amp question


Here a question thats interest's me and was therefore hoping anyone else has an opinion or personal experience on.

With budget of around $10,000 -$12,000 for a pre/power amp. Has anybody, after of course auditioning several suitable options. Decided to instead of spending the complete budget on what ever particular pre/ amp they decided on. To purchase a cheaper model possibly from same manufacture in such a way as to leave enough budget to be able to buy as well a 'state of the art' support for it, such as made by SRA, Silent Running, Vibraplane etc along with say a very specialist power cable again just for example, Nordost Valhalla etc. In either the believe or from actual experience that this alternative approach to the budgeting has given better results. For example.Buying a Pass Labs integrated with a specialist support and cable instead of their cheapest seperate's with just a normal type rack and cables.
pcoombs

Showing 2 responses by pcoombs

At last finally back of work! I rather rushed the original question during the last 5 mins of my lunch break ( hence the uninspiring title!) To clarify. This is not necessary something I'm considering doing. I was just interested in hearing from anyone who had gone this route. I think for example that Roy Gregory based on his writings would be a proponent for the cheaper component with more expenditure on supports and cables .
One often reads review's that say how an often much cheaper model in a companies line very nearly matches the top of the line models. Of the top of my head an example would be the Audio Research LS26 versus Ref 3 line stages, price difference between the two= $4000 .
Well my question is which would provide the better performance for the same price? The LS26 with say a custom Silent running audio's Ohio class or a Minus K platform or even a whole HRS SXR rack . Or the Ref 3 sitting on say a wooden chopping block!
As no dealers near me carry such specialist devices. I'm unable to do the comparison myself. We've all read the reviews and forum posts that basically say " I have the ....Vibraplane etc and it made my...... amplifier... sound much better" But what I'd like to know , and its mainly only really out curiosity sake is did it made a cheaper but similar component perform equally or better than its higher priced stablemate?. Or is it all baloney!
Oh well with eight reply's none of which really addressed or answered the specific at all. Ive come to the conclusion that it's 1) it was a rather lousy and pointless question, not worth asking in the first place! or 2) no one so far has really ever done such a comparison/ test to be able to report back on. ( I think the answers no 1)