Yeah I’d definitely focus on the preamp at this point. Here’s a nice Backert Rhumba 1.3 that’d be well worth the stretch to $2600 IMO, and you can obviously roll tubes to tailor the sound for as much or little warmth as you want. Best of luck.
Effective recommendations to add warmth & smoothness while keeping bass control
What are the most effective ways to add warmth or smoothness to the system while keeping bass punch and control? You could rank them as well and please provide examples?
1) Hybrid SS with tube buffer
2) Hybrid tube preamp stage with SS output stage
3) Tube preamp + SS amp
4) Tube amp
5) Class A SS amp with zero/low feedback
6) High bias Class A/AB with zero/low feedback
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- 34 posts total
+ 1oh1 on room treatment. Horns for speakers. These won’t break the bank. |
I have struggled with the best sound for me and I finally nailed it. The Meitner MA3i, Pass XA-25, Volti Audio Lucera…perfect in every way, lately I have been going back and forth with the First Watt Sit-4, the XA-25 is better. Also taking the Pass XP-12 pre in and out still undecided on it..sorta leaning to take it out permanently.I tried the tube buffer from the company that was mentioned, sent it back. Don’t over think it simple is the way to go.. |
@charles007100 the preamp section in MA3i is excellent. If you have only one source you can easily do without a preamp. You’d have to introduce a preamp that’s a much higher level than XP-12 to make a significant improvement. |
- 34 posts total