2. amps-preamps
  3. 1209225492

mbl 6011d or arc ref 3 or dartzeel preamp?

hi,

I am looking for a balanced preamp for my system. I have narrowed it down to the dartzeel preamp, the mbl6011d or arc ref 3. The dartzeel preamp would mate best with the dartzeel amp that I have but am not positive I would keep the dartzeel amp. I am using emm labs dac and transport for digital and evolution acoustic speaker mm2 (with powered woofer). The speakers are definitely staying. the digital is stayin unless I cannot afford to keep everything.

If I changed my amplifier, I would likely stay with a solid state amplifier perhaps the mbl amplifier. I might consider a hybrid like the lamm 1.2

I have only seen scant reviews of the mbl 6011d and know a few people here love it but want to know has anyone compared it to the arc 3 or dartzeel?

thanks

mike

radioheadokplayer

Showing 1 response by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,629 posts
 
I'm really puzzled at how these three preamps came to be in the short list- they seem so different.

Balanced line offers the flexibility of extended cables without degradation, and the balanced line system was devised with the intention of eliminating interconnect cable problems! IOW, a proper balanced line setup will allow you to use an inexpensive cable to very good effect- that is what it is for, and how Mercury, RCA, EMI and others were able to make such fabulous records long before the existance of a high end cable industry.

FWIW we have a customer who has the DartZeel and uses it with our preamp (the MP-1) which is fully balanced. He is very happy with the setup, so a balanced preamp will work fine with the DartZeel no worries.
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