canto, Krell etc. Note: I have tried the Parasound and Benchmark but they didnt do it for me. I dont like anayltical sterile sound. If it is a touch warm/colored that is probably good as I am coming from a very warm CJ tube unit.
Must haves are a remote with balance control. Multiple outputs (XLR and RCA). I have an outboard phono pre. Thank you for reading and for your suggestions.
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@jimbones I had the EH KT88s in my Cary SLI-80 stock, and never could get myself to warm up to those - at all. Kinda lean and non-engaging in that amp. Did not like then much at all for my amp at the time. Depends on the amp too, and how they are driven, biased, and of course how they work with the rest of your system of course. Your friend can probably tell you why they are available as loaners. I only kept them to give away with the amps as backup test tubes. When I upgraded the SLI-80 internally, the next tubes I tried was reissue new Genelex Gold Lyon KT88s. They were nice tubes (balanced top to bottom) for the quad price $ at the time. My buddy did the PSVane KT88 MKIIs, and those had a little more body and warmth, slightly rolled off on top taking the etch off, and he's been running them 2yrs, loves. them, they did well in his amp. As for the overly pricey and limited availability EAT KT88s, maybe I spoke too soon, I noticed just now on a few sites they are unavailable, out of stock. When I mentioned birthdays, christmas time, or bucket list buy - here is why. You could call TD and ask them about EATs, and they do sell other decent KT88s too. Hold your breath now, LOL, seems they may not be available much right now anyhow...ugh. https://www.tubedepot.com/products/eat-kt88-diamond-power-vacuum-tube-matched-quad?srsltid=AfmBOoqggHuzJXgBXwvysqp1ORO7lRJ0AXCrUvY4B9PwrTacqQ-pyN2B |
@decooney DOH! Note the EH sound fine in my buddies system but then again the rest of his system is amazing. He has the funds to do it so... |
You have Nice Conrad Johnsen amplifiers why would you want to change out of your CJ pre-amplifier? Which model is it? I hear pairing CJ is really a good idea. I thought about buying one of the amplifiers to go with my CJ and didn't do it because I wanted to biamp with tube and solid-state. I would upgrade the preamp from CJ, can't believe tubes would be that much of an issue. |
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