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Starting from Scratch -Please Help Pick 1 out of 3

Dear Friends,
Hope that all of you are well, in a moment of transitional evolutional state of mind i sold off my Rogue Cronus Integrated, my Tannoy Stirling Speakers ; well pretty much the spine of the entire system.

I wanted to start over, i listen to a lot of varied stuff ; usually very complex stuff ; i love the weight of solid state gear and the resolution of their baselines and the treble which intermittently sound "filled" ; i also love the midrange liquidity of tubes especially on vocals and the natural timbre of orchestras and drum snares.

So i had gone on a spree to audition some gears, some which couldn't be heard are also included as a part of the system (say, i listened to the power amp but not the pre) i couldn't get to some of these due to various difficulties but generally i've put a package of 4 different set ups - i hope learned pundits here can guide through this to build a good system which i will use for a long time.

I am not the type for frequent upgrades.
Thank you!

The Candidates

Group 1
------
Pre : Rennaisance Preamplifier MKIII by VAC (Valve Amplification Company)
Power : VAC Phi 200 Power Amplifiers (Valve Amplication Company)
Speakers : Harbeth SHL5 [or] Devore Fidelity The Nines (Please Pick)

Just love the look of this system!

Group 2
------
Pre : Modwright LS 100 or Ls36.5
Power : Pass Labs XA 60.5 (Class A 60 wpc) but can take a few months to save
up for Pass Labs XA100.5 (Class A 100 wpc) if it really matters.
but evidence shows otherwise :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXGf3AonFCQ
Speakers : Magnepan 1.7
Which sounds great!

But Will the Modwright (semi-tube) impedance match with the pass'?

Group 3
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Pre : Leben RS28CX Premium Preamplifier
Power : CS-660P Separate Power Amplifier
Speakers : Harbeth SHL5 (or) Devore Fidelity The Nines (or) Devore Fidelity Orang Utan

Group 4
-------
Pre : Modwright LS100
Power : Pass Labs XA30.5 Monoblocks (30 watts Class A)
Speakers : Devore Fidelity Orang Utan

Also Please Feel Free to Mix-Match and Advice.

Music will be fed from my MAC to my DAC and to these.

Thank You!
thegoodarcher
mountainsong's avatar
mountainsong
422 posts
 
I vote #3
And I will add a luxman class A
Harbeth compact 7 pure satisfaction, specially analog.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
Another vote for the VAC system. I cannot judge your two speaker choices though, because I haven't heard either of them. You can't go wrong with VAC electronics though, IMHO.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
VAC pre and amp, then matched w any good, easy to drive speaker.
thegoodarcher OP
70 posts
 
Thanks guys, really appreciate all your help - i am just so worried about weak bass with tube gear, hence the confusion about using "all tube set up" but i havent heard VAC enough or lived with them - infact i've only heard their preamp, i listen to a lot of weighty stuff (but not techno or anything like that) - lots of film scores which have everything interwoven - but i see that VAC is getting lots of love here - and i am leaning more towards it...
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
The 'weak bass' theory is waaaaay overplayed, IMHO. I was afraid of tube amps because of that old wives tale too. Since then I only recall thinking "Wow, that's a lot of bass, especially from a tube amp", when listening to BAT and VAC tube amps in my system. While I may not recommend driving a subwoofer with a tube amp, I have no issue at all recommending a tube amp for full range speakers.
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