ARC Reference 6 or Cary SLP 05 with upgrade?

@testrun Did you get the upgrade in your unit? I was planning to do that but they do not allow returns if upgraded. The only reason I might return the unit is as follows.

My main concern is that this is a high gain preamp. The Bricasti, I believe, has a rather hot output (their output specs are not in volts and are confusing to me), the Voyager is powerful (350W), and the speakers are 91db sensitive. I am concerned that I will have a very limited volume range available to me. Like from 0-10 on a scale of 0-100. Your amps are 85W and your speakers are, I believe, 85db sensitive. So in that regard we are very different.

You can ignore my questions about tubes and cables, above. I think I have a handle on those.

I have the SLP-05 without the upgrade, will do it when I am going to be away so I won’t miss it. Super preamp but your concern on gain is valid. I installed rockwell attenuators as suggested by others on this forum and that worked great with no noticeable sound degradation. Vinyl was fine but my digital source was too hot and I have magnepan 3.7’s which I believe are like 87 db fed by Pass X250.8.

the Cary is a fantastic unit in both looks and sound and does offer many tube sandbox play opportunities.

I got it with the upgrade.  Honestly when I buy anything I buy with resale in mind.  I tube rolling options are great the rectifier tubes based power supply is something I really wanted and would suggest for anyone buying a tube preamp.  The Cary is a collectible which is very important for resale fore everyone involved with this addition.  Signing off but think about it . 

Excess audio system gain is something that needs to be factored in. A high output DAC coupled with a high gain preamp (And higher sensitivity speakers) can result is a very limited functional range of use for volume control.

Charles

If you are looking for a fuller sound I suspect that your problem is your speakers rather than the amps. I have found that Fyne go overboard on transparency on most of their speakers. For a fuller sound I would suggest for starters Sonus Faber, Vienna Acoustics or Dynaudio, but I am sure that in the USA there a host of speakers that would do the job, speakers I've never had the opportunity to hear in Australia or even heard of.