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Need a preamp with tone controls!

OK, most audiophiles would say I shouldn't need tone controls, but I have a good system that plays QUALITY recordings beatifully, so much that it makes me not even want to listen to many of my 70's & 80's stuff. This comprises the largest part of my collection. So I've been looking at McIntosh preamps...great tone controls/equalizers, etc. Any others out there of audiophile quality???
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audioman58
3,828 posts
 
Depending depending on your Budget .The Ampzilla,and Son of Ampzilla 
Spread Spectrum Technologies .the Ambrosia, is one of the preamps .
the late great designer Jim Borgiano ,believed all preamps should be able to 
adjusted to compensate for recordings as well as taste. These preamplifier do a fantastic job of that. Just look up the reviews .
cohicks4's avatar
cohicks4 OP
37 posts
 
Thanks for the tip audioman58! Spread Spectrum stuff is very notable gear, never thought to look there.  There are so many brands, ya know...can't think to check them all. I will take a look!
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lak
4,529 posts
 
auxinput & erik_squires, thanks for the information.
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kalali
1,977 posts
 

Tone controls notwithstanding and as a tube example, I've heard the A21 paired with a Conrad Johnson PV-10BL and it sounded great. A bit high on the gain but otherwise excellent. Switching from an SS preamp really warmed up the tone nicely.

bondmanp
1,782 posts
 
FWIW, I bought a used McIntosh C220 tube preamp from Audio Classics in 2010.  I remain very pleased with this preamp.  I rarely use the tone controls, but they are well implemented and defeatable.  Finding a preamp with all the features of a Mac is possible, but few offer all the features, like a balance control, remote, tape loop, etc.  My only criticism is that it is needlessly difficult to remove the case cover, and the strain of long ICs from the preamp to the amp killed one of the three pairs of main RCS output jacks.  Not a big deal, I just switched to another output.  But I would suggest supporting the ICs so as to relive the strain from the output jacks, like I did.
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