Listening to the LS28se right now in my own system on demo. It's very good, truthful, transparent, somewhat textured, tighter bass with tilt more towards the upper to mid frequencies, but not bright or harsh. Possibly walking the line of dry to a slim degree, with a decent width of soundstage, depth isn't great but not worse than any other solid state pre I've heard.
Overall great pre, with tight bass that really let's you hear the character of your amp and source. |
@soix room is like a rectangle, about 18x11 with a dormered area where I sit on one of the long walls, system sits opposite on the other long wall. 9 foot ceilings, it’s an upstairs office area. Amp is the Sugden FBA-800 Sapphire amp, pure Class A. Speakers are a transmission line type (JM Reynaud) so placement from the wall isn’t as important but they sit about 3 feet off the walls. I also have the AGD preamp here, which is warmer less transparent but really wonderful otherwise. Soundstage depth on the AGD is actually much better, and there have been points where I am hearing things behind my head with that preamp. The ARC has yet to do that and I can’t see it doing that, doesn’t have a holographic character, more of a transparent neutral character.
@ghdprentice thanks for the validation because I can’t afford the Ref6SE right now so this seems like it might be a good landing point. I have a couple others I want to hear as well, but this preamp ranks up there at the top for sure...Might be lacking a smidge of emotion, but I need to run more time and tracks through it. It’s a transparency king for sure. |
AGD is wonderful gear...I have the Audions coming tomorrow to listen to. I will report in one of those threads. RE: this preamp, LS28se, I am thinking any limitations I am hearing could be related to break in since it has less than 100 hours on it. Seems to be some bandwidth limitation on some tracks. Overall I can hear through this but I think I may be hearing burn in limitations. If thats the case and this thing sweetens a little it's a force to be wreckoned with. |
Thanks @ghdprentice ...I let it run all night, listened some of today and listening now it’s definitely improved now sittiing at about 117 hours. I am literally stunned at how good this preamp is, and the synergy with my amp. It literally feels like I got a new DAC and a new preamp. I will reserve judgement until I get up around the 250 hour marker and also get it hooked up XLR, waiting for my new longer ICs to arrive next week. For now, it's a GIANT leap forward for my system.
I had the AGD Audions in today for a short period as well before I went back. |
