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Recommend me a preamp, please

I shall be watching this thread with interest, as I am also looking for a preamp (or a dac/pre) with balanced outputs to drive my ATCs.

The forthcoming 851E will be interesting but will probably not have a built in phono stage, as neither the 840E nor the 851A have one. This is important(-ish) for me to keep box count low, but probably not for Markus, as he is more serious about vinyl than I am, and will probably want to use a dedicated separate phono pre.

Anyway, enough thread hi-jacking from me!


Cheers,
Samuel.
 
Markus,

how about the forthcoming 'Melody' solid state preamp from Nagra?
 
Markus S said:
Requirements:

Great sound. Single-ended and balanced outputs. At least 4 line inputs. No separate power supply, no bigger than standard hi-fi component size.

Remote is nice but not essential.

New or used, the less expensive the better but flexible on price.
Click to expand...

How about the Wyred 4 Sound MicroPre? Three line inputs (2x RCA + 1x XLR) but also three digital inputs (ESS Sabre D-A with 24/192 USB). Single-ended and balanced outputs. No separate power supply, smaller than standard hi-fi component size.

Remote included. It's also a headphone amplifier.

Great sound: £1899.
http://www.wyred4sound.com/webapps/p/74030/117839/803982

Oh, no, wait a minute - that should have read £899!
 
EAR868 will do the job. I had its predecessor 864 and I wish it's still here. It's a great mainstream performer, has very decent sound, lots of control for a tube device due to output transformers and even a sort of PRaT, though overall feel is rather neutral.

868 uses PCC88, a rather underrated tube you can get cheap to tune the sound to your taste. RIAA is also not to be overlooked though probably nowhere near your outboard phono.

Of course it's not as exotic as Dietmar who or similar, but there you go.

The s/h prices in the UK are 2-2.5k pounds.

The back
ear-868pl-back-z.jpg
 
Another weird but affordable option is MDAC with forthcoming PSU and analog preamp extension. It has both XLR and RCA outputs that can drive two different loads at the same time without collapsing, shortening or whatever. You can have a secondhand MDAC for around 450 pounds and the PSU/analog pre is supposed to be 350-400 pounds. You know the sound, you tested 8200CD. I hope that the upgraded PSU will address some of the shortcomings of the stock MDAC (certain subjective lack of energy and involvement in reproduction, at least for me).
 
Dynavector L300 mk2
Bit better than the mk 1 which you heard many years ago at my old place.

If I was in the market I would also look at a CAT and forget the balanced needs.


Jason
 
Markus S said:
Requirements:

Great sound. Single-ended and balanced outputs. At least 4 line inputs. No separate power supply, no bigger than standard hi-fi component size.

Remote is nice but not essential.
Click to expand...

What's the system context? Does it need a phono stage?

FWIW I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm perfectly happy with a simple stepped attenuator passive. It is genuinely transparent and any issues exist either upstream or downstream from it. Obviously context is everything, but I seem to have ended up with a lot of high-gain power amps that are more than happy with such an item upstream. It also appeals from a OCD perspective as there is absolutely nothing to tweak / tune / fiddle / obsess about. It just 'is'. I recently offloaded a very nice tube pre as much as anything as tube-rolling was doing my bloody head in - I simply could not settle on a specific tube set as every combination I tried brought something and also lost something - nothing 'did it all'! It was a relief going back to a simple vol knob and input selector!
 
Tony L said:
What's the system context? Does it need a phono stage?

FWIW I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm perfectly happy with a simple stepped attenuator passive. It is genuinely transparent and any issues exist either upstream or downstream from it. Obviously context is everything, but I seem to have ended up with a lot of high-gain power amps that are more than happy with such an item upstream. It also appeals from a OCD perspective as there is absolutely nothing to tweak / tune / fiddle / obsess about. It just 'is'. I recently offloaded a very nice tube pre as much as anything as tube-rolling was doing my bloody head in - I simply could not settle on a specific tube set as every combination I tried brought something and also lost something - nothing 'did it all'! It was a relief going back to a simple vol knob and input selector!
Click to expand...

Same pre, same conclusion, same result(ish) - LDR passive for now.

However, I do miss:

a line-out
a balance control
and the phono stage

the Wyred 4 Sound that item refers to could be good, swapping onboard dac for onboard phono, but we'll have to wait until next month and trust that Mark can spare time from that thread.
 
Thanks for the posts. In true pfm spirit, I'd like to get a pre that I won't lose much money on if and when I sell it on. This points to either a used or a pretty cheap solution.

Audio Research is an interesting idea and there's a LS26 available on audio-markt.de. I have no experience of Audio research pres and this review puts me off a bit.

The w4s unit is cheap and probably good but doesn't please my eye.

Dynavector L300 Mk II - the German Dynavector importer concentrates on cartridges, I don't think there's actually any distributon of DV electronics here. If a used one came up on pfm, I'd certainly look at it as your Mk I sounded great in your system, Jason, but I suspect it would be snapped up about 5 seconds after it was posted here.

EAR - very rare used.

TE Vibe - definitely a possibility, I know it's capabilities very well having enjoyed a loan of merlin's unit for some time. No balanced out, and fitting one would probably not help the resale value.

Meridian - interesting suggestion. Hasn't been on my radar at all, I need to investigate further.

Passive - hmmm. Needs some thought.
 
Marcus, If you're interested in a used LS15, PM me as I have one in mint condition/'only one owner' which is now surplus to my requirements.

Despite the very positive review when this unit was released, taking it out of the chain (MDAC straight into Audio Research VT100 MkII) demonstrated that it is not exactly a 'straight wire with gain'
 
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