Looking for thoughts on a reasonable priced Pre Amp

logo896

Its that time that I know most of you have had now. I'm about 6 weeks out from my first born and my audio budgets about to drop down for a while here. Currently im running my Lsi'9s as mains for HT and my 2 channel purposes. Just picked up a NHT power 2 amp (200x2@8ohms) doesnt give the nominal 4 ohm specs but im happy with the way it sounds.Its a digital ICE power amp i guess. Im using my Marantz Sr4001 AVR and my Pioneer Elite SACD player for my sources. My plan is to move my Lsi 7's up front and take the items listed to a two channel setup. So these are my two questions.


1. Should I buy a pre amp, if so what one at about 500ish on A gon. The only matching piece to my NHT is a full HT pre amp. My other option is to move the AVR to pre amp dutys and replace it with a new one.


2. My Avr only lets me go down to 80 hertz on the LPF/HPF will moving to a seperate pre amp let me drop that down to true full range? They are set on large so i would think they get full range anyways but im not sure.


Ive looked so far at some B&k solid state and maybe a Ps audio. Your thoughts gents?

raffi

From the little I know, both B&K and PS Audio will give you very good performance in just about anything they produced...that said, the Adcom GFP-750 is very coveted and even though it's not likely that you'll pick one up for $500, you should strongly consider it even if you have to go higher than your baseline. Good luck!

nooshinjohn

Grab the Nakamichi that just popped up in the FS forum. Great piece of gear for the price.

logo896

raffi wrote: »

From the little I know, both B&K and PS Audio will give you very good performance in just about anything they produced...that said, the Adcom GFP-750 is very coveted and even though it's not likely that you'll pick one up for $500, you should strongly consider it even if you have to go higher than your baseline. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice, is there going to be any real advantage to switching to a solid pre amp rather then a late model AVR? I considered buying a nice receiver that doesnt have hdmi on it and using the pure analog or toss link inputs.

raffi

logo896 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, is there going to be any real advantage to switching to a solid pre amp rather then a late model AVR? I considered buying a nice receiver that doesnt have hdmi on it and using the pure analog or toss link inputs.

YW..others on here are more knowledgable than I, but for the price range you're in and if you're looking strictly at 2-channel duty, you can find a pre that will be sonically superior to almost all AVRs. There are some good AVRs out there though.

soundfreak1

I have a b&k ref. 30 very good ht and good 2 ch. But if you don't need ht go with a tube pre. 4 that kind of money u can get a very good tube pre. And the diff. Is fantastic. The b&k is very nice in 2 ch. Especially in direct, but the tube pre is a huge increase in sound quality. @ roughly the same money. A friend gave me a darad tube pre to try and well under 500.00 used (2007 model) and the diff. Is astounding. I'll never go back. Upgraded the std tubes and was even more blown away by this simple little pre.

Timothy Smith

soundfreak1 wrote: »

I have a b&k ref. 30 very good ht and good 2 ch. But if you don't need ht go with a tube pre. 4 that kind of money u can get a very good tube pre. And the diff. Is fantastic. The b&k is very nice in 2 ch. Especially in direct, but the tube pre is a huge increase in sound quality. @ roughly the same money. A friend gave me a darad tube pre to try and well under 500.00 used (2007 model) and the diff. Is astounding. I'll never go back. Upgraded the std tubes and was even more blown away by this simple little pre.

I really agree with the above comment about considering an inexpensive tube pre.

I have owned a number of SS preamps over the years including NAD's, Adcom, HK Citation, Advent, even a Forte (the best of the bunch).

I have always wanted to try a tube pre. I looked at used Audio Research's, Conrad Johnson, and others but they are now very expensive are pretty rare compared to SS options.

I have some experience with tubes including a Grant Fidelity tube buffer, a Dynaco ST-70 tube amp, and a Cayin TA-30 tube integrated. I also have a Dynaco PAS preamp which I never liked the sound of (there may be something that is wrong with it, or that needs adjustment).

I recently purchased a used Antique Sound Labs Line One preamp on CL for only $130 delivered. Plugged it into my system and was floored by the improvement. It is very simple with only a stepped volume control and a source selector. You will need a separate phono preamp if you want to use a turntable. It uses a single 12AU7 ElectroHarmonix vacuum tube. I then swapped in a better Red Lion tube (about $45) and saw another improvement in sound quality.

An improved version of this preamp is only $350 new.

I urge you to borrow someone's tube pre and try it in your system. I wish I would have done it a long time ago. But, once again, I get the fun of going back through my LP and CD collection and rediscovering them.