Pre Amp under £1000 (Linn Exotic/Musical Fidelity A308cr?)

Im currently looking to buy a pre amp for my set up and won't want to spend over £1000. I will want to spend nearer £800 or less ideally and possibly buy 2nd hand.

Thought id try posting on a forum for advice as I don't have much faith hi fi magazines.

A couple of friends have already recommended me the Linn Exotic and Musical Fidelity A308ac pre amps. Does anyone have any experience with these amps and know how well they perform?.

My cd and amp are currently fairly bugdet NAD gear, but im planning on having these upgraded/replaced later on.

Hope you can help!...

 

Ali, a very good recommendation would be the Django passive TVC pre-amp. It comes in two versions, an amorphous core which is a bit cheaper and a nickel S&B core.

www.diyhifisupply.com

Having just looked at the webpage they have a new version with remote control as well, it looks VERY nice.

The internals are extremely similar to the Music First passive pre-amp if you go for S&B so you can have a look for reviews of that as well.

 

I second tensons recommendation - for a grand you will have a preamp that will be hard to beat at any price.

 

Also, I have no experience with the autoformer version. Could be great, could be crap.

 

What does the S & B stand for and is it worthwhile spending the bit extra for it?

Looks like quite specialist kit!.

Also is DIY Hifi the only place that sells the equipment?.

 

DIY Hi-Fi make it, run by Mr. Brian Cherry a top bloke. You might pick one up second-hand if you are lucky.

S&B is a manufacture who make the attenuating transformers used in the 'S&B' Django. They use high quantities of Nickel in the core of the transformer. The other ones are actually made by Opera who use Amorphous for the core. I have had both and while I found the amorphous to be most excellent, the S&B are that bit better all round.

Brizonbiovizier followed suit using the S&B Django with his £20K+ active PMC speakers and is very happy with it I think. He should be, it sounds great together.

Oh bare in mind they come as a kit to put together, they have an extra charge for assembly if you have a look on the site.

 

A word of caution when using a transformer based pre with equipment with a high output impedance and/or capacitor coupling. The capacitance on the output and the inducatance of the transformer can create a rather effective LC tuned circuit.
In short, you can get oscilation.

Most times you are ok and I only mention this as you state that you are using budget gear which can use fairly nasty OP amps on the output and capacitor coupling as often a single rail PSU is used.

 

Ali

I can see you are in Nottingham.

My advice would be to visit Definitive Audio who are in Nottingham.

I believe they are stockists of the ''music first'' passive pre-amp, which is about £1,500 and similar to the Django.

They also stock good active pre-amps in your budget like the Eastern Electric Minimax.

I would try to hear a transformer based pre-amp before you buy the kit. They have had a "love it or hate it" reaction here on ZG.

 

There are more pre-amps in the world that the 'over stated' TVC variants

 

Yes but they arent as good

 

Ali, you might be able to locate a Balanced Audio Technology VK-3i for £1k if you look hard (note that you wont get the remote or phono stage options at that price).

I'm very impressed with mine. It's as transparent as you'd ever want a pre-amp to be, dead quiet and very flexible (XLR in/out, phono stage option, remote option, capacitor upgrade option).

It uses a "micro-processor controlled electronic shunt Vishay bulk foil stepped attenuator", rather than the bog standard ALPS blue that graces far too many "high-end" pre-amps.

Also, it has a valve-rectified power supply and triode (6922) gain stages, which imbue it with lovely dash of tonality.

Having said that, this is NOT a euphonic valve pre - it's quite neutral & cool sounding to be honest. Here's the (very interesting) white paper from BAT: http://www.balanced.com/resources/whitepapers/i-white.pdf

Other alternative worth seeking out would be:

Older Audio Research preamps like the SP16 etc
Icon Audio's new LA4 looks like very good value for £700
Tube Technology Prophet Signature - saw a dealer with one of these for £800. Outboard PSU and funky design!
Older Conrad Johnson preamps like the PV14 might be worth a gander. You should call Audiofreaks to see what they have on offer. They're really friendly people to deal with :argue:
Rogue Audio Metis - supposed to be a very good pre for the money. (about £800?)
The Renaissance Amplification RAP-01 also looks like very good VFM for £700.

Do some research and demo all you can. We'd be interested to hear your findings

Rgds,
DT

 

Keep dreaming Nick

 

Is there a 2.2k preamp that wil do the trick?

 

What are passive pre amps and how do they differ to active pre's?.

In a related article from a link on diy hifi for more info on s & b, it states the TX-102 (?) has the ability of changing its output level and this sounds a little more complex to me. Would a passive preamp be ready to use from the start?. Link: http://www.stevens-billington.co.uk/page102.htm :bookworm:

Another link from the diy site mentions how good they found the copper wire version of the s & b, but they did'nt get on as well with the silver version in their experience?. I would'nt take this too seriously since other people have obviously had a good experience with the silver wire version. Link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/doctorjohn_CheapTubeAudio/message/3054.

The eastern minimax amp does look very interesting and I found a good review for this. Its in budget and I guess there are dealers for this in the uk. Does anyone else know about this preamp?. It looks like a science project....

Id also consider the Balanced Audio VK 3i. Does anyone else have any experience with this?. It does'nt have the looks from the pictures, but obviously thats not what counts...

Would any of the preamps mentioned require a power supply converter to use in the uk?.

 

A passive preamp is pre amp with no active amplification (voltage or current) stages. It is usually a volume control and input switching. It doesn't need main to work. (unless it is remote control). They can offer high quality detail and resolution but need more care with matching with power amps and cables.

They can be built (or bought) quite cheaply but price can rise depending on components and design used.

Ideally if you have a high sensitive power amp (one that doesn't need much voltage input) with a high input impedance. Also cable with low capacitance, you could be on to a winner.

SCIDB

 

if you think of passive pre-amps as JUST the volume control - they aren't plugged into the mains.

Active pre-amps put a little bit of juice into the signal, to make it more beefy.

The tired, worn out and generally touted differences are-
passive - quieter background noise, more natural sounding
active - more dynamic and punchy sounding

I would visit Definitive Audio, if just to hear what valves and efficient speakers can do. You may walk away a changed man!


*edit* - Dean you beat me to it!

 

second hand audio research pre - worth it for the volume control knob alone

 

I guess the minimax is quite different from the django in that the django offers the neutrality of a passive preamp and the minimax offers a more dynamic sound adding its own benefits but at the expense of the merits of a passive pre.

I guess people will like both kinds of amp, as there is no right or wrong...

What do you mean when you mention I will hear what valves can do bottleneck?.

 

TVC passives retain the drive and dynamics - resistive passives dont.

 

Is the balanced audio technology vk 3i a passive pre amp?

What are resistive passives? (im really not clued up)