Hi Fi People: Preamp

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ckeene
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Hi Fi People: Preamp

Post by ckeene » Sat Apr 18, 2009 7:10 am

My old HK receiver needs to be replaced (it never was that great to begin with) and I'm going to go with separates. I need to get a preamp with a couple/three line level inputs and a MM phono pre. Simple is good, and I'd prefer to do EQ in a separate box, if at all.

A remote control for volume would be pretty sweet.

Basically what i want is the same thing you could do with a phono pre, an attenuator and a patchbay, but put into a nice box that normal people can operate and that's not labeled with Dymo tape.

Any recommendations?

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Sat Apr 18, 2009 7:58 am

i have a rotel thingy that's pretty nice. what's your budget?

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Post by ckeene » Sat Apr 18, 2009 8:38 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:i have a rotel thingy that's pretty nice. what's your budget?
Definitely under a grand. I'd also consider getting a separate phono pre and having the "preamp" be pretty much just a source selector and attenuator.

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Post by ckeene » Sat Apr 18, 2009 11:45 am

also, preferably US-made.

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Post by ckeene » Mon Apr 20, 2009 7:51 am

...anyone?

rwc
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Post by rwc » Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:36 am

Think late 70s.

NAD, Rotel, Marantz, Parasound.

http://www.audiogon.com will have a lot of that stuff.

Compare this to the typical monitor controller/source selector on sweetwarter or banjo center and you'll be amazed. It doesn't color the sound, and doesn't add its own noise. Shouldn't everything be like that?

Also, as far as U.S. made - I wouldn't go nuts with that. Even if you do get U.S. made it'll probably be made with a chinese power transformer, a bunch of caps from japan, a bunch of transistors from china, etc. It amuses me when companies like SVS tout "made in America!" but you'll be damned to find more than 10% of the parts in their amps being manufactured in America!
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Post by capnreverb » Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:39 am

I second the Rotel. I bought a used old one for $125 and it's real nice. A buddy has a new one and he bought his for under a grand and it's amazing. He did a lot of reading and a/b'ing in doing research for his purchase. Great stuff!

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Post by stevedood » Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:56 am

Check out the Rotel RC995
I've had one in my studio for awhile - it's a great preamp, one volume knob, XLR outputs, remote control, and plenty of ins/outs.

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Post by GREGL » Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:14 am

Adcom makes some reasonably good stuff and its available used for little dinero. I also second the Rotel and NAD suggestions. As someone previously said this is much better than some of the junk sold at banjo center.

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Post by dsw » Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:17 pm

Another brand that is nice stuff and not too expensive is Parasound.
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Post by ckeene » Wed Apr 22, 2009 8:35 pm

dsw wrote:Another brand that is nice stuff and not too expensive is Parasound.
I checked out a Parasound today. Looks pretty good and the price is right. I noticed Bryston makes a nice looking hi-fi preamp, too, but it's outside my price range.

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saint360
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Post by saint360 » Wed Apr 22, 2009 9:39 pm

I like to use Rotel to make queso. I have two cans of it in my pantry right now.

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Post by rwc » Wed Apr 22, 2009 9:49 pm

I love my parasound hca-1000a amp.
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Post by DGoody » Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:52 am

You could also do well to check out Luxman. They made extremely high end stuff back from the 60's to late 80's, then a dark period, then back in the late 90's.

I'd look at the C02, C03, C05, or the beautiful all valve CL-35. They were like the McIntosh of Japan, and Tim DeParavacini from Esoteric Audio was a chief designer for a period.

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Post by Snarl 12/8 » Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:58 am

My dad bought a luxman setup for our house back in the 80's. I can still almost remember the smell of that stuff when we unpacked it. Why doesn't new gear smell like that anymore? Twas probably some godawful chemical that they aren't allowed to use any more. He also got some 3-way speakers with 15" woofers. How come big woofers went out of style too?

Anyway, me and my friends would just crank up the tunes and literally start laughing at how freaking loud and awesome it sounded. I think the receiver was only like 50 watts per channel or something, but it had some serious headroom.

Then I loaned my parents my Advent Legacies to use with it in a four speaker setup. When I got them back after a few years the woofers were in tatters and the tweeters weren't working. Luckily it was just a bad cap in the crossovers. I still haven't fixed the woofers, I just threw some old Jensen guitar speakers in.

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