Thought I should finally post my experience with the Marsh P2000T. I am driving a pair of Heathkit W6A 70watt mono tube amps with it. Previously have used this preamp on a Curcio modded ST70, a Curcio ST70, Silvertone 6V6 console pull, and various solid state(yuck)amplifiers. In short, it is the best preamp I have ever heard. Granted, I have not listened to $5,000 preamps. But I have listened to a lot of the higher end vintage tube preamps. The Marsh has solid state detail and clarity, with the linearity and superior harmonics of tubes. Tungsol 5687 tubes are the ticket in this bad boy. Only problem has been microphonic tubes, that is the case with nearly all 5687 tubes. Do not blame the preamp for all the noise! I guarantee you it is the tubes. Buy a pile of them, put noise dampers on them, and find a tolerable pair.
Review: Marsh Sound Design P-2000t Tube preamp
Category: Preamps
1 musical tastes is mostly jazz, some rock new and old, r&b
2 sound stage must be as close to a live performance as possible.
3 unreliability, bad product support marsh and velodyne are prime examples.
4 six months
5 soundcraftsman dx4000
6 my old soundcraftsman system was completly replaced, the marsh p2000t was one of four components replaced.
7,8,9 are in my review
10 if money were no object? hmm, THIS PREAMP HAS ALREADY COME AND GONE.
Reviewed by: apachef1, AudioPhile, from MIDDLETOWN CT
Price Paid: $1350 at HIFI FARM
Product Model Year:
2002
Summary:
I purchased the Marsh p2000t hybrid amplifier new from a Marsh dealer January off 2003. This is a basic preamplifier with a tube input stage and transistor output stage. I was enthusiastic about this preamp when it arrived. The owner’s manual is very basic, covering what you will need to make your connections and operate the front panel controls. The manual does lack a more extensive troubleshooting guide. Marsh must have felt the need was not there. What a miss-calculation on their part!
For the good stuff. The preamp needed about twenty hours of break-in time. The sound was a bit a-miss! Very flat and no dynamics. Very unusual considering the speakers. After about twenty hours the sound is excellent! Great detail, sound staging and depth. The p2000t was used to drive my two vintage McIntosh MC225 tube amplifiers that are connected in mono. These amps are connected to a pair of Innersound Eros mk3’s and are bi-amped with the Eros crossover/amp. Sound was three dimensional and with the Eros 3’s, made a perfect marriage. The p2000t brought the music more to the level you would expect at a live performance.
Now for the not so good stuff. When I first opened the box to the p2000t and lifted it out of the box, the unit seemed very light and tinny. This particular unit has a control knob to have the signal in stereo, mono, or you can reverse the stereo signal.
This control is really not needed and was the beginning of my problems with Marsh.
If I even touched this control, I would get a static sound through the speakers and sometimes one of the channels would drop out. You would have to tinker with it until you received a clear signal. I just did not use this control at all. I was a little disappointed but was not worth my time to return the p2000t to California. I continued to enjoy the sound of the p2000t for six months, until one day I turned my system on only to find out I had no power to the preamp only. I proceeded to check the inline fuse and it was found to be good. The preamp was plugged into a power conditioner, so I tried different outlets including the wall outlet to no avail. I tried a new fuse thinking that the inline fuse may be faulty, and still no power. I contacted Marsh at this point and Jean was very pleasant and took down all the information and said I would be contacted within two days to troubleshoot the problem.
I was contacted on the forth day and was not home to troubleshoot that day. I contacted Marsh a few more times and still did not receive a call back. At this point, I was disgusted with the lack of product support and contacted the dealer I purchased the p2000t from. They agreed to take the p2000t back and apply the full purchase amount to a new preamplifier of my choice. Needless to say I chose a different brand with excellent history in product quality and support.
Summary, Marsh needs to build a solid product and support the product completely.
This is how companies like McIntosh and Audio Research have remained in business through the good and bad times. To say the least, these are not the best of times for high end audio manufactures.
Strengths:
Sound quality is excellent, closer to preamp two or three times the price
Weaknesses:
Engineering and construction quality. More like cheap Japanese home theater gear
Associated gear
innersound eros mk 3 with crossover/amp,
mcintosh mc225 amps(2),
velodyne uld15 (2)'
music hall cd player
Similar products
lamm ll2
1 musical tastes is mostly jazz, some rock new and old, r&b
2 sound stage must be as close to a live performance as possible.
3 unreliability, bad product support marsh and velodyne are prime examples.
4 six months
5 soundcraftsman dx4000
6 my old soundcraftsman system was completly replaced, the marsh p2000t was one of four components replaced.
7,8,9 are in my review
10 if money were no object? hmm, THIS PREAMP HAS ALREADY COME AND GONE.
Reviewed by: apachef1, AudioPhile, from MIDDLETOWN CT
Price Paid: $1350 at HIFI FARM
Product Model Year:
2002
Summary:
I purchased the Marsh p2000t hybrid amplifier new from a Marsh dealer January off 2003. This is a basic preamplifier with a tube input stage and transistor output stage. I was enthusiastic about this preamp when it arrived. The owner’s manual is very basic, covering what you will need to make your connections and operate the front panel controls. The manual does lack a more extensive troubleshooting guide. Marsh must have felt the need was not there. What a miss-calculation on their part!
For the good stuff. The preamp needed about twenty hours of break-in time. The sound was a bit a-miss! Very flat and no dynamics. Very unusual considering the speakers. After about twenty hours the sound is excellent! Great detail, sound staging and depth. The p2000t was used to drive my two vintage McIntosh MC225 tube amplifiers that are connected in mono. These amps are connected to a pair of Innersound Eros mk3’s and are bi-amped with the Eros crossover/amp. Sound was three dimensional and with the Eros 3’s, made a perfect marriage. The p2000t brought the music more to the level you would expect at a live performance.
Now for the not so good stuff. When I first opened the box to the p2000t and lifted it out of the box, the unit seemed very light and tinny. This particular unit has a control knob to have the signal in stereo, mono, or you can reverse the stereo signal.
This control is really not needed and was the beginning of my problems with Marsh.
If I even touched this control, I would get a static sound through the speakers and sometimes one of the channels would drop out. You would have to tinker with it until you received a clear signal. I just did not use this control at all. I was a little disappointed but was not worth my time to return the p2000t to California. I continued to enjoy the sound of the p2000t for six months, until one day I turned my system on only to find out I had no power to the preamp only. I proceeded to check the inline fuse and it was found to be good. The preamp was plugged into a power conditioner, so I tried different outlets including the wall outlet to no avail. I tried a new fuse thinking that the inline fuse may be faulty, and still no power. I contacted Marsh at this point and Jean was very pleasant and took down all the information and said I would be contacted within two days to troubleshoot the problem.
I was contacted on the forth day and was not home to troubleshoot that day. I contacted Marsh a few more times and still did not receive a call back. At this point, I was disgusted with the lack of product support and contacted the dealer I purchased the p2000t from. They agreed to take the p2000t back and apply the full purchase amount to a new preamplifier of my choice. Needless to say I chose a different brand with excellent history in product quality and support.
Summary, Marsh needs to build a solid product and support the product completely.
This is how companies like McIntosh and Audio Research have remained in business through the good and bad times. To say the least, these are not the best of times for high end audio manufactures.
Strengths:
Sound quality is excellent, closer to preamp two or three times the price
Weaknesses:
Engineering and construction quality. More like cheap Japanese home theater gear
Associated gear
innersound eros mk 3 with crossover/amp,
mcintosh mc225 amps(2),
velodyne uld15 (2)'
music hall cd player
Similar products
lamm ll2