Which would you choose for good sounding tube preamp for an audiophile new to tubes.
I need your help guys. I would like to add a tube preamp to pair with my reference 200.2 B&K amplifier. My speakers are large ADS L1590 towers ( 90 DB efficiency rating). They were a flagship back in the day. I have had them restored by an ads tech. I am l looking at a QUICKSILVER LINESTAGE LS PREAMPLIFIER, VTL 5.5 preamplifier, and a Sonic Frontiers SFL-1. All are currently used and on audiomart or audiogon. The Sonic Frontiers is for sale on hi-fi heaven. I purchased from them before and they check out the equipment that is preowned. My system is a little bright and dynamic sounding using the sonata B&K preamp. (There best at the time). I am looking for a little warmth in the sound and no harshness. I want some slam and afraid I will lose it if I go with tubes. I have had success buying certain units because of the knowledge dispensed through this forum I am a member of Audiogon in good standing. Any help would be great. I appreciate the feedback.
@dentdog I am heading there in a few weeks. |
The Bottlehead Moreplay kit is $439. Sound is fantastic with the stock tubes but if you add good NOS 6V6 tubes and upgrade the coupling capacitors it gets even better. I mostly can't tell it apart from my PS Audio BHK preamp. I have also used the Freya, Cary SLP-03, Cary SLP-70, and the SP14 which is the basis for the Don Sachs preamp. I think the Moreplay is better than all of those. Biggest negative is a relatively high output impedance. Your B&K's impedance is 33K so about a 10x ratio which is fine but not ideal. |
