2. amps-preamps
  3. 153905-10279

Preamp upgrade

Hi all,
I'm considering changing from a tube pre to a solid state, partly because of the maintenance but also I want to try something different, my budget is $1200. I've also noticed an oscillating hum in the left channel, so I'm guessing a tube's going bad, so there's another reason. I'm looking at a Parasound P5 & McIntosh D100 which are listed on Audiogon, I'm looking for a little direction. Thanks in advance
My setup:
VTL 2.5 preamp
 McIntosh MC275 amp
Sonus Faber Olympica I speakers
Auralic Aries streamer
Auralic Altair DAC
Clear Audio Concept turntable
Nordost cables/interconnects
maddog66blue

Showing 2 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,567 posts
 
Sweet. Tubes are in sockets for a reason :)
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,567 posts
 
After swapping out the tubes, I'm now having issues whenever I bump the preamp or change inputs, I hear a crackle, which leads me to believe it's a bigger problem.
Sounds like the tube swap didn't go well. By tapping on the tubes you can often find the culprit with the symptoms you describe. Doesn't sound like any other fault than you stuck a defective tube in the unit to replace a defective tube.


My thinking is your budget doesn't match your system. You have a Mac amplifier for example; pairing it with a $1500 preamp will mean the preamp is the bottleneck!

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