Good Preamp for Emerald Physics 2.3

The best tube pre-amps from the $1,000 to $5,000 range would be as follows:

The Doge 8 ~ $1,150 (an incredible bargain for top drawer
performance. Comes with a phono stage.

The Audio Horizon 2.2 ~ $2,750 (excellent performance
many upgrades possible).

Coincident Technology Linestage ~ $5,000 ( a great bargain
considering its mind-blowing performance. Only downside is it only has 2 inputs.

Greg

Hooper, Rclaassen is right. I would go the Prism route. I briefly owned the 2.3s, and while they have a lot of promise, I think the cheap pro digital unit is a compromise. You can blunt the sonic contributions with tubes, but there are limitations. Clayton Shaw designed that speaker, and subsequently designed the Spatial rig. You can dialogue with him about the reasons why. There are multiple grades to choose from, not just the Orpheus which is expensive. It gives you so much more control, from the x-over, to room correction, to flexibility with source material (hi rez material...24/192, etc), and you can even add tube simulators which are little DSP-like programs that run in the digital domain. If you like what the 2.3s are doing, its a no-brainer.

Has anyone heard of these guys, www.asi-tek.com? I use a dbx as a crossover. The dbx does not suck out all of the life but does degrade the music to an extent.I need to upgrade. My budget is 4k or less.

You are right. The DBX is not a total assassin, but does influence things negatively. I have not heard of that modding outfit. If you have 4K to spend, I would look at the tudiokonnekt 48 and a mini. It would be under that price tag I believe and gives you much more flexibility, including upgradability for the future.

Investing 3x or more the resale value of these crossovers makes no financial sense. You would be lucky to get 25% of the upgrade cost back if you were to sell it. Interested however in feedback from those who went down crossover upgrade path as to the sonic benefits.

It’s unfortunate that the recent 6moons review focused on Spatial rather that the base CS2.3 with the Behringer. What about the DBX vs. the Behringer? 2.7 vs 2.3? There are some of us that can’t (or won’t) go down the Spatial path.

A decent review of the base product might have gone a long way to help answer the original question of this thread.