Modwright SWL 9.0SE Pre ... your thoughts welcome


Hey, I have decided to dive into tubes ... well, you get my meaning. I was steered towards the Modwright SWL 9.0SE and so far have read some good things. I'm running a Levinson ML-27 for power and Paradigm S-4's for speakers. My transport is nothing special, Denon DVD-2200 but I am also looking at running a tubed DAC in hopes of bringing the system a little more alive. Right now the system seems a little flat ... not very exciting. Plenty of volume bass end it fantastic but the mid and upper end seem very packaged. Imaging is not very good ... High and mid frequencies don’t seem to blend well. Some CD's have fair to good sound but most seem pretty "plain". Just doesn’t have that delicacy I'm looking for. I seem to listen the SPEAKERS and not the music. I recently listened to an older set of Paradigms pushed by a small tubed integrated and I was amazed. The tubed gear really made the Paradigm speakers come to life ... I was set back in my chair. Vocals were clear and crisp … the sound was extremely detailed and I had to be drug out of the room. Since then I have really started to pick a part my system.

Cables are Signalcable Silver Resolution Balanced and Cobalt Ultimate speaker cables. I'm running Signal cable "Magic" power cables. Nothing fancy but it should do the job.

Is this upgrade going to help? Has anyone experienced this?

Any better preamps in the $1500-2000 range? What about Levinson SS preamps?

Help me out … Please
128x128horseface

Showing 3 responses by mdrummer01

I have had a 9.0 SE for about six months now and consider it the best bang for the buck I've ever spent on my system. The kudos expressed in previous responses are right on. With just two 5687 tubes, it's cheap and easy to roll tubes. The overall level of detail it reveals persuaded me to keep this over a CJ 17LS and a 16LS. I did have one problem with a strange, intermittent sound...emailed Dan on a holiday and he called me at home with 10 minutes of me sending it! He took care of the problem as speedily as humanly possible. Cannot say enough good things about the unit and the service that supports it. Grab one when you can!
Horseface: For what it's worth, I too use a set of Paradigm speakers: Studio 100V3. I experimented with a set of Dynaudio's (Contour 1.8)...a little too lean in the bass department for my tastes. Short story: I think Paradigms and the Modwright are a good match...excellent integration from bottom to top. Again, your ears will tell you what's right. Have a great 'test weekend' and let us know how things come out!
My Modwright is paired with Bryson 7BST monoblocks. Probably have more headroom than I need (500-550 per channel) with the Paradigm 100s (91db), but this has been a better pairing than with a CJ amp (200WPC) FET I used before. I use Audience AU 24s.