Need a pre-amp

[midlife]

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.

[SEAWOLF97]

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbullet...ad.php?t=17659

[midlife]

And these are the contenders: Adcom 565, Crown staight line two, Mac MX 113, APT Holman? Hope to get some recommendations

[richluvsound]

anything that Nelson Pass has had his fingers in !

[midlife]

I will spend somewhat liberally to get a good preamp, still hope to happen upon a good deal. I'm ebayin', so I will probably not have alot of credible info about the items history. Interested in forum members comments about the earlier listed choices. "Need a good preamp" pronto.

[SEAWOLF97]

After that long thread about preamps, I bought the Apt/Holman series 1 ....it is solidly built and has more features than I can utilize, but it is outstanding and really geared for LP playback... (did not like the slimmed down series 2)
no plastic at all, very solid metal.

the Holman in the name is from Thomlinson Holman who devised THX ...t. holmans experiment (or crossover- depending on source) ....if you read its owners manual, he describes componets down to the switch level and why he speciaifed them in his product ...the manual alone sometimes receives votes in the "alltime best audio products" surveys.

thats the only one of the above that I have experience with ..was hot to go look at a MAc C-26 ..and then read the reviews..seems like Mac has a lot of hits AND misses. The glass faceplates seem to break a lot..and sometimes are not replaceable.

[midlife]

The Holman I found on ebay appears to be the slim line (dark face) I am not familiar with APT Holman, but I have noticed some forum members' endorcements. More comments please on my earlier mentioned choices.

[pierce]

I have a adcom gfp565, and love it. Very -very- clean sounding. Tone controls can be bypassed, yet are very very neutral when enabled. It has one of the sweetest phono sections in a preamp I've ever heard, at least when coupled with the Grado cartridges I've used.

I like the very clean looks too. seperate selectors for recording source and playback, it has inputs for phono, CD, tuner, 2 tape loops, and video/aux.


(note, this isn't mine, just a random image I cribbed from the web)

[midlife]

thanks for the info; What other equip is working with your 565?

[pierce]

thanks for the info; What other equip is working with your 565?

My stereo stack consists of...

• said Adcom GFP-565
• Adcom GFT-555-II FM tuner
• Denon DP-23F turntable w/ Grado ZC+ cart
• Yamaha CDX-393 CD player
• Denon DRM-700 cassette deck
• Adcom GFA-585 poweramp (currently offline)
• Hafler XL-280 power amp (currently on the stack)
• JBL L100T speakers (woofers being re-foamed as we speak)

this is all relatively budget stuff, but it sure sounds good

[midlife]

And these are the contenders: Adcom 565, Crown staight line two, Mac MX 113, APT Holman? Hope to get some recommendations

bump

[Ruediger]

Have a look at www.elitestereo.netfirms.com/controlamps.htm. Look for the models C72 ... C91.

I do own a Yamaha CX1, also a decent piece of engineering.

Ruediger

[pierce]

did anyone suggest a Parasound, like the PHP-850? A friend of mine had one of these, was a fantastic preamp. he was using it to run some tube monoblocks that in turn biamped a Magnepan.

[midlife]

And these are the contenders: Adcom 565, Crown staight line two, Mac MX 113, APT Holman? Hope to get some recommendations

Looking for some forum feedback on these preamp choices, or any good alternatives. Price and performance info would also be helpful.

[TonyM]

Looking for some forum feedback on these preamp choices, or any good alternatives. Price and performance info would also be helpful.

You need tubes in front of those Crowns.

There are a lot of Audio Research preamps on Audiogon going for less than 2k and with preamps like the SP16 going for way less (and, yes, a lot going for more).

I've been using an LS25 for several years that I bought used. I won't ever try to convince anyone it's the most acurate pre out there but it's very listenable. Rolling tubes in these will change the sound around if you want to experiment.

The preamps have a collection of features that make them very system friendly. Of course the features vary by model. The LS25 (now replaced by the 26 which is a step below the Ref) has balanced and single ended ins and outs, a tape loop, processor input for a home theater hook up (has fixed gain) and two preamp outs. In addition to that the gain of each input can be individually set plus a remote. Pretty versatile for a piece of tube gear.

Well anyway it's a thought.