2. amps-preamps
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Magnepan 1.7 too bright, HELP

I just bought a used 6 month old Magnepan 1.7 and hooked them to my old system, which consists on a Deonon 2900 Universal player, Emotiva USP Preamp and Rotel 1080 power amp and use anticables for speaker connections, and monster cables for interconnects.

The sound is too bright for me, I used the provide 1 ohm resisters, still too bright, any recommendations.
bnrimal

Showing 3 responses by gte357s

gte357s
281 posts
 
A good tube pre under $500 maybe a bit hard to find. Two budget unit with good review comes to mind are the AES DJH and Mapletree 4 SE. But both of them is in the $700-$800 price range. You can keep an eye on those if you can stretch your budget a bit.
gte357s
281 posts
 
I understand every system is different. In my case, I don't have luck in SS preamp. I always feel the sound is too bright and sometimes harsh. I tried upgrade cables, no significant improvement. I tried to change to another SS amp, no luck. I tried to add a DAC with tube buffer, no luck. Until I change to a tube preamp, I start to see the improvement. So, I would suggest to get a nice tube preamp. I am not sure what is your price range, tried to search for the thread for best tube preamp under $1000. I remember some of the suggestions are Mapletree 4 SE, AES DJH, PrimaLuna Prologue 3. I am using a PrimaLuna Prologue 3 now, very good preamp. But you need to pay attention to its very high output impedance and 12dB gain. You need an amp with at least 100k ohm input impedance.
gte357s
281 posts
 
There is a mapletree 2 se selling in audiocircle. U may be interested.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=93617.0
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