good preamp for dynaco mk3 monoblocks with maggies

Zvovchik, I happen to think Ralph's (Atmasphere) advice makes a lot if sense. Although I agree with Sbrown's comment about the ARC SP11, frankly, I am dubious you can pick up a SP11 in good condition for $1000. I've seen used ones listed on A'gon for multiples of that figure. Plus, ... given the SP11's age, it might need some "freshening up," e.g., new caps, tubes, etc.

So ... going back to Ralph's comment about picking up a refurbed Dynaco PAS 2 or 3 kinda makes a lot of sense. Being that your OP says you are new to the Hi-Fi world, let me introduce you to Ralph Karsten, aka Atmasphere. Ralph is the owner and chief designer of Atmasphere electronics. Ralph and his company are highly respected members of the audiophile community.

I suggest you directly contact Ralph and ask about the cost of acquiring a Dynaco preamp and inquiring how much Ralph would charge to drag it into the 21st Century. Given your stated budget of "1000$" (sic), that's a path I would seriously consider.

Let us know what you decide.

Cheers, BIF

For me there would be no other option except to do exactly as Bifwynne suggests. Ralph has been doing this for forty years... I'm sure he's got it down pat:)

Even if the the SP11 needed work, it has more potential than the PAS3. The 11 is not particulary fussy about tubes and they can be had cheap. Caps and what ever else it needs can be done over time.

Sbrown, If you are going to refurbish an older ARC preamp, the SP-10 is a better choice.

As always, there are tradeoffs between the two. I think the 10 is the better sounding of the two with the following two caveats. First, the 10 is far picker about tubes than the 11 and uses a lot more of them. That’s the reason why I sold mine. I decided that I didn’t want to feed it. The other issue with the 10 it’s harder to clean up its line level inputs. With the 11, you can use the bypass switch with both the line and phono sections while with the 10, that only works with the phono. As a result, the 10 doesn’t sound so hot through line level in stock form. You have to go through and disconnect a bunch of the front panel clap trap. I believe that’s what GNS did in when they modified those.