Thinking about upgrading my preamp...

I know nothing about Jeff Rowland gear but there is a Capri + with phono card listed on Audiogon for under your budget.
 
Charles, what happened to all that great Carver gear you had collected? I thought you were enamored by it.
 
nc42acc said:
I know nothing about Jeff Rowland gear but there is a Capri + with phono card listed on Audiogon for under your budget.
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I saw that also. I know JR is darn good gear, but I haven't heard any of it in a very long time.


Randy Myers said:
Charles, what happened to all that great Carver gear you had collected? I thought you were enamored by it.
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Sold it all months ago. It sounded good, but you had to do a LOT of modding to get them there, which meant a LOT of $$$. Also, they all had little issues that kept popping up and I had to keep sending units back and forth across the country.
 
chops said:
Sold it all months ago. It sounded good, but you had to do a LOT of modding to get them there, which meant a LOT of $$$. Also, they all had little issues that kept popping up and I had to keep sending units back and forth across the country.
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Ahhh... sorry to hear that. I knew at the time you seemed pretty thrilled, but I also understand the feeling. Finding something that at first you love but over time it sours a bit. I have had a few changes trying to get to that certain point myself :)...
 
Randy Myers said:
Ahhh... sorry to hear that. I knew at the time you seemed pretty thrilled, but I also understand the feeling. Finding something that at first you love but over time it sours a bit. I have had a few changes trying to get to that certain point myself :)...
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Yeah, trying to revitalize 30+ year old gear and keeping it running smoothly gets costly after a short while, especially when the PCB's weren't exactly the greatest quality and the circuit designs needed to be re-designed as part of the updates/upgrades. It's not like an old McIntosh piece that all you have to do is replace a few caps, resistors and diodes and let it live on for another 50 years.

You guys have had me thinking about that Pass Labs XP-12 all day today. I probably need to get in contact with Mike and see what he can do for me. If he can't work out a deal on an XP-12, maybe he has some XP-10's laying around that he can let go in my price range.
 
I'm a bit confused as to the goal of changing pre's. What is it that the P5 currently isn't providing?

It seems to me a move to the P6 is a lateral move. Pararsound makes great products, but would think you need to increase your budget to gain appreciable differences. To spend basically the same amount "again" ($1500 ~) on a similar product? I'm sure it would be a great fit if you're happy with the P5 but I don't really see the logic IMHO.

A used JC2 would be the more apt upgrade in the Parasound line up for sure and the increase in budget would deliver substantial results I would think

The comments on the Pass and wyred 4 sound by all accounts, would be a significant upgrade and something to consider heavily depending on your goals.
 
Swisstrips said:
I'm a bit confused as to the goal of changing pre's. What is it that the P5 currently isn't providing?

It seems to me a move to the P6 is a lateral move. Pararsound makes great products, but would think you need to increase your budget to gain appreciable differences. To spend basically the same amount "again" ($1500 ~) on a similar product? I'm sure it would be a great fit if you're happy with the P5 but I don't really see the logic IMHO.

A used JC2 would be the more apt upgrade in the Parasound line up for sure and the increase in budget would deliver substantial results I would think

The comments on the Pass and wyred 4 sound by all accounts, would be a significant upgrade and something to consider heavily depending on your goals.
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My thought going with the P6 would be the better volume control and better DAC over my older P5.

The more I think about all of my options so far, I'm still leaning towards the PS Audio Stellar Gain Cell DAC. The price is right, the quality is there, the positive reviews are there, the buyer's remorse wouldn't be there. LOL The only thing missing would be a phono stage, but I can easily take care of that with the very cost friendly and very flexible Schiit Mani.

It's still all up in the air at the moment, but that's the direction I'm probably going to go.
 
Might be a good choice for you Charles. The DAC is not as important to you being that you are a vinyl nut :).

I owned the matching mono amps for a while, the M700s. They were very nice, no complaints at all. I just never got that warm and fuzzy from them. Don't even know why... just never grabbed me.
 
Randy Myers said:
Might be a good choice for you Charles. The DAC is not as important to you being that you are a vinyl nut :).

I owned the matching mono amps for a while, the M700s. They were very nice, no complaints at all. I just never got that warm and fuzzy from them. Don't even know why... just never grabbed me.
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It may be. I still have a little research to do with other units of course, but I keep coming back to the PS Audio. Oddly enough, even more so than the Wyred 4 Sound. And it's not because of the $$$ difference either. I've been entertaining the Hegel P20 for ages now, and still, I keep coming back to the PS Audio.

