Looking For The Best Pre-Amp Match For A Pair of Classe Omega Amplifiers

Recently put together another system using Classe components for my IRS Betas that have been for sale for a while. Running the Classe 6 Preamp with two CA100's mono on the highs and a CA400 for the bass, and am very impressed with the quality and sound of this older Classe gear. I'm very fond of the Six Preamp and agree with the suggestion made earlier. There is one currently for sale in silver.

The Omegas have started to settle in, been running now since Tuesday afternoon 24/7 and have finally gotten moderately warm and the sound has opened up. Beautiful midrange, actually excellent tonal balance across the board, spacious soundstage in all dimensions, excellent dynamic expression, and the bass is never overblown but reaches a level of depth that my other amps never would. This is the best sound I have achieved from my JBL 4365, and I am thoroughly content. This was a good purchase for me, and I have met if not exceeded my goals. 

Now its find a pre-amp. I did put a want to buy out for the Omega pre-amp but I bet that will take a long time to find. Need to find a stand in for the time being. 

@mspot Yes. FWIW supporting AES48 at the input of an amplifier is fairly easy. The concern is not having to listen to interconnect cables to get the 'sound' right. If AES48 is supported its plug and play; one of its goals is to eliminate interconnect cable interaction.

If you want to get the most out of balanced operation, with whatever preamp you look at, ask if it supports AES48, the balanced line standard. Most high end audio preamps don't.

What if the OP's power amp doesn't support AES48? Would it make a difference for the preamp to be AES48 compliant?

So i brought the Classe Omega home this afternoon and have them installed. Just running on my back up pre-amp at the moment, wanting to get the amps warmed up and settled in. Been powered up since 2 PM, so about 8 hours, and they have just gotten warm to the touch. In the past with my AVM amps and PS PS Audio I found it usually takes about 72 hours for them to find their footing, and at the 7 day mark before you get the majority of their ability. But even now, after listening to a few tracks you can hear the potential. The sound is far more real than many other amps I have heard over the years. If I had to describe the sound I would say it is nothing and everything, with the ability to bring the music alive. Sure at the upper tier I imagine there are amps that will outpace these, but for what financial resources I have this is quite satisfying. 

Now to find a pre-amp. I still prefer to use solid state, and Coda or Ayre makes a lot of sense. There are a couple of Burmester I could swing, EAR is going to be tube I suppose. Don't know what ARC is doing for SS anymore. The CJ gear phase inverts and don't want to deal with that. I supposed JDRG is an option. Luxman gets mentioned from time to time. Just a few thoughts....

I would recommend taking a look at the CODA SS preamps. CODA tends to fly under the radar, but it is top notch American built SS gear. Very detailed and transparent, but with a warmer quality. The 07X maybe out of your price range, but the CODA CP is a great preamp with a lot of the 07X performance. Both can also be found on the used market. Good luck. 

I just want a high quality pre amp with excellent volume control, balanced outputs, and remote control capability.

If you want to get the most out of balanced operation, with whatever preamp you look at, ask if it supports AES48, the balanced line standard. Most high end audio preamps don't.

Backert is tubed but is not Conrad-Johnson-tubey, and has all the attributes you desire and none that you don't want.

I will admit, to me, no preamp comes to mind with the attributes you seek that is not tubed. My recommendation for a not cold, detailed neutral preamp would be an Audio Research Reference… as contemporary as you can afford.
 

I guess if push came to shove I would recommend a Pass for solid state. I owned mostly Pass amps and preamps for decades.  

To be honest a lot of these upper tier pre-amps have attributes I really don't care for. Why do they have to use programmable inputs? I don't care what set of jacks are assigned to what input button and the corresponding one on the remote. I just want a high quality pre amp with excellent volume control, balanced outputs, and remote control capability. I don't need a huge electronic display or bunches of other stuff....these newer pre-amps have LCD screens that just look like trouble to me. 

I am going to suggest a wonderful Line Amp from Benchmark, their LA-4 (Love Mine) NEUTRAL   They also offer a model I believe is an HP-4 more expensive than the LA-4 @ $2500 (remote $100) Hp-4 3K  with Great headphone AMP,  see all reviews. Talk to RORY in Upstate NY @ Benchmark.  Great website also,  30 day free trial period, 5 year warranty   All reviews are outstanding     Hope this helps. Good Luck  Robert

There are a few interesting Ayre pre amps floating out there

You asked specifically about Classe preamps and I have used a Classe Audio 6 in conjunction with Classe amps for years with great results. A highly regarded preamp from Classe built in the '90's, but IMHO, one the best preamps Classe built. Probably leans to the warm side of neutral. I have one I will be selling and they are certainly available on the used market from time to time. One disadvantage is they are not remote controlled if that is an issue, but a great preamp if you are looking at the used market. 

Never been a fan of McIntosh myself either although I have had one friend system with MC60 and a Mac pre with Tannoy Westminster speakers sound nice. But still not my choice.

So Audionet can be on the short list, but it seems very few are on the used US market, at least at this time.

Be curious to know if any other candidates get mentioned.

@neonknight - I also had in home demo of McIntosh C2700 tube preamp and C53 SS preamp.  Both sounded veiled compared to the same amps with Audionet. I had heard what a great match Classe / McIntosh and B and W are. (I had 802Ns at the time) but for clarity and resolution IMHO look elsewhere.

I had Classe amps with my Classe SSP-800.  Fairly good for both music and video, but unreliable and not as good as a dedicated two channel preamp.  It was the Classe processor's second failure that got me started down the rabbit hole of better sounding music.  I would look at the Audionet Pre G2.  It took everything to another level.  I also had the Audionet Pre1 G3.  It  was superior to the Classe, but the PreG2 is the bomb.  

Don’t have time to post pics for a bit, am at work. Speakers are JBL 4365 with a pair of Velodyne HGS12 servo subs. Sources are a SOTA Cosmos Eclipse with SME V and Transfiguration Proteus and Scheu Analog das Laufwerk No2 with Dynavector DV505 arms and Ortofon MC2000 and MC 3000 II cartridges. Digital is an Audio Magic Kukama DAC with Mac Mini server. Cabling is Wireworld Eclipse 8, power cords from Pi Audio. Room is 16 ’ by 19’ with 8’ ceilings.

Music types are all across the board. Folk, Jazz, pop, new age, classical, country, blues, electronic, just about anything except opera.

Sound preferences? As neutral as possible within my moderate budget. Prefer a bit of warmth and texture over clinical presentation if push comes to shove. But I no longer care for all the overt colorations you get from most tube gear, pretty much in the solid state world, especially with these speakers. 

What is the rest of your system and venue? Photos can be posted under your used ID. 
 

What are your sound preferences and preferred music types?