What's a contender to an Audio Reference 5 SE?

If you were considering an Audio Reference 5 SE to mate with a Plinius SA-Reference amp, what other preamps might you consider?

timztunz11-16-2015 4:40pm

melbguy1 Details Discussions Posts This discussion 1,438 posts 11-17-2015 at 02:23pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Well first of all, the input impedance of your Plinius amp is 47K Ohms which should be benign to even the weakest tube preamps. In my opinion, with your Plinius amp I would just go for a Vac Renaissance Mk3 & upgrade the tubes. Kevin Hayes has a nice collection of NOS tubes in his own 'Vac store' & is always happy to provide his wealth of knowledge. I think the Vac would be a good match sound-wise & imho, anything more is overkill and I would just buy a killer integrated instead like a Vitus SIA-025, Gryphon Diablo 300 or JRDG Daemon.
melbguy1 Details Discussions Posts This discussion 1,438 posts 11-30-2015 at 03:38pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete @timztunz, I was just suggesting that yes, to a point it is worthwhile adding a very good tube preamp. But there is no point throwing a $20k tube linestage at your Plinius amp as imho there are better integrated amps such as the ones I mentioned. I own a Vitus SIA-025 and came from Boulder 1000 series amps as my reference point.