Pre Amp or Amp Best Money Spent

Tvat, I think you meant with grain.
Another vote for speaker/amp(s) synergy.

Mariusz

Cheers

I'm in the amp camp too.

So does anybody have opions on the vandy's with either the mono blocks or stereo rogue amps. The mono's keep the speaker wire short improving resistance I believe? The Vandy's seem to have a flat responce so the tubes with 90-120 watts should be in the target range? thanks for all your support. John seems to have some real life experience and good advice. Cheers

Clearly you need an amp to properly drive your speakers, BUT what come before the amp, the preamp and what comes before that, the source...it is all a balancing act and results in a "system" given fixed funds, assuming your source is up to snuff, a better preamp into a good but modest amp will IMHO sound better.

I have multiple systems and time and time again have tried many combos, and I always come away with a better sound fueled by a better preamp/modest amp combo.

12-03-07: Bob_reynolds
It seems to me that your budget for electronics is way too high for your Vandy speakers. A simple NAD integrated, like the C370, will get all they have to deliver. Spending more on electronics won't get you anything, IMO. If you want to spend more money, then add a subwoofer.

Any speaker, including a model from Radio Shack, will sound better with better electronics driving them. So I couldn't disagree more with Bob's assertion that the NAD integrated "will get all they have to deliver".

That said, Bob does have a point in questioning the budget allocation toward each part of your system. Spending bigger dollars on a Rogue amp and preamp raises the question of whether that money would have been better spent on the superior 2Ce Sig or vastly superior 2Ce Sig mkII.

Also, the quality level of both the preamplifier and power matter and should be optimized for the best overall results, but assuming that a choice had to be made on which is more sonically significant, it would be the preamp. This assumes that an asinine choice isn't made for either component.

I'm a Vandersteen and Rogue dealer.