Anyone own one of these preamps ?
My buddy is looking to upgrade his preamp and is considering these. We’ve both read the various reviews, I’m just reaching out to see who might have personal experience with any of them. Any positive or negative feedback is welcome.
(He’s open to s/s or tube/hybrid). Obviously he will also assess what will be a good match to the rest of his system, but here we’re just looking for personal exposure to any of them. Some are still current models, others would be used:
— Benchmark LA4 (half-chassis footprint is annoying lol)
— Anthem
— Rogue Audio RP-9
— Ayre Acoustics KX-8
— Herron VTSP-360
Thanks all!
@soix these are units that more or less intrigued him in one way or another over the past 5 or 10 years but as I said in the original post, he’ll need to determine synergies (or lack of) with the rest of his system. He’s running Parasound A21+ as power amp now but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he may upgrade his amp too at some point. He’s more or less anti-social-(media), or I’d make him do this himself. |
If, like 99% of the users of this forum, you have a room that is less than ideal in dealing with reflections and standing waves, and you want to incorporate digital signal processing to help mitigate those effects, then the Anthem STR is your best bet. I've had great experience with their tech support as well and consider this Preamp to be my end game device. |
@mike4597 , Nice rig, have you tube rolled with the RP-9? I wanted your speakers but I couldn’t afford them. Cheers , Mike B. @gkelly Love the remark's regarding the metal remote. 😆 @thecarpathian , my sick mind goes to “ Steely Dan “ with all the metal remote comments. I need to schedule with my shrink. 🤪 |
Buellrider97–I bought the Fynes several years ago, before a sharp price increase and got bit of a deal because they were not the finish I ordered. Not much option for tube tolling with these 6H30P tubes (actually, the Cyrillic alphabet transposed to the Roman alphabet is 6N30R). There is only one other tube option, and it is VERY pricey—a “DR” model that goes for about $350 each. Once I “recover” from buying the preamp and my power amp upgrades, I may consider taking a try at them. |
