Preamp Recommendations Lamm, Ayre K-1x, BAT 31SE

I have the Ayre K-1X preamp, and I am very, very happy with it. (I sincerely doubt I will be upgrading this unit for a long, long time, if ever.)

I too wanted a preamp with a remote, so I completely understand your wanting one. (Adjusting the volume while sitting in the sweat spot is almost not an option.) Be aware, that the remote really only controls the volume (& mute) though, nothing else. (Although it would turn your K-5X amp on and off, I believe. I know it works with the V-1X amp.)
I picked this preamp due to its remarkable soundstaging and imaging capabilities, as well as its outstanding phono stage. (I listen to vinyl mostly, btw, and it is much better than my old ARC PH-3 phono preamp. Quieter, better frequency response, and fairly easy to adjust the gain and loading too.)

One point I should make: It is very revealing, so you will need to have really good electronics, especially your source. (Your Levinson cdp should work just fine. I use a Resolution Audio Opus 21 myself, but I highly considered the levinson too.)

My previous preamp was an ARC LS-2, and the Counterpoint 3.1. Both were good (The LS-2 was very good in fact), but not in the Ayre's class to be honest. By the way, it works very well with my Levinson No. 23 amp, driving my Revel Studio Speakers. I also most of my components with XLR cables, as this preamp was designed, from the ground up, to run balanced. (In fact, even the phono input is set up for XLR.)

I have not heard the Lamm, but have heard the BAT at a dealers. It is pretty good, but I think a better comparision would be to the BAT VK-51SE actually.

Good Luck in your search.

Congrats on joining the Ayre K-1X club!

Also, good choice on the cabling. I too use a Cardas Golden Reference between my amp and preamp. (Although I do use an Audience AU24 for my cdp to preamp cable. It works quite well too.)

If you use the PS Audio P300 on the new Ayre preamp, let me know how it works out for you. (Ayre suggests not using any power conditioning, so I have not experimented with that as yet. Instead, I am spending my money on having dedicated circuits installed, this Monday as a matter of fact.)

Hope everything works out well for you!

Artg,

Thanks for the update. I appreciate your testing that out.
Glad to see you really like the Ayre! (I will let you know if running dedicated lines helps out, as those are being installed tomorrow!)

(If you are ever so inclined, the phono boards are really very good in the K-1X. They are ever so quiet, very dynamic, and great frequency response. Plus, by not having a seperate phono preamp, I save on not having to buy another damn expensive interconnect!)

By the way, please update me on the "e" upgrade to the Ayre when you get it too! If you think it is worth the $500, I will get it done too. (Although, I will be bummed being without my preamp for probably a month or so. Maybe I will send it off when I go on vacation.)

Well, I have had a chance to listen a little more to my stereo after I had the dedicated circuits installed.

Definitely better bass response. Seems a little quicker, deeper and better defined.

Most definitely quieter background on both CD and analog.
Really apparent on the analog though.

My imaging seems better too.

(However, I will point out that a week or two before I put in the dedicated circuits I switched my stereo around 180 degrees. (i.e. I put in on the opposite wall from where it was before.) I know I have been playing around with my speaker positioning, which I think might explain some or all of the better imaging. However, I believe that the better bass response and the quieter backgrounds are definitely due to the dedicated circuits.)

Is it worth doing? In my case, definitely!

(PS I seem to definitely like the word "definitely", don't you think?!)

Hey, I care!

You're in the Ayre K-1X club now, and we take care of our fellow members!

Interesting that you mated a solid state preamp with a tubed amp.

Let me know how you like that after you have had a real chance to do some listening. At some point, I will be upgrading my amp next, and if tubes work out well for you, I might consider it. (My only problem is that I need a fair amount of power, due to my Revel Studio speakers. I figure at least 200 wpc, and double that if I can afford it.)

Glad to hear you like the sound of your upgraded stereo! (I was on that same merry-go-round for the last 18 months, and I finally managed to get off it. The dedicated ciruits, and rotating the listening position by 180 degrees finally did it! I am looking forward to just sitting back and listening to the music! Well for a little while at least!)

Well to be honest, I am not a big Michael Fermer fan.
(Which is ironic, since I am a big analog fan.) I just feel his reviews are catering to the subscribers of Stereophile. (More so than most of the others, well, except for Sam maybe.) I really took exception to his review of the Ayre P-5x phono preamp. He pointed our that Ayre specifically states that their phono preamps are best used via the balanced inputs. He then goes on to brag about which balanced phono cables he has in his home. (Then he states he did not bother to use them. This is the sign of a lazy reviewer in my opinion.) Anyway, enough about him!

Regarding your suggestion to audition some really nice tube amps, I have with a friend who audtioned 4 really nice tube mono-block amps with his system. (My friend's system is the system whose sound I am chasing. He has an ARC Ref. 1 preamp, a Aesthetix Rhea phono preamp, a VPI HRX turntable, with a Koetsu Urushi cartridge, and he uses Avalon Eidolon speakers. Great system.) Anyway, we tried out the Kora Cosmos (100wpc), the BAT VK150's, the Manley Neoclassic 250's and the VTL 450's. His main music listening selections are typically symphonic pieces and jazz. With the symphony music, he listens at realistic sound levels (ie. loud!), which really tests an amp. The Kora sounded great, but only with small Jazz pieces. It sounded compressed with larger symphonic pieces. The BAT sounded better with the symphonic pieces, but not as good with the Jazz. The Manley's sounded really good, but he managed to get it to clip on a rather large and loud symphonic piece. The VTL managed to do everything right.

(Howeer, one thing I noticed in listening to these four tube monoblock amps however, was that when we went from one amp to the next, increasing in power with each amp, in seemed that they lost some of that tube "magic" as the power increased.) That is one of the reasons I have not gone back to a tube amp. That and the cost and hassles of using tubes. I am not a tweaker, and don't really want to be caught up in the whole tube rolling and biasing ritual that tube amps require. (Yeah, I am Lazy. Perhaps I should be a Stereophile reviewer?!)

Anyway, I am currently using a Levinson No. 23 amp. It has 200 wpc, and sounds really good with the Studio's. At some point, I would like to go to monoblocks, but I am unsure which ones to get. I know that I need at least 200wpc, and would like to have more actually.

FYI: I had picked out the Pass Labs Aleph 1.2 monoblocks (based on research only mind you!), as being the closest a SS amp gets to tubes. However, due to them being a pure Class A amp, they run VERY HOT (it was told to me that they were like having 2 1200 space heaters in the room!), and they use a kilowatt an hour of power, even when they are just being warmed up. Another owner of them told me he could not use them during the summer, as they made the room sweltering. (I live in California, where we have high temperatures 5 months out of the year, so it would require owning two sets of amps That is too expensive for me. And no, I don't have air conditioning.)

Anyway, keep in touch as to how the Ayre and the ARC tube amps work out for you!

Good Luck!