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Amp/preamp suggestions in $3000-4000 range

Hi all,

I'm ready to upgrade my system and I'm going to start with the amp and preamp. I need suggestions.

My system is comprised of Kenwood L-07D and Oracle Alexandria turntables with Dynavector 10x5 and Benz Micro Glider cartridges, respectively, into a Unison Research Unico. The speakers are Vandersteen 2ce. I listen to a wide range of music from jazz and modern composition to beat up punk rock 45s, and everything in between.

I've had solid state amps most of my life and have tried some of the more humble all tube systems such as Antique Sound Labs and Jolida. I really love the sound of the Unico's hybrid design but it's not a great amp for the Vandersteens. Beyond that, I haven't much of an idea where to go. I prefer the idea of tube preamp and solid state amp but I'm not hell bent on it. I am open to an integrated machine or separate preamp and amp. Monoblocks are interesting as well. I'd like to keep the total price somewhere between 3-4K on the used market.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Rickk
rickk
tigerwoodkhorns
130 posts
 
Rick,

Just give Mark Mdeenan a call. I may have spelled his name incorrectly. He is teh owner of Juicy Music and he also designed teh Paragon preamp in the 70's. His service is outstanding. IO had a Peach preamp with Klipschorns a few years back.

You may also want to check the Klipsch forum. Many there use Blueberry's. Mark had a pair of Klispch Belles when he designed the blueberry and Peach.

FWIW I use a Muscial Fidelity A308CR preamp and have a pair of Bryston 7B ST's and Classe CAM 350's with B&W S800's. I have not decided which amps to keep yet.

If you only need 200 wpc you can definately get the A308 preamp and either a Classe or Bryston amp for your $3000 budget. To me, the A308CR (SS Preamp) sounded more "tubelike" than a friend's VTL preamp.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,799 posts
 
You can find a set of our M-60s used in that range and they drive 2CEs beautifully.
rickk OP
15 posts
 
By way of update, I purchased a used McCormack DNA-225 here on audiogon and am now in the process of selling some of my other equipment to get the money together for a Blueberry Xtreme2 preamp. Thanks to everyone for the tremendous amount of input. It's taken me weeks of surfing and reading to get through all of the suggestions. Cheers, Rickk
nicholas_bedworth
2 posts
 
How about the PrimaLuna ProLogue 5 or Dialogue 5? They're around $1600 and $2600 respectively. Bulletproof, excellent resale value, strong support from the company.
mechans
3,048 posts
 
Forget the tube pre-amp Solid State power amp paradigm. Get a quality tube power amp or integrated with sufficient umph I'd say 60WPC+ with current headroom meaning hefty trannies and you might find Utopia. It took me 8 years to finally figure this out.
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