Ugg... Choices...


Randy, what gear "haven't" you tried in your system. LOL
 
The Wyred 4 Sound is definitely a better pre-amp and more flexible, however it does not have a built in DAC. You could use your OPPO as your DAC.
 
Randy Myers said:
The Wyred 4 Sound is definitely a better pre-amp and more flexible, however it does not have a built in DAC. You could use your OPPO as your DAC.
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Well, without there being a direct comparison between the two, no one will know if one is "definitely" better than the other as a simple preamp as far as sound quality is concerned.

But, with that being said, the hunt is over. I made the "mistake" of contacting Walter at Underwood Hifi last night. I couldn't refuse his great offer on the Stellar Gain Cell DAC and ordered it. It will be here before this coming weekend. :D


I DO want to thank everyone who gave me their input, opinions and options in this thread though. You've all been a great help.
 
Gratz my friend. It is always great getting everyone's inputs and thoughts. To me that helps a lot. Sometimes something that is said gets me thinking about something I had not previously considered... sometimes not...

In the end you pick what is fitting your needs the most. The PS Audio is a good piece of gear and I am sure you will be happy with it!
 
Thank you sir! You are correct. Getting info and thoughts from others does in fact trigger your own thoughts about things that you didn't really consider beforehand. And to be honest, I was extremely close to pulling the trigger on a maxed out Hattor "BIG" preamp. That little thing is just sexy and a great deal even at full price. For some reason, I decided to halt on ordering it right away because I wanted to do just a little more research and a few more options to look at.

Trust me, if money were no object, I would either have a Pass XP-12, McIntosh C47 or... OR... the Dan D'Agostino Momentum. :ninja:
 
If money was no object I could be very dangerous :)...

Maybe an ARC Reference 10... top end Mc... but I would probably lean towards ultra sound quality, which in my view would eliminate my home town company (Sorry Mc owners :)). After having these SET amps I am not sure I could go back :D.

A guy in our audio club has a Reference 10 phono pre-amp. He is using a MBL pre-amp and MBL mono blocks with his new MBL speakers. He also has a dCS digital (mainly as a spinner since he has not gotten into music server yet).
 
I think all of us would be very dangerous if that were the case. LOL

I've had a few all tube systems with SET amps before, and there's definitely something magical about them. But that was back in my large high efficiency loudspeaker days when I had the room for them and the fact that I used to turn off my equipment every day.
 
I don't believe I would be happy with a standard SET amp because I have never been happy with horn/super efficient speakers. Granted, I have not heard the new high end of this type speaker.

The Audio Mirror has enough power to drive my KEFs, so one of the high end more powerful SETs :)...
 
Charles glad to see you are considering the Hattor. You are more than welcome to borrow my all passive Hattor if you like. It is all XLR in and out but I think I have a pair of RCA converters.

chops said:
Thank you sir! You are correct. Getting info and thoughts from others does in fact trigger your own thoughts about things that you didn't really consider beforehand. And to be honest, I was extremely close to pulling the trigger on a maxed out Hattor "BIG" preamp. That little thing is just sexy and a great deal even at full price. For some reason, I decided to halt on ordering it right away because I wanted to do just a little more research and a few more options to look at.

Trust me, if money were no object, I would either have a Pass XP-12, McIntosh C47 or... OR... the Dan D'Agostino Momentum. :ninja:
Click to expand...
 
Randy Myers said:
I don't believe I would be happy with a standard SET amp because I have never been happy with horn/super efficient speakers. Granted, I have not heard the new high end of this type speaker.

The Audio Mirror has enough power to drive my KEFs, so one of the high end more powerful SETs :)...
Click to expand...

I don't know... Maybe something in the Tannoy Prestige line would do nicely with a pair of small SET amps.
 
nc42acc said:
Charles glad to see you are considering the Hattor. You are more than welcome to borrow my all passive Hattor if you like. It is all XLR in and out but I think I have a pair of RCA converters.
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Marty, thank you for the very kind offer. I too have some of those XLR/RCA converters as well back when I was running the dbx Driverack and active multi-amp setup. I honestly don't know how a purely passive preamp would work in my system with dual powered subs and somewhat inefficient monitor speakers. The subs would be no worry, but I don't know if I would have enough gain for the monitors.
 
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