Aesthetic Calypso or CJ Et3 or Primaluna Dialogue 3


Which one of the tube preamps would you mate to a Pass Labs xa30.5 and why?

Used or New option for purchase

I looking for a detailed sound, detailed wide soundstage, and a sweet high end for a 80's rock junky

Any opinion appreciated


Jeff

Go packers
frozentundra

Showing 2 responses by jeffstarr

I think you better budget in a better dac, here is a quote from the Asylum, when asked if anyone had compared the Meridian with any other dacs.
" I have the Meridian Explorer 2 and compared to an Auralic Vega.

Meridian Explorer 2 sounds plastic and tinny. Good for $199 which is what it is going for now but no more than that.

I'll be on the lookout for a proper MQA DAC that is not a toy."

And I have read his posts for a long time, I trust his listening skills. I also have a friend who has at least four dacs, maybe more in the basement, I will be able to listen to the Explorer in the near future, if he has anything good to say about it. His main dacs are an AR CD9 and a PS Audio Directstream.

As to preamps, I have a CJ CT-5 which I really like, but I haven't heard the others. If I was shopping for a preamp, I would audition the PS Audio BJK Signature, among others. The one downside is that CJ is single ended. If you have long runs of IC between preamp and power amp, balanced is preferred. That said I run 15ft cables with no issues.

I just got a 3 month trial of Tidal, and am listening to the partially unfolded MQA. It is good, and I may subscribe if they don't raise the price. I don't think there 16/44 stuff sounds as good as either a proper rip or the actual CD in a good transport, with a good dac.

I personally like simple two-four tube preamps, I did a lot of tube rolling with my last preamp a totally modded Nobis Proteus. It gets old, I'd rather listen to music than listen to tubes. Do you remember Sound Investments on Silver Spring? The CJ was a huge step up.Have you listened to any of the Rogue preamps at Audio Emporium?

As far as dacs go,they need to be listened to for a while to appreciate the differences, but when you hear a few reference tracks you will want something better than the Explorer. Seeing as the majority of dac manufacturers have rejected MQA's requirement that they implement the changes, I think we may see full MQA become available as software. Just think if Tidal hadn't done the partial unfolding, there would be very little discussion, but check the various forums, it's a hot topic.



Yup, born and raised. Sound Investments closed a while back. It was a husband and wife who owned it. The story is that she passed away and Brian started having health issue. They were both really overweight. When he decided to sell of the inventory, a few of his employees allegedly stole a bunch of stuff. He had a small room with used stuff, there would be classic Mac and Marantz sitting next to mainstream crap, but he always had some unusual, interesting gear in there. He was the main designer for Nobis, all tube gear, the bottom of the line amp was based on a Dynaco 70. When Nobis shut down he changed the name of the equipment to Signature Technologies. I sold of my Nobis stuff, as he was the only one who could easily repair it.
I believe in trusting your ears, but doing comparisons when possible. I was running a Benchmark Dac2 HGC as my dac, I bought it because I wanted DSD. Well, a good friend loaned me his Lindeman 825 and once again, next level. The Benchmark is now taken over preamp duties in the bedroom, retiring a Tara Labs tube preamp.
There are a lot of dacs that give you filter options, I think the Mytek does, it is also MQA. I believe they offer a trial period.
A lesson that I have learned, the hard way, is to buy from companies that aren't going to shutdown, because they are one person operations. I have some Camelot gear, and luckily he is still around, but it is not that well known. I have a nice Camelot Arthur V3 24/192 that needs it's coaxial input repaired. Nice dac, but wouldn't be an easy sale.

I might be interested in your group, send me a PM and I'll give you my email. We can talk about it. I have a nice system in a dumpy house. Got to go, the Packer game is coming on. Do or die, next time we talk, it will be go Pack, or we'll get them next year;-)