Upgrading Sonic Frontiers Line 3SE to ???

You might consider the Electron Image Amati which is currently listed for $4,100 (I have no affiliation with the seller). The Amati is designed and built by Mike Kerster, whom I believe was the design chief for the Sonic Frontier Preamp 3. In the Amati, Mike Kerster incorporated some of the technical knowledge he gained will work for Audio Note. The Amati has a built-in very high gain phono section. The Amati also has XLR outputs. I am currently using an Amati my Audio Note system. If you want any additional information feel free to contact me off-line.

Don

I owned the Line 3SE for awhile, and liked it but didn't find that it did much more for me than my SS pre at the time. I also thought the bass was just a bit loose and lacking in detail. If you can put up with no remote and a clunky 23 step volume control, you might look at either of these preamps. They sound great with solid tight bass, exceptional soundstaging and dimensionality, and grainless high frequencies. These can easily drive any length balanced output cable. Linestage tubes are 12AU7 and 6SN7.

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?preatube&1170283497

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?preatube&1170169406

The BAT and ARC models you listed are both supposed to sound great also. You would do best to try them in your own system, if possible, so you know if they really sound better to you than your Line 3SE.

thanks for the great suggestions.

I have not experimented with tube rolling much in buffer stage, has been running 6H23 since day one. For the driver stage, maybe it was the system and room, different type of tubes produce more difference in midrange and up but not a whole lot of difference in bass. That's why I came to the conclusion maybe SF L-3SE just does not have the bass weight I am looking for.

I should have borrowed the ARC Ref 2 II from my friend, but I did hear a highly modified LS-25 Mk II in my system and it did not produce any more bass than my L-3SE.

One of the reason I haven't pulled the trigger on BAT 51SE is the "dark" nature and bipolar user feedbacks. Some, inlcuding Stereophile review, thought 51SE was on the dark side of spectrum. Some people did not care for 51SE's sound at all which is very troublesome when you are about to spend that much money for a pre amp. Like to hear more opinion about 51SE from users that have compared it to others.

I think the polarity that you mention regarding the VK-51SE revolves around the 6H30 tube. Some people love it for it's dynamic's and power, certainly more dynamic than other tube designs. Others don't like it because of a sense that it sacrifices the midrange palability that make tubes popular. I owned a 51SE for awile, and I would not characterize it as dark, the warm side of neutral maybe, but not dark.

I believe the polarity is based solely on the 6H30 tube, which seems to be gaining popularity now that ARC and CJ are using in their top preamps too. For me, it is a very tough call. I did love the dynamics/transparency of the 6H30 tubes, but I did not enjoy the more sterile midrange presentation.

That's my take anyway. From those that I've talked to that hated the VK-51SE, most blamed the 6H30 tube itself. They laugh at the 'Supertube' reference and say give me my old 6DJ8/12AX7/6SN7 preamp and let me roll with NOS tubes. Since you won't find any Mullard/Telefunken/Amperex/Siemen's 6H30's, it's hard to say if it's the tube design itself or the lack of good NOS tubes.
If you had no choice but to run your Line 3SE with Sovtek 6922's, you would have some idea of the midrange sterility that I speak of. Of course the benefit of this is the price of NOS tubes is getting pretty outrageous, especially if you need 8-10 of them to fill your preamp....OUCH!!!

Just my $.02

John

From the discussions here regarding bass and what tubes are best in preamps, I really think you would be plesantly surprised if you were able to try one of the Atma-Sphere preamps, the MP-1 or MP-3 (6SN7 and 12AU7 in linestage), in your system - maybe if you have a friend with one to bring over. I also just thought of a couple of others you could consider - the VTL 6.5 (2x12AU7) or 7.5 (2x12AX7), which are both supposed to be quite good. I have heard the same things posted by others here about the 6H30 tubes (although never used them), and I know the 6922's in your Line 3 are getting expensive, for good NOS, and the Line 3 has a lot of them.