World's best Pre-amp for $10K and above?


Looking for the HOLY GRAIL in Audio? Here it is. I'm in my early sixties and retiring to my final system, which I was going to purchase during the past twelve months and decided to put on the brakes, and investigate whats out there as the most advanced engineered high end audio products for the money in the market place. As far as I'm concerned, the two top engineers in the world for the best Amp and Preamp at low prices are Bent Holter with Hegel Audio in Norway and Roger Sanders with Sanders Sound in Colorado. Why? The Hegel P-30 Pre-amp is a game changer, and will easily compete with Pre-amps at $30K and above. The FM Acoustics 268 Preamp that retails for $107K, uses a technology thats called "feedforward" instead of feedback.
Amps and Pre-amps since the early 80's have all used either global feedback, zero feedback or local feedback to filter out noise and lower distortion by sending and filtering the feedback current to filter capacitors or or an extra filter transformer. A small amount of voltage feedback occurs at the output stage in amps and preamps which goes back into the parts and boards causing noise and distortion which smears the quality of the music.The best Preamps in the world all have S/N noise ratios at 125 db's or above. The Hegel P-30 Preamp uses the same feedforward technology as FM Acoustics but is a more current design that Bent Holter calls "Sound Engine" patented technology that eliminates feedback which is why the P-30 Preamp has a S/N ratio of 132 db's, which has never been accomplished in high end audio with a Preamp costing $10K or below. The same applies to Roger Sanders Magtech amplifier which uses a patented linear voltage regulator that controls and regulates voltage with no excess voltage going back into the amp causing heat and distortion problems. The amp puts out 900 watts into 4ohms. Krell makes a pair of mono blocs that also use a similar voltage regulator. The amps are $100K a pair. HERES THE PERFECT SOLID STATE SYSTEM. A Hegel P-30 Preamp. A Sanders Magtech amp, A pair of Aerial Acoustics 7T speakers. The worlds finest SACD player, the Playback Designs MPS-5, designed by Andreas Koch, who invented SACD technology when he worked for Sony. He built the worlds first outboard DAC in 1982 and is legend in digital engineering. The MPS-5 is the most analog sounding player on the market which costs $17K. The Hegel P-30 is only $7500.00 and the Magtech amp is only $5K. The Aerials are $10K. Buy the solid core cables from Morrow Audio. They are low capacitance cables which matches up perfectly with these components. This combination sounds like the very best tube and solid state gear on the market. The whole system will cost about $42K but will sound as good as any system costing $200K. All of these products are game changers. If you want better looking cabinets and faceplates, then blow your money, but you will not get better performance for what this system has to offer. It is the HOLY GRAIL you are searching for and there is no better combination for the total cost of the system.
audiozen
Audiozen I wasn't aware of how the PD sounded until I had it. I don't like any components that are lean. I like clear mids, but they have to be organic sounding like in live music. I am not looking for components that go the other way which is what you just mentioned.
Audiozen,
I `m that other pair of ears jwm referred to above along with Rfogel. Jeff 'very' patiently put the PD MPS-5 though a long and careful burn in and audition period. He was`nt sure of the total hours when he purchase it used.

While I liked the PD a 'bit' more than jeff I agree with his and Rfogel`s overall impressions. It is out performed IMO by the Modwright modified player(just more natural, has better tonality and is more engaging i.e. less mechanical in his system). You may hear things differently(understandable). If it works for you then all is fine.
Regards,
the most organic and analog sounding SACD player, the Accuphase DP-700, damn pricey and hard to find used.

We ran one of these in our room at CES for a few years. It was handily beaten by the Stahltek playing the same cuts on Redbook. I have heard Sony master tapes of the SACD process sound excellent, but have yet to hear an actual player of SACDs that brought home the bacon. Its no surprise to me that SACD has become a dead thing.
For those who have listened to the Playback Designs MPS-5 Player, it did a very poor job on Red Book prior to the summer of 2011 when the player had a major firmware upgrade
for Red Book last summer. The firmware upgrade is downloadable from the internet. My experience with the player was mostly with SACD's. The performance and sound quality from SACD is phenomenal. Not thin or cold, but rich, warm, organic, full and scary dynamic's. With the firmware upgrade Red Book sounds great. SACD becoming a dead thing ? No way..the new SACD technology known as SHM-SACD has taken the SACD format to a whole new level and Acoustic Sounds in Kansas is selling these discs like crazy..they sell for $60.00 a disc..but when you listen you won't hesitate that they are worth every penny.
Michael Fremer's review in the February 2010 issue of Stereophile
was prior to the firmware upgrade and his gripe was with Red Book. Not SACD. " As an SACD player, the MPS-5 is, or is very close to the best I've heard " Michael Fremer
Michael Fremer was also the one that would bring a CDR into our room to play, a CDR made off of a turntable. He was claiming that it sounded better than most analog, a claim he could not substantiate in our room, to say the least.