Tube Preamps.....


I am running 2 GFA 565 Musical Comcepts modded Amps with Vandersteen 2ce v2. I am looking for a good quality tube preamp. With or without a built in dac. Should I stick with shopping for a used Mac? Or should I look at others also. Suggestions? Like to keep it under $3000. Could stretch to 3500. Thanks for your input. 
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Showing 1 response by nicoben45

For the best transparency without missing the best tube qualities (that are not always here when we have a tube item in hands): deep soundstage, harmonic developpement without dry signs, I would suggest  the Coincident Statement Linestage. I have one and could compare it directly to AR ref5se and my ex Rogue Hera 2, the Coincident is without doubt better than these two pretenders,  better transparency and fluidity. 

For a really good quality/price ratio, and if you don’t use usb input for your front digital audio gear (as the usb input is not up to date), you can find a second hand Ayon Skylla2 dac that is a dac with two 6h30 tubes per channel as output stage, tube retified, with three different gain ratio and volume control, so it’s a real dac with tube preamp inside. Beautiful association with solid state power amps that would be a bit too much on the solid state side of sound: excellent with Accuphase, too gentle for Passlabs.