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Help me shortlist integrated/pre-amps for big Tannoys

Seanm

Seanm

pfm Member
Looking to experiment a little with amplification for my Berkeley MK2s (K-Series driver). I'm in no rush, as my (knackered!) Quad 306 is working very well with a Tisbury passive, but would like to build up a list in case interesting things come up in the classifieds. ( Mostly looking for a Google project to distract me from work TBH.)

Budget around a grand SH, solid state or valve, a remote is quite important. Integrated for preference but the 306 really does seem to work very well, so I wouldn't mind keeping that and experimenting with different preamps. I've tried a 34 - Tisbury seems to be working better for me.
 
TonyScarlett said:
Why not get the 306 serviced & buy a Khozmo passive pre? You can order them with remote control & you'll have change from 1K.
TS
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Might well end up doing that. The Khozmo certainly looks nice. Is there much to choose between different passives in terms of SQ?
 
The Khozmo was a definite step up from the Tisbury into my Leak ST20, as it should be. The Khozmo has a 48 stepped attenuator which makes fine adjustments of the volume easier as well.
I'm awaiting a cable to hook the Khozmo up to my newly acquired Quad 303 so I can compare it to the 33.
TS
 
A good EL 84 amp hits the spot, ST20 great call. I had a Khozmo for a while, but a TVC pre amp was a revelation ( Django ).
 
Thanks, hadn’t even come across TVCs before. Found a nice long PFM thread to keep me busy.
 
Tvc are good but not perfect , very linear in presentation, often very very transparent. Some folks might they prefer the midrange of a good valve pre amp . Both have great fans
 
hifinutt said:
Tvc are good but not perfect , very linear in presentation, often very very transparent. Some folks might they prefer the midrange of a good valve pre amp . Both have great fans
Click to expand...
Thanks, TVC and valve pre are two options I’m going to explore.
 
I had a DIY Pass B1 improved here that sounded very transparent but I needed some gain I felt. That I got from my current valve AD Audio Satchmo that is also very transparent with just a little sweetness there. No valve bloom.
 
So funny you should mention the satchmo, we hear very very little about and yet 5 mins ago I had occasion to recommend it to someone!!
 
Here's an intergrated, which to be honest I know very little about except for a short listen on YT. The brand get's very good write ups, it was the model 10 that first came to my attention, but the 5 looks like all the amp you would ever need. DOGE 5 PADC – DOGE AUDIO
 
Gerard124 said:
@Mike P



Which TVC are you using Mike and how do you find it?
Click to expand...
I'm using a Glasshouse Audio one (from HiFi Collective).

I really like it. The only criticism I have is that it is prone to picking up 50Hz hum if you put it too close to a power transformer but provided you locate it suitably it's totally silent and sounds superb.
 
I've got a Khozmo with the better resistors, and a TVC based around silver Music First transformers. It also has a direct input that bypasses the source selector. The Khozmo is extremely good, but the TVC is noticeably better. I recently had the chance to compare an Audio Research ref 40 with a Bent Audio TVC. The AR was better - more present, more ambience recovery, a little more drive. The BA was probably musically as satisfying, though, or very nearly, in the sense it was easily transparent enough to follow the most complex musical threads. Sometime I might take over my TVC and see how if fares against the AR...
So the Khozzie is cheap as chips and probably 80% of a decent TVC....you could get one second hand as a stopgap, and sell it at no loss when Santa brought you the Music First Baby Ref, which has the rep of being their best sounding TVC pre.
There are also Autoformer pre amps, of which the Townsend Alegri MK2 is supposed to be one of the best.
 
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