Good tube preamp w/ HT bypass

Ok; so far we have:

Rogue Magnum 66 - 0 votes

The audio research sp-16l - 2 votes

Sonic Frontiers Line 1-3 - 2 votes

belles 21A - 1 vote

Anthem Pre 2L? - no votes

Looks like the Rogue and Anthem aren't too well known?

The SF line 3 is too much, as is the ARC sp-16l; I can't find any of them anywhere near to $1k. Do any of the above sound close to those?

Can anyone describe how these sound? Are they very accurate, or do they add a lot of "tube" to the sound?

Thanks again!

Forgot to mention; I'd like it to have a remote.

I also had sonic frontiers L1, mccormack rld-1 (is this solid state?), and arc ls1 to me...

Thanks again!

I don't know too much about the belles; can you tell me a little more? It's SS and tube? Have you heard it against any of the other units above?

I looked at the mccormack; it's definitely SS. Good looking unit though!

Sonic; can you tell me a little more about the sonic frontiers units? Have you heard it against any of the units I listed above?

Thanks to both of you!

Anyone have experience with the Anthem Pre 2L? It looks to be priced similar to the Rogue Magnum 66 ($5-700 used).

Kevin - is ARC an acronym for audio research?

Ok - so far:

Rogue Magnum 66 - 0 votes

The audio research sp-16l - 2 votes - too expensive

Sonic Frontiers Line 1-3 - 2 votes (3 is too expensive, and 2 looks to be also???)

belles 21A - 1 vote

Anthem Pre 2L? - 1 vote

Cary SLP2002 - 1 vote - too expensive

BAT VK3i - 1 vote

Looks like the Rogue is not well known at all; the sonic frontiers is the most popular. Does the SF come in any color but gold? It sounds stupid, but dang that would look ugly in my rack!

Tsmack; I've got a price of $2k new for the AVM30; let me know what info you have on a used amv20!

Thanks for all the comments so far! It looks like most have their definite favorites and haven't heard some of the others...

Keep 'em coming please!

Well; I seem to have ran up against another problem.

Will most of these preamps mentioned alter the sound even in bypass mode? I don't want a timbral shift when listening to my HT; but in another discussion, it was mentioned that most preamps will run through the tubes/etc even in bypass mode.

Anyone have an idea about this? Know of any preamps that pass the signal from in-out on the bypass mode without going through the circuitry?

Kal,

Thanks for the reply! I think I need to get my hands on a few and try them out. So far, the CJ PV14l, anthem pre2l, cary slp2002, and the SF line 1-2 all sound good. I need to do a little research on them and see what the processor loops do on each...

I wish Utah wasn't in the middle of nowhere for tube equipment; most of the dealers here give you a blank look and a stare when tubes are brought up. "Why would you want to move backwards in technology?" one of them told me. Uugh.

No, not really; I've just heard good things from tubes lately, and really been interested. I supposed I could pick up an adcom gfp-750 and run it in passive w/ HT bypass engaged; that wouldn't add any sonic signature. And it seems to be highly rated....

Kal,

Wow, great! Thanks for that information!

I just bought a line-1 here, but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm hoping it's what I am looking for; I've read that they are very neutral; I hope it's not so transparent that my numerous poorly recorded CD's don't sound too bad to listen to! ;-)

To ask you another question Kal; how long do tubes usually last, and how do I know when they go 'bad'?

Paul,

Well - I bought a line-1 and compared it with my Statement D1 - and it sounded no better, and IMHO a little worse. It was definitely harsher on the top end. To be honest, I don't know if it was the line-1, the modded JD100 I swapped in at the same time, or both together. I definitely was not happy though; it sounded more solid state than my SS gear did!

The real clincher was badly recorded CD's; I don't know if it is the D1's upsampling, but with most of my rock CD's it was downright painful to listen on the line-1. The D1 seemed to take that edge off of it.

I then bought a line-2 in mint condition; and haven't even taken it out of the box yet. ;-) I think I'm just going to sell it, sell the wally-modded JD100, buy another stock JD100 and stay happy with my D1 for now and enjoy my music.

My only complaint on the line series is that the HT bypass loop is only single ended, not balanced. Other than that, it's an incredibly beefy and well built piece of equipment.

As far as damage, none whatsoever; it worked perfectly. I something could happen, but it was fine for me.