Best solid state pre-amp below US $ 10.000,00 ??

FrankPiet, I am curious about which VAC you have listened to. E.g. the original Renaissance--which I have not personally heard--is apparently somewhat soft, but current Renaissance II is not at all soft and is in fact dead quiet. The Ren II is not even based on the original Ren but is a cost-reengineered version of the Phi preamp. I'd be further interested in hearing more about your observations about VAC build quality. Thanks, Guido

TVAD, that is exactly what I experienced when auditioning the AA Capitol II at a dealer by itself, then through a Foundation Research V6 linestage. Slightly more detailed directly into the amp, but also slightly leaner sound than through the Foundation research. The Foundation Research added just a slight amount of richness, bloom and impact to the sound that made it more listenable. Which instantiation was closer to the original venue? Truly impossible to say. We could argue that the Foundation Research was removing details coming right out of the instrument and adding artifacts of its own, or that the Foundation Research was reproducing more faithfully the sound as already modified by the acoustic, damping, etc. . . of the venue. Who really knows?

Dgad - I fully understand what you have posted here and agree with your comments. As described above, my experiences parallel those of Tvad. And with vinyl as my primary source, driving my DAC into my amps is not really an option even if this was the "better" way to go. Indeed the final result comes down to a system, not an individual component.

The issue of "best" is always a personal thing. For one person, this could describe the ultimate extraction of information and clarity the source material has to offer. For others, it comes down to taking the listener to the performance with the portrayal of the characterizations described by Tvad.

How does inserting a tube line stage into a system so magically bring back the dimensionality of piano, sax, guitar, voice, etc.? I have no idea but I quit worrying as to the how and why. All I have to do is go upstairs and hit some piano keys to know that the audio system with the line stage far more accurately renders the characteristics of the piano than when the line stage is removed.

If the manufactured LP or CD has lost some of the dimensionality and decays of the music, and a tubed line stage, phono stage or amp helps to bring this back, with a minimal amount of lost resolution and "transparency", then for me, it is well worth the end result.

As Artg, Jadem6 and I have discussed many times, with our comparative listening sessions of many different preamps, amps, CDP's, etc., it takes a lot of effort to achieve a system balance of resolution, dynamics and dimensionality. When it comes to line stages, so far the Aesthetix Callisto Signature does this like no other I have heard. Now with Art's excitement of the Nagra, I will be eager to hear this as well.

Frankpiet: Based on the descriptions you made of the Nagra and CAT, it indeed sounds like the Janus fits right in the middle. My comment is based on my experience with the Calypso. You can only know for sure if you hear it for yourself. The Calypso build quality is quite impressive. So the Janus should be the same. These do not have the industrial look of the Callisto and Io. But these latter pieces are special in their own ways. And concerning the build quality of the CAT SL-1, I never found this to be an issue. So I am puzzled with your findings here.

John

Dgad - interesting comments. As I ONLY had an AA as a source (i.e., no vinyl, tape or tuner), i was not able to use the AA as a preamp only. I will add that the Nagra is AS TRANSPARENT as direct - and by that I mean ALL the informaition on the disk gets through, unblemished. If anything i seemed to hear MORE information with the Nagra in the chain than when it ran direct. AND AND AND, the information has better harmonic resolution, better paplability and better decay....

I would agree with you wholeheartedly that the Audio Note M5, First Sound, Callisto Signature, BAT 31SE, and CAT sig mk3 (I had ALL of these in my system, so im talking about actual experience) were LESS transparent than direct, though to varying degrees and with varying degrees of added warmth, palpability, depth, bass slam and so on.

See my system page - this is hunt for transparency and nneutrality are exactly what led me to buy the Nagra - compared to every other preamp i tried, it was easily the most transparent, yet still provided the body, depth (the 'tube thing' you refer to) to the music which was missing direct... I did not expect this to be the case, as I only audiotioned it on a whim, but I was floored.

Of course adding a Reimyo over the AA, and isoclean power gear helped this as well, but I heard the Nagra with the AA (before the Reimyo and isoclean stuff), and without a doubt, the same observations applied. the Nagra PL-l is without a doubty the most transparent preamp I have ever heard.

I am sure there are other that would be better, but for my priorities, so far, the Nagra is the CAT's meow - no pun intended.