Should I sell Classe CP60 and get a phono stage ?

Ken

This is a tough one! The Anthem is difficult at best to beat for HT unless you have $5K laying around; and the Classe doesn't even allow you to experience vinyl the way you should! Personally, I would use the Anthem for both if the wife is pushing for less stuff! As for vinyl, go to www.lpgear.com and grab the Gram Amp2 SE for vinyl!

If you're the type of guy who likes a little research first - go to this website to read about it >>>>>> http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0402/gramamp2se.htm

I use the Gram Amp2 with PSU1 and I haven't looked back!!! Instruments sound real, and I can now look to other things -because the Gram does the job comparable with units up to $2K.

Hope this helps!

Studio1

Studio 1
Thanks for the tip. I don't think the Gram Amp2 will work for my .2mv mc without a mc step up. I didn't have any idea the CP60 was that bad, it sound good to me.
Ken

Hi Ken,

I would say that it would depend on how much you use your system for HT and how much for listening to music. I tried the high end HT way a few years ago, but found that I wasn't enjoying the music. I left high end HT and returned to two channel with a Classe CP-60 w/phono. I never looked back. I never found a SSP that could reproduce music like the CP-60. I've since moved on, and now have a BAT VK-51SE preamp, but I have no regrets at all.
I do still watch an occasional movie with HT, but I find a Denon receiver drives the surrounds just fine, with the FL & FR being fed into my BAT preamp.
I use my system for over 80% music though. When I had high end SSP's (Classe, Proceed, Krell, etc) I was only listening to about 20% music. I spend a lot more time with my system now, because there's nothing quite as entertaining as an audio system that sounds great with music.
I'd keep the Classe CP-60 if I were you, and just run your SSP or receiver through it. I've never heard a digital preamp or SSP, sound as good as a two channel analog preamp yet. Most don't even come close.
I'm not trying to start a flame war. If HT/video is your bag then run out and buy the latest SSP, but if you want music, keep your CP-60.
That's my $0.02

Cheers,
John

Thanks John,
I was thinking along the same lines. At first I thought I could sell my preamp and get a less expensive phono stage. After looking into the cost of a high gain mc phono stage vs. what I would net on my CP60 it really didn't amount to much. I think for now I am going to keep the classe and see how it goes.

Jmcgrogan2, how do you get both the Classe and the Denon signal into you FR & FL? Do you use a y connector? doesn't that degrade the signal? I ask because I have an Anthem AVM30 (which I love, by the way), but I am thinking about selling it, my universal disk player, and my multichannel amp, and just buying a Denon 2805 to drive the Center/rears and using a DVDO scaler attached to my 400 disc SonyES DVD/SACD player to upconvert. Then, buying a turntable and pre-amp (with Phono Stage), and still using my Maggie 3.6R's with the Innersound ESL MKII amp. Wow, that took a long time to type. But, I was concerned that if I use a y connector, I will just screw up the singnal so much, that it wouldn't be worth it anyway?

What do you think?

Macdadtexas.
I can answer your question. The CP60 has a surround sound bypass feature. In the back of the preamp there are surround sound inputs and outputs. What I plan to do is run my 2 channel CD player and the turntable into the CP60. The preamp inputs of the CP60 are connected to the FL/FR power amps. Next my home theater stuff in connected to my AVM20. The center and surrounds from the AVM20 go directly into the appropriate power amps. I run the FL/FR outputs from the AVM20 into the Classe surround sound inputs. Now all I have to do is switch the Classe to surround sound and the mains just pass right through the Classe and into the power amp. Even the volume controls are defeated.

Additionally the CP60 has surround sound outputs, I haven't used this feature but I assume I could run them into an aux imput in the AVM20 and then I could use the AVM20 to process my CD player and Turntable.
Ken

Ken is correct about how to run the FR & FL outputs from the SSP/receiver into the L/R input jacks of his two channel preamp.

Ken, I am wondering though, why you would want your SSP to process your cd player and turntable? It would seem to me that this would only serve to degrade the signal.
I used the CP-60's SSP input regularly, it was an easy fix for combining a HT system with a stereo system. I never used the SSP output, nor did I ever think of a reason that I would have wanted to use it.

John

John as I wrote I haven't used the feature to process my cd player or my turntable. I suppose that one may want to try one of the surround dsp modes just for fun.
Ken

Thanks, I bought a pre-amp, and plan on running it through the tape loop for movies and surround. I think that I am going to connect my sub via both speaker and LFE input as well. Once again, thanks for everyones help.