Pre amp shoot out coming up!

This weekend I'm gonna be having a bit of a pre amp shoot out, in the house all being well will be


Audio Note M2
Music First Silver V2
Music First Baby Reference
Light speed LDR
Tilbury passive
Michell Orca
Absolute

All of these will be going to Audionote Silver Empress via Mac mini using Audirvana plus or Amarra, Dac will be Bel Canto 2.5. Phono stage is modded EAR 834 with vintage Telefunkens valves, TT is Nottingham Analogue Hyperspace with Ortofon Rhondo Bronze, speakers are AN-K SPE

So let the good times begin

 

Have fun . Report back.

 

This is a serious list of NICE preamps! How did it go? Lots of fun I presume!!!

 

I'd put my Nelson Pass modded Adcom GFP 565 up against any of those. Especially when talking phono.

 

Be sure to compare them all based on knob feel.
http://knobfeel.tumblr.com/

Seriously though, enjoy the opportunity to compare gear like that. Most of us here don't get the opportunity (or have the means) to do a pre-amp shootout with that much expensive (or moderately expensive depending on baseline) gear.

 

Will be updated soon, been very very busy so apologies for all who are interested

 

A few pics from the day

Tisbury and the 2 MFA




LIGHTSPEED LDR



Absolutor



AN M2

 

Apologies for not getting something posted just been very very busy at work lately and had very little time to do anything, however I've now compiled something from the events on the day, the outcome was quite surpring for all the guys in the room to say the least!

Some time back I had the guys from Audionote Lounge in my house who brought up the Empress Silver Monoblocks and a M3 preamp, I knew at the time that my Dac with is in built pre wouldn't get the best out of the Empress amps but decided to make a purchase at the time knowing that in the near future I would install a pre amp.

After making a few calls to some of my Hifi friends I managed to assemble a little selection of preamps costing from a couple of hundred pounds to six thousand pounds, so how did they fair?

When the guys came round I had the M2 in the system so we decided to start the ball rolling with that one first

Audionote M2

From the off the M2 has quite a full sound but can be quite bloated at times, we all felt that the bass was overpowering the soundstage and making everything sound thick and take away quite a bit of the detail, one of the guys in the room also felt that the treble was a bit rolled off, it was also apparent the soundstage was flat sounding and didn't quite have the depth to the stage

All in all I think we were all expecting the M2 to be the one which would match the rest of the system the best but for some reason it kind of lacked quite a bit given its price point

Music First Silver

Out went the M2 and in went the first offering from MFA, it was the silver model and the first passive into the afternoon session and one of the brands on offer that I was expecting to perform

How wrong can a man be, from the off the MFA sounded very flat and uninspiring, quite the opposite from what I was expecting and the rest of the guys in the room, I did a quick check on the cables to make sure nothing had been inserted incorrectly but no all was good, most bizarre that the pre I was most excited about sounded quite boring and flat!

Keeping in tune with the passives we put the next one in.....,,

Lightspeed LDR

I'd read quite a bit about these over on Audiogon and the guy that brought it over had been using for over 3 years and was the one piece of kit he had been loyal too

LDR installed and off we went, wow what a revelation, this was all the things we were expecting from the MFA amps, wonderful 3D soundstage with superb instrument realism and fantastic detail retrieval. I've read that passives can be lacking in the bass department, after hearing this one I can vouch that they are not, this has superb bass control and really good extension.

The initial test were done with a standard wall wart which were very good, the guy also had the Teradak power supply with him and when installed really does take this pre to another level, the power supply is used to power the LED's which are used for regulating the volume I'm led to believe

Overall I'd have to say the LDR was superb and a really good performer

Next up was the MFA Baby Reference

Again a disappointment for all of us especially as it costs quite a bit of money, although it was better that the silver model previously tested it still lacked something, very flat sounding yet again, almost like the dynamics had been turned off, this didn't stay in the system very long as the all the people in the room felt it performed quite poor considering the asking price

Tilbury Passive

Everything opened back up again compared to the MFA amps, however the sound was quite a bit grainy and the Bass was lacking somewhat, it wasn't bad but it wasn't brilliant but for the price it sells for anyone on a budget couldn't really ask for much more

Absolutor Valve Pre

Not too dissimilar to the AN M2 pre amp in terms of sound quality, in fact very very similar, like the M2 the Absolutor was thick in the bass and presented us with a flattened soundstage, maybe not so rolled off as the M2 was though

