Pre and Power Amp

Greetings!!!

A little help will be appreciated .. but more will be great.. Still cannot decide whether to change my Pre-amp or my Amp... Sorry for my direct question...What Vacuum tube, (ie brand.... Cary, Audio Research, Quicksilver, Type.... SET or Push Pull) that can be considered to replace my Mark Levinson 335 and will match my Dynaudio Contour 3.3? Or what pre-amp that will match my ML335 and Contour 3.3 to beat the performance of my Sonic Frontiers Line 3??? Thanks... If budget will allow.... Amp let say less than $4,000.00 and pre-amp maybe $3,000. My current system is a little fatiguing, narrow imaging, not good on highs...but the low frequency is great.

 

Hi and welcome aboard!

Perhaps fill out your equipment profile in your account so we can see everything you're running to be of more help.

 

Hello and Thank you for responding..

Ooppsss!!! Sorry!!! Please see my equipment profile, updated already. Thanks again..

 

Darvin, pretty nice gear you've got. Can I ask why you want to upgrade? If you give us a sense of what you don't like about your current pre and amp (what is it that you feel you need to improve) maybe we can give you some ideas.

 

Darvin, have you tried any other cables in your system prior to arriving at your decision to upgrade your pre and power amps? If not, you may want to go this route first with something like Grover's Ultimate Reference cables to be certain the colorations you don't like aren't attributed to your cables alone.

 

grbl Thanks. What I don't like about my system is... in the longer listening session it's getting drier. I want to improve more on the high frequency & mid range level and also the ambience as well as soundstage. In addition to that, I cannot listen to a low level because she will not perform well, she likes it to be played always loud to enjoy the music, but this will harm my ears I guess in the long run.

 

Dave, have not tried that route, yes, maybe I should go first on that way and then...I don't know let say, I will upgrade the tubes of the Line 3 will this improve my system and get what I'm looking for? what do you think? thanks...

 

First thank you and second sorry for my ignorance , kindly tell me what is UR cables.

 

Ok, thanks got it.

 

how are your room acoustics? Improving room acoustics can really make a big difference and tend to not cost as much as major gear purchases.

 

I'll second Gary's suggestion as the Ultimate Reference cables really made my system sound much better and more fluid in the mid range.

 

Welcome to the Forum. Your profiles shows a great system that should sound better than you are describing.

Do you have good vibration isolation for the TT, tube pre-amp, tube phono-pre-amp and CD player? If you do not have excellent vibration isolation under each of them, the sound can be a bit "congealed" and you will not get the ambience and soundstage of which your system is capable. The vibration isolation should also solidify the bass and might warm up the sound somewhat. I don't think vibration isolation is necessary for the solid state components. Everyone has different suggestions for vibration isolation. I have had good experience with Aurios (including the ball bearings on top), but there are a number of satisfactory approaches. (IMO, you will not get a satsifactory result with Vibrapods only.)

 

I have a set of accoustics treatment in my Audio Room, these are tube traps in the corner at the front, Absorption and diffusion panels in front at the back of speakers, absorption panels at the side and using my LPs as diffusion panels at the back. Please see attached photos for you to visualize my room accoustics set up. Thanks.

 

Thanks, yes I think I have a good vibration isolation in my TT but not on the other equipment. My TT has a sandbox which enough to handle all vibration. I think I need to consider also in other equipment.

 

I will consider this route, I'm still looking where to find that UR cables here in our place. thanks.

 

To order the Grovers you need to go into the Grover thread at the top of the Hardware page on this site and click on contact us. Also, you may want to read some of the posts on the thread. They'll give you a good sense of the impressions others have of them. I have Grover's UR speaker wire in my main system and have been quite pleased with them. I have to say though that I really haven't done a lot of A/B comparisons versus other speaker wire.

 

I agree that new cables might be a good place to start and the Grovers give plently of bang for the buck. Nothing I've heard can touch them for the price.

Then, I'd get rid of the preamp . I would look into getting a used Convergent Audio Technology tube preamp with a phone stage. These preamps not fatiguing at all and I've seen used one's going for around 3,000. I have some good suggestions for tubes in these units. I have had success running my CAT with Krell and Pass amps.

 

Moving the speakers away from the front and side walls and getting rid of the coffee table should improve staging/imaging, and possibly tonality as well. (Unless your speakers are designed to be in corners -- but my advice about the coffee table stands in any case!)

 

In my experience, a tube pre-amp or tube phono pre-amp that are not properly isolated from vibration lose some clarity. As a result, fine detail is lost, the soundstage narrows and the soundstage is shallow. Good isolation should improve the soundstage, and give you the air and ambience that you are missing. Isolation should also tighten the bass and give some great clarity to the highs. It might give some greater warmth to the midrange, but it might not.

 

Ok thanks, Yes I will go to that path.

Well, no wonder about CAT preamp, this is a killer beast...I'll be lucky if I can get a used one here in our place....this has a lot of takers..anyway, I''ll try my luck then

 

Thanks..

 

How to go about it? Is there any suggested measurement I need to follow how far from the side and front walls? Really, do you think I need to get rid of that coffe table to improve staging/imaging? I didn't realize that, thanks for the advice.

 

Ok I will consider to isolate other equipment aside from my TT. Thank you for the advice.