Hi Bob- yes it has been quite a while. I hope you and yours are enjoying a great holiday season, and let me wish you a happy and healthy new year.
I fully agree with your main point, there is no substitute for listening with your own ears, to your own system, in your own room, and preamps are probably the most difficult item to choose due to so many variables. The way I did this was what I refer to as the AudiogoN buy n' try method (patent pending). I'd buy a VAC Renaissance mk II preamp while I still had a CJ Premier LS16 mk II and a Krell KRC-HR on hand. Swap them in and out for a couple of weeks, and sell the 'loser' on AudiogoN and try another preamp. At one point I tried 8 preamps in a 9 month timeframe.
Pros: I got the preamp that worked best with my system to my tastes (ARC Ref 3).
You can listen to others reco's as much as you want, but their system/room may be warmer or leaner than yours, and their musical tastes may vary too.....which makes this a crapshoot.
Cons: Yes, it does tie up more money for a while, as you will constantly have 2 or more preamps in your room for a period of time.
Buying used certainly helps ease this pain a bit, and I found out, 9 months later, that I had the preamp I wanted, and only lost about $175 over the 9 month period trying 8 different preamps in my system (including ads and shipping). I felt that investing $175 to try all of these great preamps in my system head on with their competitors was money well spent. I wasted too many years listening to others opinions (reviewers, on-line, friends, etc.) I know they meant well, but they don't have my ears, room, equipment and cables, so they can't really tell me what I will like best.
Cheers,
John
BTW, one more to add to your list would also be the VTL TL-5.5. Unbalanced and balanced outputs, remote, processor loop for home theater, and optional internal phono stage.
I fully agree with your main point, there is no substitute for listening with your own ears, to your own system, in your own room, and preamps are probably the most difficult item to choose due to so many variables. The way I did this was what I refer to as the AudiogoN buy n' try method (patent pending). I'd buy a VAC Renaissance mk II preamp while I still had a CJ Premier LS16 mk II and a Krell KRC-HR on hand. Swap them in and out for a couple of weeks, and sell the 'loser' on AudiogoN and try another preamp. At one point I tried 8 preamps in a 9 month timeframe.
Pros: I got the preamp that worked best with my system to my tastes (ARC Ref 3).
You can listen to others reco's as much as you want, but their system/room may be warmer or leaner than yours, and their musical tastes may vary too.....which makes this a crapshoot.
Cons: Yes, it does tie up more money for a while, as you will constantly have 2 or more preamps in your room for a period of time.
Buying used certainly helps ease this pain a bit, and I found out, 9 months later, that I had the preamp I wanted, and only lost about $175 over the 9 month period trying 8 different preamps in my system (including ads and shipping). I felt that investing $175 to try all of these great preamps in my system head on with their competitors was money well spent. I wasted too many years listening to others opinions (reviewers, on-line, friends, etc.) I know they meant well, but they don't have my ears, room, equipment and cables, so they can't really tell me what I will like best.
Cheers,
John
BTW, one more to add to your list would also be the VTL TL-5.5. Unbalanced and balanced outputs, remote, processor loop for home theater, and optional internal phono stage.