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Tube preamp question

Hello all,
I've recently been looking to possibly add a nice tube preamp to use with my spectron musician ii (hybrid upgrade/no V cap upgrade) monos and Anthony Gallo ref 3.1 speakers. I am currently using a Lexicon MC-12B preamp, bybee power filters with wireworld power cables, cardas balanced xlr and spectron remote sense cables. (I am also using lexicon rt-10 universal player and Oppo bdp 103). I love the Lexicon preamp and mostly watch movies but have been more and more appreciating music on my system. I'd love to add the warmth of a tube preamp but is there anyway to use both or would a tube buffer between the universal player and preamp be the way to go (a happy medium). Basically I want to use the Lexicon for movies and a tube preamp for mostly 2ch music. Is there any way to "pass through" the lexicon and use a tube preamp when I want to listed to the tubes?
I would also need a balanced tube preamp due to the fact the spectrons must be changed internally from balanced/unbalanced.
Any help/input/ideas would be very greatly appreciated as always
duckdownman
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Is there any way to "pass through" the lexicon and use a tube preamp when I want to listed to the tubes?
Yes. Interestingly enough it's called HT pass through, although you pass the HT signal through the stereo pre and on to your Lexicon. There are plenty of balanced (or at least w XLR outputs), tube pre-amps; lots depends on budget. BAT is one obvious choice w a broad range of models at various price points. VAC has pre-amps w XLR out but I am not sure if they are a true balanced differential circuit. Atma-sphere would be a great choice if you want the true balanced circuit. Give us a price range and any other wants/needs and we can make more concrete suggestions.
duckdownman OP
17 posts
 
Swampwalker,
Thank you very much for your response. Interestingly enough I saw the lexicon has the ability for "analog pass through" for certain inputs. When I read that last night I was wondering if it would be possible to connect my universal player to a tube preamp, then to the tube preamp to my lexicon (let's say on AUX with analog pass through" set to on, which then connects to my main amps.
If this would work the tube pre would only be used for the universal player which is fine by me. From reading your post it seems like this would not work as the same basic idea is mentioned only opposite: going through the tube first using a HT pass through.
Basically I only want the tubes for 2 ch through my universal player (possible a turntable in the future) and I would prefer the traditional warmer sound of tubes I've heard a few years ago (I've heard some rogue audio tubes recently and it didn't have that vintage tube sound I've heard on on some Cary's about 5 years ago).
My budget would be in the 2k range but I rarely stay in budget and I love the used market where many deals can be found.
pdspecl
254 posts
 
Dodge 8 Clarity and replace the tubes with good NOS tubes.
Has remote, and excellent tube phono section as well. Simply the best tube preamp I've heard and a great value for the cost
jfrech's avatar
jfrech
1,816 posts
 
Swampwalker gave good advice above..I'd have to agree with him...and the BAT tube preamps, used, around 2k or up are a great choice, If you could go up a little bit and get a BAT VK51SE you'd have to spend a lot of cash to get a better preamp...(like 10k or more...)
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
You might want to consider pinging Audiogon member "dopogue", he has a lot of experience with Gallo Ref. speakers and tubes. Plus he's a super-nice guy...

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