2. amps-preamps
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Recommend me a prepro/amp combo for zu essence

I'm planning on purchasing a pair of zu essence speakers, and would like to build a prepro & 2ch power amp combo with them. Plan to setup in a home theatre environment (ie. connected to ps3, plasma, etc.) Plan to start with 2.1ch & go to 5.1ch later. Have heard the Pass Labs x30.5 with the essences & was blown away, but it's obviously an expensive option. Is there anything else you would recommend? I'm fairly keen on sticking to solid state. I've heard essences with Peachtree audio & thought it sounded fairly unimpressive. Also heard them with a Naim amp, which was quite good. What can you recommend in the way of a prepro for this type of speaker? Maybe Emotiva UMC-1? Or would the preamp be too poor? Budget $7K for pre/pro & 2 ch power amp
lavs
highctenor
8 posts
 
I own them and would suggest a great integrated with a very very good DAC. Depending on room size I suggest a Melody i2A3, Astro Black 22 (Push-Pull 22 Watts) or an Audion 300B Silver Night (probably a little weaker). I use a Moon i-3 and am happy. I will purchase either a Eastern Electric DAC+ or an AudioNote DAC. They are radically different from each other but both will make your digital experience much better. Hope this helps.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,841 posts
 
The speaker is very easy to drive and 30 watts is often a lot of power on them (depending on room size of course). So you have a fairly wide range of tube powered amplifiers that can easily do the job.
wilsynet's avatar
wilsynet
264 posts
 
Having owned the Essence before, I would normally recommend the Atma-sphere S30 or the First Watt J2.

However, you're planning to use this in a HT environment where you may be watching hours upon hours of television, and, well, OTL and Class A solid state are typically pretty power hungry, it seems such a waste to do that just to watch the latest episode of House.

Having said all that, given the HT application and the way I personally feel about it, I recommend as a preamp the Modwright LS-100 which has HT bypass and as power amp, the Modwright KWA100 which operates in Class A/B.
wilsynet's avatar
wilsynet
264 posts
 
Oh my, I just noticed the original post was from July and August of 2011. This is an old thread. The OP has long since moved on I'm sure.
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