New Schiit Freya or used Conrad Johnson PV-10AL/BL, or?


Looking to buy a line stage tube preamp with an $800 budget. Considering the options. I can use this preamp with either a Vincent SP-331 or McIntosh MC2200, whichever is a better match.
128x128kalali

Showing 3 responses by rotarius

@kalali 
You should also consider the Mapletree Line 2, you cannot do better at the $800 price point.  It can also be customized for inputs, outputs, gain, whatever you want. Hard to find used and they sell quick but new ones do look nicer. 
@axememan 
You should have been more patient. I have had 14 tube preamps thus far. Most of them are well regarded like Quicksilver, Belles, Cary, Rogue, etc. The Mapletree is easily in the top 5 of the bunch.
Maybe I need to try the Freya, a lot of chatter about them these days. 

Axememan, the stand out ones for me were Belles 20A and the Cary/AES units I have owned along with the Mapletree.  Those would be SLP-88, AES AE-3 DJH and a modded AE-3.  I did not like SLP-308 or the AE-3 MkII as much as the others.  In stock form the AE-3 DJH is a giant killer with the right 6sn7s.  
The ones I did not like at all were Audible Illusions 2D, AVA T8 and a Chinese one, Antique Sound lab or something like that. The rest were fine, probably just a system match thing.