New system/room, upgrade amp or preamp first?

Seller and I have agreed on $950 plus shipping. Can't wait for it to show up!

Thanks everyone! We are on the same page, in fact I was eyeing an Arcam FMJ-C31 in the classifieds just a few minutes ago. It has everything I need and would at least get me into a more proper piece of kit for my purposes. I do not intend to start at the top, certainly, and $650 would definitely fit within my budget. With that said, I'll take a look for some other options and keep everyone posted. Mesch - the specs I have from the DIY site I built these from lists them as about 87dB sensitivity 1w/1m so... fairly hungry I'd say. I make up for that somewhat in that I have a pretty small space to work with at the moment.

There is a Bel Canto Pre1 for sale locally that I am very intrigued by; unfortunately I do need a remote based on where the preamp will sit, and this seems to be a very good Pre that allows for both sub hookup and remote control. Is $1k a reasonable price for a Pre1?

I appreciate the feedback! I had considered going to the BlueBook to check it out, I just may do that. Thanks again!

I've initiated contact with the seller. I just can't find a bad word about this thing unless it's being compared to units several times its price. It checks all the boxes, BlueBook reveals it is priced well... I believe it shall have a new home soon.

Todd

Al - thank you so much for that response, it truly is helpful. The plan all along has been to treat the rear wall, I just haven't gotten to it yet but the concern is heard and will be handled post-haste. I have plenty of material left to make another 4" trap - my other thought was to put up a GIK Monster trap (7" thick IIRC) with a diffuser panel on the front of it to treat that space. A friend of mine also turned me onto a bass trap idea using upholstered 12" pipe insulation from OC to sit in the rear corner of the room. I just need to find a source for the insulation.

Regarding the Pre1, I noticed as well it does not have a pre-out, however I found a few references to people using the tape-out to drive the sub inputs. I unfortunately don't know what this terminology means but it is a buffered output that basically is identical to whatever source input is selected on the front panel. The manual suggests I can use both the XLR outs and RCA outs simultaneously as well, so a simple XLR-RCA adapter could fill that need as well.

Again - thank you for your effort and time in digging up that information, I really do appreciate it!

Todd

Al, hopefully this pastes well, but the text of the Pre1 manual reads:

XLR Output Jacks for Left and
Right Channels
These outputs go to your power amplifier or
active crossover if it has XLR inputs. They
use the standard Male XLR pinout pattern of:
1 - Gnd
2 - Plus Signal
3 - Minus Signal

• RCA Output Jacks for Left and
Right Channels
These RCA outputs can be used instead of,
or in addition to, the main XLR outputs to your
power amplifier, active crossover, or
sub-woofer

Since neither my amp nor my sub accept balanced ins, it looks like your observation of using the adapters is probably still in play so I would likely just go with the speaker-level option for the subs. The subs operate in a very narrow window and are just there to troll the depths, so to say. I don't expect much if anything out of them above even 50 Hz, roughly.

The loop feature is listed as being useful for sources which have their own internal volume control, the preamp is bypassed entirely. Specifically useful as a HT-Bypass mode of operation.

Thanks Al!

I will throw this out there, just to get feedback - am I loony for thinking a simple single-ended Y out of the preamp would be doable until I (ideally) find a balanced amp so as to use enable both sets of outputs concurrently? Not dismissing the high-level input option, just curious.

I've learned more about audio in general, and system considerations to a more specific degree today than any single day I can remember :) You are a very kind person to spread the knowledge you have to anyone willing to take it in. Thank you Al.

Thanks Cerrot, no worries at all! If somehow anything falls through on the BC, I may look you up, so I appreciate the heads up regardless.

I'm about 1/2" short of having enough wood to build the last hanging acoustical treatment for the rear wall. This one will be 6" thick, OC703 in a wood frame, upholstered with the same type of stuff I used on the other "wall hangings" in my room. Had a buddy over last night who is almost as much into 2-channel as I am and he was very happy with how the room is coming together. I did also figure out I can A/B the Marantz I currently have with the Bel Canto using its Loop function. Should make for an interesting experiment, to be sure.

Installed the Pre1 tonight, running y-adapters from the line out section to both the B&K and both subs. So far, so good. So, so good :) The soundstage feels like it's a foot deeper and maybe I'm just imagining things but I swear I'm hearing more detail now than before. Little things like a guy hitting his guitar with his hand (or something that sounded like that) and increased instrument separation, even in complex/loud passages. I always like to crank the opening of Money for Nothing (SACD) as a simple test. If I can play it loud, as in 90-95 dB (guessing here) and still here all of the individual sounds during the opening sequence, I feel good. No regrets there at all.

