2. amps-preamps
  3. 998102392

What tube preamp to get to smooth out the sound?????

Hi have Wadia 850 cdp directly to pair of Odyssey Monoblocks, speakers are NHT 3.3's...Im very happy with the strengths of each component but recently sold a Adcom gfp 750 pre because all I listen to is CD, so I figure why not sell it and go direct..but the sound is not as good as when I had the preamp, direct sounds more hard/etchy , not as smooth as with the pre..I want to buy another pre but get something better than what I had before instead of SS was thinking of getting into tubes to get more warmth/smoothness I want to get rid of any harshness/etchines .... trying to keep it under 2k used, any suggestions from others who had this kind of problem I hear BAT is particulary good...
eantala
angela100
435 posts
 
Sonic Frontiers Line 3 - great sound, separate power supply chassis and a really cool remote. Underwoodwally sells them on this site
http://gonmain.iserver.net/cgi-bin/cl.pl?ddpreatube&1002584213
We bought from his dad for a great price and he has taken over the business. And no I don't
"work" for him - I just like passing along a good thing when I know about it.
nh_fi
8 posts
 
Agreed on the BAT VK30, I have one too. Tube rolling from stock Sovteks to NOS Amperex 7308s made all the difference in the world. A great preamp became truly stunning. Every bit the equal of the vk50se IMHO.
sibelius
256 posts
 
I have been very happy with the AES-3 Super Pramp DJH model that I purchased from Upscale Audio. It is $1200 without remote and $1700 with remote. You probably will want to upgrade the stock tubes with some NOS, though. Works very well with the Odyssey Stratos.
rupertdacat
25 posts
 
IF you have not been using the balanced outs of your Wadia, you do not know what it is capable of. You might give this a try before getting that pre-amp.
kenl
131 posts
 
I'd suggest you demo a Joule Electra LA-100 MkIII. It's beautiful, extremely quiet and comes with a remote. It's dynamic with powerful bass and smooth and articulate midrange. I'm running mine with an Electrocompaniet EMC-1 cdp, and couldn't be happier.

You can sometimes find them used for under $2,000. I believe there's one currently for sale here on Audiogon that's been upgraded to MkIII status for $1,750. A new unit runs about $3,800.

Good luck.
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