Tidal electronics...

Sovereign Director is not balanced. It is one of the top preamplifiers in the world but in absolute terms you might say that the Tidal is better.

Congratulations Azjake, you will soon have one of the top systems on earth.

Presencio is much better than Preos and if buy it without the phono stage module you will save some money. But overall I doubt whether someone can create a better preamplifier in the following years...

You just need to find one preamplifier to prove me wrong.

Name one worthy preamplifier to sit next to Preos. I will name just one that was humiliated by the the Tidal.

Wavac PR - T1....

In my opinion their amplifiers are probably the best in the world. Their power amplifiers are still in the top 5 but at least you can find some competition here

Tbg, having heard both Tidal Preos and Presencio I agree with Karel that they are simply the number one and number two preamps in the world. The only preamp I would rate close to Preos is the Sovereign Director. Nothing else..

And let' not forget that you get the best phonostages in the world in the package!

Tbg,

no I haven't heard the Ypsilon gear but other people that I know and trust their opinion are not that impressed. For example an ex-Wavac distributor told me that the Wavac PR-X2 was clearly better preamplifier than the Ypsilon pre when they compared them a couple of years ago.

If you consider the fact that both Tidal Preos and Sovereign Director are miles ahead of the Wavac PR-T1 (I heard the differences between the Preos and the big Wavac with my own ears) then you understand that Ypsilon are not up there with the Tidal amps.

Emigene

I believe you must contact them directly to arrange for an audition.

Aaron and Sovereign brands are the same people so that you know...

Tbg,
I own the Aaron Cineast No.22 preamplifier and I am using it in my multichannel system. I also have tried the Aaron XX integrated amplifier. Like Sovereign you have to pay two or three times more money to get the same performance from any competing products

Tbg,

absolutely not. Sovereign amps are in a different league altogether. But I would buy the Aaron Cineast No.22 anytime instead of the Krell Evolution preamps or the cheaper offerings by Burmester or Octave.

When I replaced my Aaron preamplifier with the Sovereign Director was like I was driving a Porsche instead of a Toyota...

Murataltuev,

very easy. The Presencio....

But I imagine that you could ask Tidal to add balanced inputs to your preamplifier....

The Tidal Presencio is fully balanced design (a friend bought one and it doesn't have any single ended inputs!!!!)

No preamp can match a Tidal Preos (maybe you should try Soulution but I really doubt)

Murataltuev,

I must say one thing. If you listen the Presencio in your system you will probably think that the Preos is broken!

Many thanks Azjake for your kind words....

I own the Sovereign Power and it is true that the binding posts accept bananas. But I managed to remove the protective plastic around them to use my Argento Flow speaker cable that have spades termination.

Regarding amplification power I believe that if you want to enjoy the full dynamic range that these speakers can offer, even a Sovereign Glory could be challenged. To be honest I believe that the Contriva should be driven by a set of Sovereign Eternity monoblock amplifiers. These speakers need a lot of power. I recently tried the Sovereign Power (165Wrms) with the Tidal Piano Cera and it had some difficulties when music was very loud. The Glory would be a perfect match for the Ceras.

Tbg,

no I have not. It will be an excellent source of information if you could try out some top amplification with your speakers. I would definetely try out the Tidal, Sovereign, Soulution, Edge And Gryphon amplifiers.

My personal experience with a Tidal Contriva driven by a set of Wavac 805 SET monoblocks (Tidal Preos was the preamplifier) was that this combo was simply magic. There was no problem to play different kinds of music in normal listening levels. We didn't try to play it too loud but if someone is listening to music in normal levels he could hapilly live with such a combo. It was exceptional.

Hi Azjake,

when are you expecting the delivery of your new system?

After having spent a few days with Tidal Preos-D in my house this summer, I am finally buying one to replace my Sovereign Director preamplifier. Many people know about the quality of the preamplifier that is easily among the best.

I haven't heard many opinions about the DAC that is included inside. My personal belief is that the internal dac of Preos-D ranks extremely high ( I had extensive comparisons with my Stahl Tek Vekian and the Tidal dac is at least as good as the Vekian). So when someone considers the Preos-D he must take into account that he is buying top class preamplifier and DAC in the same time. It is terrific value for money even if some people think that its price is obscure. 

An excellent description of the Tidal Preos-D capabilities can be found in the Tidal blog of Tidal's UK importer Lotus HiFi

http://www.lotushifi.co.uk/preos-d-preampdacphono/

I have a couple of suggestions for those who would like to maximize the performance of the internal Dac of Preos-D. Try the Mutec MC3+USB either as usb interface or reclocker. Try to connect the Mutec to the digital input of Preos using a top digital cable ( my personal picks would be the Argento FMR, Tidal Reference digital cable and the Stereomatic Tombo Tron).

The above combination would reduce the incoming jitter enough to demonstrate the magic of the ladder Dac inside the Preos