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Best preamp fpr AR Classic speakers?

I need your suggestions for a dedicated music set up I am finally getting around to. Here's what I have so far:

AR Classic 26 speakers (88 db, 4ohm)
Nakamich1 PA 5 mkii amp
Denon 3810 for playing CD's

Budget is limited (less than $2K). Looking at Pass X-1,Musical Fidelity, Krell etc. Never had tubes but could be open to that.

The AR's tend to be a little bass-shy but uppers and mids are terrific.

I listen to blues,jazz,rock mostly.

Thanks for your help.

Vincent
vincent
Post removed 
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,745 posts
 
I had AR 302s for almost 10 years. The 303 series speakers were built in 1995 and were designed to recreate the AR speakers from the 1960's. The 302s faced off to the AR5s.

I used a Musical Fidelity CD PRE 24 successfully with the 302s. The CD PRE 24 was a combo CD player/ preamp. The standalone preamp would have been a model 3.2.

Best regards,

Rich
dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,190 posts
 
A used Ayre AX-7e integrated amp would work great (around $2k here on Agon).

Good luck.
vincent OP
20 posts
 
Thanks for your observations. I missed out on a couple of Ayre AX-7e recently. If can pick one up I may go that direction and probably sell the Nak. Is the Ayre under powered (based on Tvad's comments) ?

How would an Ayre preamp like the 5xe sound with the Nakamichi amp?
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