Showroom Dummies
New member
I have the Classic V2 (which I picked up directly from Jonathan at his business premises) but have just ordered the Baby Reference. Just have to wait a few weeks while it's made.
Music First Preamps...Thoughts?
- Thread starter jaxwired
- Start date
hifinutt
New member
"I've just taken delivery of an MFA Baby Reference V2, and I'm very taken with it. The sound I'm getting is delightful and musically engaging. So count me in on this particular fan club. I struggle to think of any preamp at a similar price that could match its blend of insight, colour, texture and engagement. I've previously owned 3 Shindo preamps (Aurieges, Monbrison and Masseto) and I loved them all. But with their high gain, they were tricky to match in a system that was not all Shindo. I've listened to EAR, Linear Tube Audio, Modwright 36.5 and the Audio Music AM RT2 Silver Edition preamps. There are many paths to audio nirvana, and I think this route is a good one to check out. Audio Bill makes some very good points above - to make this approach work, you must focus on appropriate impedance matching and ensure you've got adequate gain along your signal chain. If you want a tubed phono stage, that can be tricky, but I found the EAR 88PB phono stage, which has a volume control & plenty of gain on tap, worked well for me at not outrageous cost. I took a toe in the water approach by buying a 2nd hand Django passive at low cost, living with it for a while, and comparing with other active preamps, before committing to the Baby Reference. That said, matching of active preamps with power amps of a different brand can be fraught with challenges also, as I found with Shindo."
ah so pleased you could get one . i had the v1 baby ref and compared it at same time to the arc ref 5se and at half the price it was not half the performance . i was in a shop the other day in london where they had the bespoke pre which is basically the baby ref v1 at 2-3 times the cost
i have just finished 3 years of modwright[ i box and 2 box version] pre ownership and find they have a slightly difference midrange presentaion to the mfa but i would have a copper classic mark 2 back any day as its an amazing amp
ah so pleased you could get one . i had the v1 baby ref and compared it at same time to the arc ref 5se and at half the price it was not half the performance . i was in a shop the other day in london where they had the bespoke pre which is basically the baby ref v1 at 2-3 times the cost
i have just finished 3 years of modwright[ i box and 2 box version] pre ownership and find they have a slightly difference midrange presentaion to the mfa but i would have a copper classic mark 2 back any day as its an amazing amp
VoicesInMyHead
New member
Congrats to your new amazing preamp... 
I'm sorry to say that I'm considering finding a new home for my precious, but not because I don't like it, quite the contrary, I love it! I'm thinking about scaling down to an integrated solution, but this BRv2 preamp is also what's holding me back, both for financial reasons (I need to sell it before I can move on), but also from a sound perspective. The BRv2 has really raised the bar in my system, and it's not going to be easy to find something on the same level I think, especially not for an integrated. We'll see how that goes....
I'm sorry to say that I'm considering finding a new home for my precious, but not because I don't like it, quite the contrary, I love it! I'm thinking about scaling down to an integrated solution, but this BRv2 preamp is also what's holding me back, both for financial reasons (I need to sell it before I can move on), but also from a sound perspective. The BRv2 has really raised the bar in my system, and it's not going to be easy to find something on the same level I think, especially not for an integrated. We'll see how that goes....