Preamp/Amp synergy with Cain Abby's?

I suggest you ask Terry Cain about the Moebius line stage that he uses in his own system. This is very nice sounding design from Poindexter at AudioTropic. See the following site for more details:

http://www.audiotropic.net/Products/mobius.html

I built one a couple months ago and am very pleased with it.

(Apologies in advance if this is a repetition; I tried 24 hours ago to post a similar message and it's never appeared.)

Dave

Gmood, nice to hear from you. Well, so far I only tried the cheap Sonic Impact amp. While the performance far exceeds its price, it did not offer the ultimate in control for the Abby's. Maybe a T-amp with better powersupply like the Clari-T will be much better in this regard. Any insight in comparing the Clari-T and SOnic Impact from your side?

According to Terry the First Watt is the fastest amp with best bass for the Abby's. Even the person at Audiocircles (Paul_Bui) who has the Clari-T monos talks still speaks very highly of the F1, although he almos sold it....

Rene

Salectric, thanks very much for suggesting the Moebius. I talked to Terry a couple of times and read the nice review of the Moebius at 6moons. According to Terry the Fi Y should not be far behind the Moebius and a pretty close call. The Moebius has to be the fastest sounding preamp around according to Terry and certainly a good match to both, the First Watt and Fi.

What are your experiences with the Moebius and what amp are you using it with?

Best wishes,

Rene

Hi Rene,
yes I've communicated with Paul many times. He does think very highly of the F1. The only problem with such an amplifier, is it's limited ability on different speakers.

Paul BUI ,Bemopti123 and I all use the same speakers(FTA-2000s). The F1 will not drive them. The ClariT Monos does a much better job. But still isn't sufficient for a 89dB speaker.

From what I gather the F1 is a terrific match for the Fostex high efficient cones.I've communicated with Ed Schilling and the F1 is his favorite also for driving his speakers.

I haven't any real experience comparing the SI against the ClariT. Depending on the setup if using a sub. The ClariT with the sub-outs is pretty darn good. You have a loss in bass below 70 hz or so when using the ClariT on it's own.
Something you may or may not notice on your speakers since bass starts to roll off above 100hz.

The other alternative is a low wattage (maybe 20 wpc) Chip Op amp from say Scott Nixon paired with your tubed preamp. Believe me when I say I haven't heard anything that has the speed and soundstage depth of the Chip amp. It leaves the Tripath amps in the dust along with all other amplifiers I have any experience with! At the going price of the 20 watters Scott selling..you will feel like you stole something!LOL I'm willing to bet you will hear things in familar recordings you've never heard before.

This maybe off the beaten path. I have no experience with your cd player. But I've found a NON oversampling Dac does wonders for speakers with minimum or no crossovers. You'll hear the difference instantly! The notes decay naturally without that upper frequency hash assiocated with cds. The layering is also much better as nothing is high lighted in the stage but everything is separated.
There's several companies that make them .So the choice is yours. Do not go on the notion because the player cost a certain amount that a cheaper NOS Dac won't be an improvement. If you go that route make sure the Dac output is atleast 2 volts. This way your dynamics will not be sacrificed.

Good listening

Gmood1, I can always trust you to come with some new suggestions to keep me undecided :-).

You are quite right that biggest problem with the F1 is it limitation to only a narrow selection of speakers. From what I heard it is one of the best matches with the Abby's, but a later speaker change might be problematic. The digital amp would certainly offer a better match for a wider variety of speakers. I'll have to look into the Scott NIxon amps. The thing with the First Watt is that they are very limited in numbers: better to get one as long as they are available.

I was curious about the nonoversampling DACs (AckDack, Scot Nixon, etc.). I really like the AA Prima and it is one of the most natural sounding players around. Maybe I'll pick up a used nonoversampling DAC one day to start a harddisc based system. But first the amp...

Thanks again,

Rene