Thanks for advice on smooth amp!

I recently auditioned the Aloia Amps and then purchased. You may be able to find a used one for less than 3K. They are relatively new in the US market. Before I had these I owned CAT,Wolcotts. THese are much Smoother than the tubes at 4 times the price

Doug, above gives good advice re: a tube pre-amp-- it's an approach I totally agree with. If you want a smoother, but still inexpensive CD player, I'd check out Rotel and NAD. BTW, there are some very good inexpensive DACs now available if you can't afford the Bel Canto. Musical Fidelity from Audio Advisor, MSB, and some others can be had for low bucks. Cheers. Craig.

You will get more improvement for your dollar by upgrading your pre-amp. With your budget constraints I would purchase a conrad johnson PV-10 pre-amp (tube). You can find them used on audiogon and e-bay for around $600. Tube front end and solid state back end is a wonderful combination.

If EVERYTHING sounds bright (ALL of your sources), then a tubed preamp might take care of that (depending on make, model and tubes used). If only your digital system is giving you headaches (literally), try picking up a CAL Sigma or Sigma II DAC. This would target your problem more specifically and keep costs down to a minimum. There's no sense in altering the sound of the WHOLE system if only the digital source is what is aggravating you. The Sigma is very warm and smooth sounding and can be had for well under $300 if you look around. Like the tubed preamp, this DAC would give you the ability to fine tune your digital system to your liking via tube swapping. Keep in mind that when you buy used tube gear though, you should count on re-tubing the gear as part of the cost UNLESS the owner can verify that it was done recently. Even at that, you might not like the specific characteristics of the tubes that they chose and may have to re-tube anyhow. Find out how many tubes the preamp takes, what models and then you'll have a ballpark idea of what it would cost IF this is necessary. Just for references, the CAL Sigma's have only one tube and it's very commonly available at reasonable prices. Sean >

a cheap fix would be to use a z-man ase tubed buffer-stage. this was the only way i could listen to cd's on my system, prior to getting a tubed preamp. (musical fidelity also made a similar product). these show up on the used market for ~$100. i'm not even sure if it's worth it for me to bother selling mine - i will prolly use it in a future secondary system.

another nice thing about the preamp, besides making my cd's enjoyable (thru a very modest nad cd-changer), is that my vinyl & my tuner have also never sounded better! if ya *do* listen to other sources, spending lotsa money on a cd/dac upgrade won't help *them*

doug