good preamp for dynaco mk3 monoblocks with maggies


Im new to HI-FI world and would appreaciate any advise. I need a good preamp while my Dynaco MK3's are being upgraded with new VTA boards and capacitors etc By Roy Mottram at tubes4hifi.com

I have Magnepan SMGa's which i will be Gunning soon(bought the wood already:)) and I have Event20/20 studio monitors.
my room is not big about 12X14 and I dont listen to my music too loud..i like classical, vocal, instrumental.

I need a good preamp for around 1000$... I will be listening to digital source cds or from dac.

im looking at Audio research sp11 mk2 for sale for 1000$
parasound halo p3 for about 500$

what im using as a preamp now is a little dot mk2 headphone amp that has pre outs..i know its not the best but like i said im new to this..i love magnepan sound and i like tube sound..

remote is preffered but not critical..i would rather have better sound....
HELP

HELP
zvovchik

Showing 1 response by rcprince

I think I'm the guy who bought the Promethius that was listed on A-gon. This one has one volume pot, though as Brownsfan states I believe there is a model with two (they are stepped attenuators, so you can play with balance by counting the clicks, not a hard thing at all). I quite frankly bought it as a back-up for my Shindo preamp, in case anything were to go wrong with it, which did for a while when one of the output jacks in the Shindo lost contact, a common problem. I would echo everything Brownsfan said about it, particularly with respect to transparency. The Shindo is more dynamic and has a certain harmonic and timbral rightness about it (probably a coloration!) that the Promethius can't quite match, but for something that lists for way less than a tenth of the price of the Shindo I have been very impressed with the P:romethius, and don't feel I'm missing much at all when I use it in the system. An added bonus is that it works very well with long runs of interconnects, as I had used a friend's in my old system and it drove a 40 foot pair of unbalanced ICs with no problems. That both Brownsfan and I are keeping our units despite owning highly-regarded and much more expensive units should speak volumes as to how good this thing is. The price for a new one is, in my view, a bargain; just be prepared to wait a while to receive it if you order it new.