Need a pre-amp

[Mannermusic]

Looking to buy a pre-amp. My amplifiers are two crown D-150s in mono. Looking for a neutral, straight forward, noticeably good sounding pre. Not looking to break the bank. Comments please.

Have you heard/considered one of the Quicksilver preamps? I use the simple Line Preamp with a Crown power amp with good results - neutral, good definition. Unexaggerated bass (bravo!). It rather surprises me that so many are willing to live with the uncertainties of the old gear. I've got "vintage" Luxman and Marantz preamps but they are unstable and difficult to repair. Never know quite what you are listening to. Anyone ever heard Bruce Rosenblit's (Transcendent Sound) "Grounded Grid?" Comes as kit or assembled. MM

[MikeBrewster77]

It rather surprises me that so many are willing to live with the uncertainties of the old gear. I've got "vintage" Luxman and Marantz preamps but they are unstable and difficult to repair. Never know quite what you are listening to.

Don't you think that may be a rather overreaching statement?

Suffice it to say that if you're purchasing "vintage" electronic equipment, it should be inspected/bench tested/serviced by a qualified individual (your self if you have the knowledge, or a tech) before it's ever even plugged in to your system. And while parts and service for vintage gear may be a little bit more difficult to find these days, they do still exist, and in many cases the end result is well worth the effort and expense.

FWIW, I run a vintage Luxman pre-amp in my main system, and the only time I don't know what I'm listening to is the rare occasion the other half wants to play a burned "mystery mix CD."

Best,
-Mike

[midlife]

I had a Cerwin Vega Metron, and loved it, clean, articulate, good sound, and intuitive controls. Looking to spend about $250 on something with similar characteristics that compliments my system. Lost my lp's in the flood, so not focusing to much on vinyl, probably cd. But maybe down the road I will get another turntable? Will be using 2 Crown 150s in mono for my amps. I have seen, on ebay; Adcoms, APT Holman, Straight Line Twos, Macs, etc. Am I overlooking some good preamps?

[hjames]

Looking to spend about $250 on something with similar characteristics that compliments my system. Lost my lp's in the flood, so not focusing to much on vinyl, probably cd. But maybe down the road I will get another turntable? Will be using 2 Crown 150s in mono for my amps. I have seen, on ebay; Adcoms, APT Holman, Straight Line Twos, Macs, etc. Am I overlooking some good preamps?

Carver! They come highly recommended - I just got a Carver C-1!
I found mine for a bit under $200 shipped from a member here,
- a number of folks had recommended them before I bought.


7PM Edit -
I just pulled my audio rack out, removed the MusicHall preamp "Fred Sanford" had loaned me, and slipped the Carver in as a turntable preamp feeding my HK AVR receiver. Pulled an old Jade Warrior album old, slipped on the too little used Denon, cleaned up the old licorice pizza, and cranked a bit ..

Yep, sounds very nice - no doubt I'll have to give it a thorough testing and bypass the HK to feed it directly into the Ashley and the biAmp rack, but its a clean working unit!

[rusty jefferson]

Consider the Musical Design sp-2. There is currently one for sale on Audiogon thats almost a month old ad. It's upgradeable [sonicly] at any time in the future, including adding a phono stage. Asking is $450.00 but probably sell for $350.00 - $400.00. There is one in the next add for sale at $2500.00 thats been fully upgraded. [just for comparison] Check out the Musical Design website. I just bought a pre-amp and amp of theirs, had some, but not total upgrading done and they sound fantastic.

[midlife]

Luxman TP117...............Luxman C383. Are these too AV compatible for 2 channel stereo use? Good units? How much $$$ ?

[MikeBrewster77]

FWIW..................

I have a "thing" for Luxman (much like my "thing" for JBL's) so I'm likely biased.

That being said, I have a C-02 that I run in conjunction with a McIntosh amp, and could not be happier with the combination. I think the C-02 preceded the C-383, but if memory serves me correctly, the C-383 was the TOTL of the well-regarded C-300 series. I believe it also features dual outputs so if you wanted to use it to drive a powered sub or some other form of biamping later down the road, that would be possible. And while cost is not necessarily an indication of quality, the original MSRP was $1200. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say a clean unit would likely go for around $300-$400 these days. Superb would likely be higher...

The components in the TP series are tuner/preamps, and I honestly have no experience with (and therefore no credible opinion of) anything in that series. That being said, I do have a Luxman receiver, a Luxman tuner, and a Luxman integrated that are all currently in service throughout the house. I've never had a problem (minus the need to clean some pots when I purchased them) and IMHO the sound is superior to receivers from Yamaha, Harman Kardon (sorry! ), Marantz, etc., I've owned, including much more modern units.

Not sure what you mean by AV compatible? Are you talking about video pass-thru capabilities or simply sound input for video sources? Both units should have sufficient inputs for the audio from at least one video source.

And, as I mentioned earlier, I'm a strong proponent of having any vintage equipment you purchase checked out by a qualified tech if you're not familiar enough with the procedures to check/test them out yourself.

N.B., I haven't actually owned either of the two units you mentioned, just a preamp in the same series, and other products by the same manufacturer, so now that you've taken the time to read all of this let me throw out the caveat that you should it with a grain of salt.

Best,
- Mike

Luxman TP117...............Luxman C383. Are these too AV compatible for 2 channel stereo use? Good units? How much $$$ ?

[TonyM]

I had a Cerwin Vega Metron, and loved it, clean, articulate, good sound, and intuitive controls. Looking to spend about $250 on something with similar characteristics that compliments my system. Lost my lp's in the flood, so not focusing to much on vinyl, probably cd. But maybe down the road I will get another turntable? Will be using 2 Crown 150s in mono for my amps. I have seen, on ebay; Adcoms, APT Holman, Straight Line Twos, Macs, etc. Am I overlooking some good preamps?

In that price range a second vote for Carver. Way overlooked by a lot of people.

[spwal]

pass labs first watt B-1 clone. I think there are 10 pieces to the whole preamp.