Superphon Revelation II Preamp with Phono Stage

To make a Reader’s Digest story out of all of this, I was having problems with my Lazarus Cascade Basic per amp and took it into SoundsClassic to have it worked on; the left and right attenuators were not working. It was really dirty and Mark went over it with a fine tooth comb, installed new caps, replaced the tubes and got it working like a charm.

I happened to notice the Superphon Revelation II Preamp with Phono Stage on a shelf in the used equipment section of the store. It’s an excellent stereo amp. I use the Lazarus Cascade Basic with my HiFi recordings. The Lazarus has a volume control for stereo and right and left attenuators for high fidelity reproduction. I have a lot of HiFi recordings. ( plus right minus left to create a stereo image ) The volume control is then used as gain.

What I mean by that is when I connected the Superphon Revelation II Preamp with Phono Stage onto my Counterpoint SA 100 power amp I could barely crank up the volume on the power amp without creating way too much volume. It’s almost like a really good forty watt amp would be plenty to power up the volume on the preamp. The Superphon Revelation II Preamp with Phono Stage has an ALPS volume control and I could barely get it passed three notches without it being way too loud. 

Ok, so the Superphon  has high gain. In that case, if you want to use it with the Counterpoint, don't turn up the gain control on the amp. All of the power will still be available if needed.

The Counterpoint has no volume control, but has a gain of 30db which is about 4 db higher than average. The Superphon line stage gain is 20db which is also higher than average. You are pairing a high gain amp with a high gain pre and the result is you have very little flexibility with the volume control.

Can anyone make a suggestion as to finding a perfect mate for the Superphon Revelation II Preamp with Phono Stage?

I am speaking of a power amp that would go well with this pre amp.

Rsfphil , you have answered my question as far as why this is not a good pairing. 

Can you make a suggestion for a power amp that would work well. 

The combination of the Lazarus Cascade Basic pre amp, ( which I had upgraded by none other than George Romero, himself, to a premium quality ) paired with the Counterpoint SA 100 is a match made in heaven as far as HiFi reproduction is concerned. I use the volume control as gain and the R and L attenuators act as separate volume controls for each speaker; plus right and minus left.

I have an Ella Fitzgerald album with Stan Getz and a small ensemble of jazz musicians which was recorded in HiFi and it just sounds great when I switch over to  plus right and minus left on The Lazarus pre amp. 

The album is titled Like Someone in Love.

Can anyone make a suggestion as to finding a perfect mate for the Superphon Revelation II Preamp with Phono Stage?

I am speaking of a power amp that would go well with this pre amp.

Rsfphil , you have answered my question as far as why this is not a good pairing. 

Can you make a suggestion for a power amp that would work well. 

The combination of the Lazarus Cascade Basic pre amp, ( which I had upgraded by none other than George Romero, himself, to a premium quality ) paired with the Counterpoint SA 100 is a match made in heaven as far as HiFi reproduction is concerned. I use the volume control as gain and the R and L attenuators act as separate volume controls for each speaker; plus right and minus left.

I have an Ella Fitzgerald album with Stan Getz and a small ensemble of jazz musicians which was recorded in HiFi and it just sounds great when I switch over to  plus right and minus left on The Lazarus pre amp. 

The album is titled Like Someone in Love.