I'm a long time tube pre guy and willing to give it a shot with a SS pre. Budget up to $4k. I heard not such great things on Pass preamps such as xp-10 and previous models. How is the match with Ayre k-1xe ? Any other ideas. Thanks in advance to all repliers.
Bryston's BP26 was well reviewed. Simple circuit with very few do-dads. Basically a selector, volume, and balance. If I recall it was in the $2500 - 3000 range. No blalanced ins or outs, if that's important to you.
Indeed that's out of pure curiosity. I'm currently with a First Sound presence tube pre which is RCA only and (forgot to mention) i'm willing to go XLR with the Pass.
Coming from tubes, looking for a solid state preamp, about the only one that I can think of that may sound good enough is a Klyne 7LX5.0. You may be able to find a used one with balanced ins & outs for under $4K, but you'll have to be patient, Klyne's don't come up used often.
I see no reason to not audition the XP-10 or 20 in your system with RENO HiFi's in-home trail period. I have the XP-20 and XA.5 amps and the combination is fantastic. If you don't like it, pay for the return shipping and try something else.
IMO, every owner of Pass XA.5 amps should at least listen to an XP preamp to satisfy his curiosity. They may not be for everyone, but not at least hearing the combination would cause me to always wonder "what if...." One could be pleasantly surprised.
One other thing I forgot to mention. I was also a past owner of the Lector CDP-7T so I have a sense of the sound you are getting between the amps and CD player.
I'm with you Peterayer but since I'm from Israel the Reno hifi stuff is not available for me and the new stuff from local dealer exceeds my budget. Market is very narrow here and it's impossible to find a pre-loved xp series preamp.
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