Hi Michael; I've had a LOT of experience with Vand. 2Ce, 3A, and 3Asig. Synergistic Research Signature No.2 (biwired) work great with all of them-- very neural, smooth and detailed, but I suspect they would be hard to find used. I think 14 ft. bi-wired runs cost me about $1400.-- but I paid retail, and the extra 4 feet would make a difference. Sanctuary of Sound, Seattle, WA. sells Syn. Res. at a discount and "Stewart" is an Audiogon preferred dealer. My Sonic Frontiers Line 1 and Line 2 pre-amps have 2 sets of balanced inputs, and are very musical (neutral as opposed to "tubey"-- with the stock 6922 tubes); and they have excellent bass. Neither is "noisy". The Line 1 and 2 have great remotes, and either can be had used for under $2K-- The Line 1 about $1200-1300., and the Line 2 (out board power supply) about $1700-2000. These two pre-amps sound very similar, but the Line 1 is slightly more aggressive and live(in a good way) while the Line 2 is slightly more relaxed, easy, and laid back. The differences are subtle. If you went with a Line 1, it may leave you with more bucks for the speaker cables. Happy hunting, Craig.
Cables 4 Vandy 3's & preamp 4 Ayre V-3
I have a pair of Vandersteen plain 3's, not A's, not Signatures powered by an Ayre V-3. Need a recommendation on a 10' biwired cable (used) circa $500 or under. Current contenders: Transparent Music Wave Supers, Cardas Quadlink, MIT T2. Please feel free to recommend others. Here's the hard part...I need a musical preamp (used) under $2000, with at least 1 bal out, 2 or more bal in, REMOTE control, tape (line) out (bal would be nice here, but very rare). If tube, must be quiet (low noise floor) but punchy (in the bass freqs). If SS, must be musical and non-harsh, like a Krell or Levinson, sans their upper eschelon price tags. A nice phono stage would be icing on the cake, but I could always buy a standalone unit (phono recommedations under $1000??). Preamp contenders: BAT VK-3i or VK-20???, ARC LS2B, Atma-sphere, YBA, Ayre K-3, others??? Musical tastes range from Gabrielli & Bach, to Billie, Ella, Thelonius, to Krall, to U2 and remixed contemporary dance music. Your comments are VERY much appreciated. Thanks for your time, Michael