I think I'm good now for awhile. I'll save up my coins for a SET amp, most likely. That's the nice thing about having such a small room, it won't take much :)

Thanks again for all the feedback!
Todd

Update!

So it's been nearly a month now since I got everything up and running. Where to start... first of all, these DIY speakers are something special. They are hyper-resolving, tonally they are very accurate. Drums sound like drums, pianos sound crisp but not sharp or glaring, bass guitars sound incredible. Playing a 35 Hz test tone, these things have prodigious output down that far. Turn on a 20Khz test tone? I can hear it plain as day. They paint a deep, wide, and rock solid stereo image, dare I say 3D-like. They are faithful to the source, now that I've upgraded my DAC and Preamp. Still rocking a bargain-bin, used B&K amp too! And yes, I did end up finding a used power cable, plugged directly into the PS Audio outlet. The rest of the gear runs through a Tripp-Lite ISOBar.

The room. I've done a lot since my last post. Put in rear absorption just behind my listening position, put up a curtain over the wall to the right of my listening position to tame some reflections that liked to collect back in that corner, and threw down an area rug. All of which have made steady improvement, resulting in the imaging and spacing I alluded to in my first paragraph. The room seemed quiet enough with everything turned off. I used an app on my phone to see just how quiet - 18 dB is the final number. As soon as I turn on the TV and PC, that number goes up to 26 dB. Obviously the TV is simple - turn it off and pick my music from my phone, duh. The PC, I thought, was going to be a challenge. Turns out, going back to integrated video (bye bye PC gaming, hello future new console?!), turning off both case fans (don't worry, temps are fine), and spinning the HSF down a little resulted in a huge decrease in noise. It doesn't sound like much, but I'm now at 18 dB noise floor with the computer on, so that's good. Next up is a fanless PSU.

I can't overstate this - the quieter the space, the better everything sounds. Little details in music you've never heard suddenly come to life. This is across every recording I've tried. I just had on Wish You Were Here and thought... "Is that someone breathing?" during the intro. Turns out, yes it is. I'm not talking about the cough or the sniff, it's someone breathing. Maybe others have heard it, but I hadn't, even on this exact same system three days ago. It's there now, though. Little guitar notes during solos, performers hitting their hands on the guitar unintentionally, it all comes through.

So, to sum up, I'm enthralled, and enjoying the shit out of this room and system. My new routine is to kiss the wife and daughter goodnight around 10, then go downstairs and enjoy a little bourbon, some tunes, and a very dark room. It's enriching, I assure you. Money and time very well spent, and I've learned an unbelievable amount about sound and playback systems in the last month.

Oh, and from someone who had not given Radiohead - OK Computer a fair shake in my previous attempts to listen to it, it is now one of my favorite albums to turn on. Also, Black Sabbath - War Pigs, in the right system, is a lesson for how to record drums.

Edit - thought it would be fun to list some of my favorite stuff to listen to in here:

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms (the song, but the whole album is good too)
Pink Floyd - Time, Comfortably Numb, anything from Wish You Were Here
Rush - YYZ, Vital Signs
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Hank Mobley - Soul Station
Rodrigo y Gabriela - *
Yo-Yo Ma plays Enio Morricone
Radiohead - Paranoid Android, Let Down, Lucky, Karma Police
Black Sabbath - War Pigs, Paranoid, Planet Caravan, Iron Man, Rat Salad
Titanic Score - Death of Titanic
Hans Zimmer - Gladiator - the long one, it's 10:30 seconds, don't remember the name
John Williams - Duel of the Fates
Pearl Jam - Ten.*
Parkway Drive - Atlas.*

There are more, but those are my gotos.

Edit 2 - shit I knew I'd forget a bunch. My favorite part of the room? Listening at low to mid volume. On a scale to 100 with 85 being *loud*, I do most of my listening between 48 and 60. Doesn't wake up the ladies of the house but the sound is full and rich. This is a direct result of a much better preamp than what I was using initially. Also, I took the metal/glass stand out of the front of the room and all of the equipment sits on the floor. Well not really, I can go into detail if anyone wants to hear about that whole setup.