2. amps-preamps
  3. 1334189112

what is a good tube pre amp out there...........

i have and love the conrad johnson tube sound. i have a pv10 and pv12, both sound fantastic. but how do i know if its the best if i have never tried any thing else. my associate equipment is: alon 4 speakers on the 12 and axiom m80's on the other, cj 2300a and 2500a power amps, rotel 975 and nad 545eee cd players, interconnect are tara labs vector 1 on both. audioquest speaker wire on the 10 and some home mades from axiom speaker co on the other. i heard about vtl, bat and others, please give me the pro's and con's of each you feel is best. also some fyi on proper amp/pre matching that im just learning about. thank s in advance.
kennesawjet
huntermusic
76 posts
 
BAT REX
The sound is simply beautiful. I get lost in the music. And the damn thing is so quiet one MUST check the volume before putting on music. Heat? yes, but worth it. I see them turn up for sale on Audiogon for less that 50% of list price. I have had mine two years and it is a piece of equipment that will be hard to beat (not that I won't try).
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
Focal Be's, that's my point Chuck. I have two friends with JM Labs speakers, and they tend to use warmer sounding cartridges, cables and equipment than I do. My Verity Audio Parsifal Encore's are not nearly as aggressive as JM Labs speakers, in fact some find the Parsifal's too polite. So I tend to find cables, cartridges and electronics that offer more speed and resolution. In fact, for the first time I've found silver cabling doesn't sound harsh.

I think many of us arrive at the same destination while following different paths to get there.

Kennesawjet, what is VAC? Welcome to high end audio.
czbbcl's avatar
czbbcl
1,752 posts
 
I use all silver cabling (HGA) as well and find it to be very transparent and organic sounding; not harsh in any way. I also use NOS tubes in the Cary and the sound is very open and detailed and smooth.
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