About 1989, I was going to turn selling my baseball card collection into some very good speakers. Well, I only got $900 from a card dealer, but it was better than nothing. I went to Quintessence Audio In Naperville, IL and listened to one after another speaker for several weeks. I even decided to up my total to $1000 to replace my Allison Ones. I gave it up and sold the AO’s to my college roommate and friend. He still has them and enjoys them. That makes me glad.
To the point, I restarted the same quest but now had a good for the money pair of Paradigms that were large bookshelf size. I did the same thing but took less than several hours listening. in one day. THEN, the dealer put a different preamp in the system. I had a PS Audio SS preamp at the time with a SS amp. This preamp all of a sudden made the music come to life when no speaker seemed to do it for me. After several musical selections, I asked him what made this sound so good? He told me that this preamp was a tube preamp and was THE best sounding one in the store. Turns out that preamp was the Audible Illusions 2D with a very good phono section in it, too. It cost $800 with a small discount Frank gave me. That was my first taste of tubes. I had a Quad 405 SS amp for 28 years with the Mod Squad modifications done about 1/2 way through. The change to the Audible Illusions preamp was the greatest change by far I ever made in my system. The music became a joy everytime I turned it on. That preamp illuminated the sound as good tube components do, but was built to last, too. I had that as the main part of my system happily for over 14 years and changed it only to get the Audible Illusions 3A with the John Curl phono section to be able to use low output MC cartridges.
You mentioned that phono was not happening, but they also make preamps with no phono that sound the same way otherwise. You could get an Audible Illusions 3 used for about $900-1100. Use Audible Illusion matched tube sets (identical tubes that are electrically very close to the same). The other tubes you could get don’t last as long in an AI preamp. I had the AI 3A for another 9 years until I went whole hog and got a sensational preamp (TRL DUDE)--much more money, but I still have it and it is awesome.
Trying to get the sound you’re looking for in other ways at that price may be very difficult. The AI preamps come up for sale now and then on the websites. It will make a bigger difference to your sound than most anything you can do. Keep the SS int. amp and later, you can upgrade just the amp and get better sound. I did that too, but the biggest kick was from the AI preamp.
Bob
To the point, I restarted the same quest but now had a good for the money pair of Paradigms that were large bookshelf size. I did the same thing but took less than several hours listening. in one day. THEN, the dealer put a different preamp in the system. I had a PS Audio SS preamp at the time with a SS amp. This preamp all of a sudden made the music come to life when no speaker seemed to do it for me. After several musical selections, I asked him what made this sound so good? He told me that this preamp was a tube preamp and was THE best sounding one in the store. Turns out that preamp was the Audible Illusions 2D with a very good phono section in it, too. It cost $800 with a small discount Frank gave me. That was my first taste of tubes. I had a Quad 405 SS amp for 28 years with the Mod Squad modifications done about 1/2 way through. The change to the Audible Illusions preamp was the greatest change by far I ever made in my system. The music became a joy everytime I turned it on. That preamp illuminated the sound as good tube components do, but was built to last, too. I had that as the main part of my system happily for over 14 years and changed it only to get the Audible Illusions 3A with the John Curl phono section to be able to use low output MC cartridges.
You mentioned that phono was not happening, but they also make preamps with no phono that sound the same way otherwise. You could get an Audible Illusions 3 used for about $900-1100. Use Audible Illusion matched tube sets (identical tubes that are electrically very close to the same). The other tubes you could get don’t last as long in an AI preamp. I had the AI 3A for another 9 years until I went whole hog and got a sensational preamp (TRL DUDE)--much more money, but I still have it and it is awesome.
Trying to get the sound you’re looking for in other ways at that price may be very difficult. The AI preamps come up for sale now and then on the websites. It will make a bigger difference to your sound than most anything you can do. Keep the SS int. amp and later, you can upgrade just the amp and get better sound. I did that too, but the biggest kick was from the AI preamp.
Bob