Audible Illusions L-2 vs. Cary SLP-98


I'm building a two channel system. The only thing left to buy is a preamp. Two preamps I'm interested in is the Audible Illusions L-2 and the Cary SLP-98. ( no phono ) Is one better than the other ? I have heard the Cary (sounded very good) but not the AI . Or should I conceder another preamp ? Any thoughts would be appreciated. ( must have a remote ).

So far I have purchased,, Vandersteen 2cs sig's ,, Simaudio Equinox CD player ,, Belles 350A amp ..

Thank you, Stumpie
stumpie

Showing 4 responses by bigtee

Joe, good to see you back. It has finally started raining again. Hadn't rained in so long the ocean was going down! Audiowill is selling his Spendors---that's you---right. By the way, know of a good attorney? Audiowill sold me a bum CD player!
I'm glad Jerry spoke up about the tubes. I have an L-2 and have never had a tube failure. The Audible preamps allow you to readily hear the differences in tubes but I too have never heard of $300 tubes for this preamp.
I have owned an AI preamp for a number of years(M3A and L-1) and have never had tube problems with any of them. In fact, I have a pair of 10 year old Sovtek's I pulled from a used M3a with about 3000 hours on them that sound wonderful. I have bought from AI, Upscale Audio and others and the tubes run about $70 for the pair in most cases. Exotic tubes are not required for this preamp to sound good.
Look at the AI web site for recommendations on tubes.
For a comparison, I have never heard the Cary pre. However, I did read a couple of reviews that seem to indicate it was not necessarily neutral which the L-2 is. If neutral is not what you're after, stay away from the L-2.
As I mentioned, I have never heard of someone using $300 tubes in THIS PREAMP. Most of the "Exotic" tubes will not hold up and are therefore left for other preamps. It's like everything else, you can pay a wad and it not perform any better---just different. Some enjoy the bloom of certain tubes. I didn't say they weren't multiple hundred dollar tubes available. This preamp is hard on some vintage tubes because it cuts through all the BS circuits. The AI web site warns you of this. They're not trying to hide anything and I'm trying to be realistic.
He's looking at Maggies. The cd player came from Audio Warehouse---had a few nuts and bolts rattling around inside. The BIG dog got me another one.
Going to be interesting how he slips those babies by Dale if you know what I mean!