New preamp: lamm ll2 or Cary slp 05

Both are great preamps, but IMHO you are going at it all wrong. Pick your speakers first, match the amp to the speakers, match the pre with the amp etc. Equipmewnt synergy is the key to a very musical system.

I agree with Brf,get a set of speakers you can live with then match equipment to them.I wish I had done that when I put together my system.Good luck in your search.

DITTO. We all wish we had this advice when we started. The Cary SLP's output impedance is pretty high 400 ohms (I believe) so your SS amp sellection will be somewhat limited. The Pass Labs amps are generally not a good fit for the SLP due to their low input impedance.

So the above folks are right, save $$$ do it the right way.

Thanks everyone for the comments and it does make sense. However I'm not exactly sure how to isolate the speakers I want since they'll alway be playing through a specific amp/preamp. I guess I should choose the speaker and amp first and then focus on the pre.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with the dynaudios. I've heard them through a simaudio integrated and a pathos hybrid integrated and liked the speakers (I think) but not necessarily the amps.

Ajackson1: thanks for the info on the Cary, at least now I know it wouldn't be a good match for SS amps.

The Cary is not a bad match for all SS amps, only ones with low input impedance such as Pass. I have a Cary slp-05 with Classe CAm-350's-excellent combo.

Just to clarify. I am not saying u cannot use Cary SLP with SS amps. It just needs to be matched carefully. I do have the SLP and like it a lot. Read the SLP review in Stereophile, it will provide u with most of the info u need.

Buy Cary's awesome CAD 500 MB amps to match with the SLP 05 and not impedence match problem!!

You know Ajackson1 this is great info, I was not aware there could be a problem with impendence matching. What happens if there is a disparity in the impendence?

Is it like matching your cartridge and the phono pre? I was thinking about a new preamp and along with moving up to the SLP 05 I was considering the ARC Ref 3 or the McIntosh 2200 and I hadn't considered matching them to the my amps which I don't want to change.

Thanks for the info.