Pre-amp for Parasound A21+ & B&W 803 D3

I have owned the A21+ and liked it. It was a bit too warm for me but I thought the Benchmark LA4 was really good with it. I tend to love the LA4 (or HPA4) with all the amps I have paired it with. I use the HPA4 with the CODA #16 amp (not selling either one).

A few weeks ago, I sold the Holo Audio Serene preamp which is a bit like the LA4 but warmer. Today, I got delivery of the new Schitt Kara F preamp. It cost $799 and going into my office system where the HPA4 used to reside when I had the Serene preamp.

I cannot tell on the first day with the Kara if this is a killer preamp. So far, the Holo Serene and the HPA4 are better. I have a feeling the Kara will end up sounding like the Serene. All 3 measure about the same.

I would have bought a LA4, but I did not want to spend any extra money and the funds for the Kara are coming from a future sale of my Schitt Mjolnir v3 headphone amp + preamp. The MJ3 is very warm and rather good and in demand.

My new Kara F is going into the new Schitt Wotan amp driving Magnepan Mini speakers. The Wotan is really good. After a few months now with $2k Wotan I think it is good as the CODA #8 that I owned at one time.

@2psyop @yyzsantabarbara Thank you! I keep hearing amazing things about the LA4 so it is definitely going to be a finalist.

The Linear Tube Audio MicroZOTL level 2 preamp is excellent in my opinion.  I have found a combination of tubes that sound wonderful.  No more upgrading for me.

@andrewmland I got the $799 Schitt Kara preamp yesterday. The hope was that the Kara replaces the Holo Audio Serene preamp that I sold a few weeks ago. The Serene is a warmer LA4. My goal is to lower the overall cost of my system without sacrificing sonics

The Kara has about 12 hours on it now and it is almost as clean sounding as the LA4 and Serene. I doubt it will match it with more hours. However, when it comes to bass, I have NEVER heard anything as strong. This thing is shocking.

The designer Jason Stoddard was posting on Head-fi how people at the Schitt offices were shocked at what they were hearing and people started to come over to his office to find out what was making the noise. He was using the Magnepan LRS+ and the Schitt Wotan, and likely the Kara.

In my office I have the Schitt Wotan, Kara, and the Magnepan Mini with the KEF KC62 sub. The sub gets the signal from the Kara RCA and the Wotan gest XLR from the Kara. I have the sub volume rather low.

I was in another room while the system was playing Moving Pictures by RUSH, and I was shocked at the bass I was hearing. This combo is definitely the strongest, maybe fastest gear I have heard. I have had a few preamps in the house such as the following:

BAT VK-42SE

Bryston BP20 + MPS2

CODA 07x

Benchmark LA4/HPA4

Holo Audio Serene

Schitt Freya+

Schitt Mjolnir v3

Topping pe90

The LA4 + HPA4 are my fav with unmatched clarity. The Serene and Kara seem similar in clarity (a bit more for the Serene) with the fun factor going to the Kara by a large margin.

Another thing that I learned last night is that the Kara will allow me to use a DAC I hated with my RAAL SR1a phones. That combo was so good that I have put the very best headphone amp for the SR1a, a $7k tube amp up for sale.

The tube amp is a tiny bit better, but it cost 10x more. Just for this fact alone makes the Kara worth it, but I love it on 2-channel too. The DAC is the Yggi+ LIM, it still is not great with the Magnepan Mini speakers + Wotan amp, but amazing with the phones.

I was planning on upgrading to the next Yggi+ version in the summer (not released yet), but now I am not changing a thing. I will use my Benchmark DAC3B for 2-channel, it is not good on the SR1a. These 2 DACs are opposites.

The Parasound P7 was the best preamp short of the JC series.  Highly recommended.