The rest of the session was back with the day's winner which was the LDR, in my system and my listening taste which is a wide soundstage with depth and instrument realism this is a great piece of kit and one which I will be buying

For some reason the MFA amps didn't sound there best in my system, none of could pin point the reasoning behind it, it's just how it panned out on the day

After doing these tests I'm now the owner of a LDR with the Teradak power supply, for the money these are just superb, they just get out of the way and let the music flow, a close friend of mine came round recently and heard it in action, he was quite gobsmacked at how it worked with the AN Empress Monoblocks. At some point I'm going to have a loan of a M2 balanced or an M3 once my rack has been sorted and I can fit one one

 

That was really interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Later on, when you get the opportunity, I look forward to hearing your opinion of the M3 versus the LDR, considering how much you loved the sound of the M3 before.

 

Will do, the only reason I've not got one in the system is due to lack of space, the M3 is huge and at the moment I don't have the room. I'm currently designing a new rack which will be built in the next month or so

 

A little update on this thread from quite a few months back, the LDR is still in the system and has seen off quite a few pre amps including Art Audio and Modwright to name a few!

Anyway next Tuesday all being well an M3 will land for an extended home demo, the M3 is supposed to be the best match for my Empress monoblocks, I enjoyed the very short session I had with it when the guys came up from Audionote Lounge, but we tried quite a few things on that day and my memory is a bit hazy to say the least!

A big thanks to Audionote Lounge for the upcoming home demo, when it's settled in I will give a bit of feedback

Lee

 

The pre has arrived and is fully installed, straight out of the box this is a pretty special pre amp, having tried an M2 previously and was not that impressed I didn't know what to expect this time round, rest assured guys the M3 pre is on another level, one could say it's a perfect match for the Empress amps that I own, I know understand what the Audionote level system means, it must get scary when you get into the level 5 category!

I'll report more as the amps gets settled in

Lee

 

No, no, no, no! Don't tell me that it's great. Then I will be saving up for an M3 Phono, or even worse, an M6 Phono!

Sorry kids, no university for you. Dad needs a new preamp ; )

 

Don it's great

 

Ha! My fingers were in my ears, so I couldn't hear you

 

The M3 is a fantastic pre mate and does work well with my Empress Silver monoblocks as you'd expect it too

I'm going to try the phono stage in this one, I will have to use my SUT though as I'm a MC cart user

 

Looking forward to hearing more after you get used to the M3.

 

Well if you sell your kids, you not only get that money, but you don't have to worry about sending them to university. Order that M6!

 

Hahahaha!

The funny thing is that someone that I trust very much told me that as good as the 300B amps sound, the 2A3 amps sound even better. In his opinion the best sounding tube is the 2A3, followed by the 211 and then the 300B. So, I am looking long term (really long term!) at either upgrading my Meishu Silver to a Meishu Silver Signature or swapping over to separates and going with M3 phono or M6 phono matched up to Conquest Silver or Empress or Neiro mono blocks. I find the jump up in price to be quite overwhelming though. It would have to be a pretty special deal in order to make it work. The most likely would be the Empress monos with an M3 phono.

What made me consider the upgrade was that I upgraded my Dynavector DV20X2 Lo cartridge and AN-S2 SUT up to the AN Io Gold cartridge and AN-S8 SUT. The step up was from 'level 2' up to 'level 5'. I was astonished how much better the sound was coming off my records. So, my speakers are up to exposing the increased resolution, that just leaves the amp and preamp. My girls will have to finish university first, I think.

 

I know a number of people prefer the 2A3s, and if I listened to acoustic jazz and vocals almost exclusively, I probably would have gone that route, but as much as I listen to classic rock, I feel the 300Bs deliver a little more punch. 300Bs have a magic mid-range, but 2A3s have a little more. But I find some of the higher end 300B tubes (like the WE reissues that I have) come close.

While it would be great to have the money to just buy the gear we want, upgrading a piece or two at a time over a few years can also be fun (queue up Carly Simon's Anticipation).

 

I will have to sit down and listen to a 2A3 tube amp to compare and see which I prefer. I do love jazz but a huge portion of my listening is to rock.

As you say, we can't afford to just go out and buy everything that we like, so it will be fun to try different amps over time.