Review: Spectral DMC-30SL

Hi Shubertmaniac,as an owner of the DMC-20s2 and DMA150 and Avalon Opus speakers I agree on your conclusion that for a highend pre-amp to show its capabilities, it requires (demands) high standards for the fron-end as well as the back-end of your system and not to forget the cables and the AC. For a broad band pre-amp as the DMC-20 any high frequency noise will effect the phase correctness (assumed it is) of the input signal and there goes the (inner) soundstage and positioning of the image. Not to mention the lost of inner detail and timbre.
A spectral component or chain requires at least a shielded (best is double or tripple shielded) AC cable from your equipment room to location where the AC comes into your house and is splitted to the various groups. In The Netherlands (where I live) the AC in an normal house has 3-phases and I use an seperate individual phase for my equipment. Although the improvement is less than by using a direct shielded AC-line. A slong as you haven't taken such measures I wonder if you will ever experience what your DMC-30 is capable of.
Good luck Henk

After 6 months of critical listening to the whole system, I replaced the DMC30SL with both a DMC10 and and an ARC SP8; switching back and forth between the two. Then the following day going back to the DMC30SL. There is just no comparison! The DMC30SL has a much larger soundstage and better control of the image, the bass impact is stronger.
But the two most breathtaking aspects of the DMC30sl is resolution and tonal balance and correctness. My favorite instrument is the cello and the Spectral preamp gets this right,from top to bottom of the musical scale;just amazing. The woodiness of the cello is not muted or plastic, just natural. But its ability to get into the CD bitstream and glean what is there is something to behold. It is enchanting. So many old CDs, become more vibrate with the ambient resolution that this preamp produces. Honestly, I cannot wait to get home and turn my system on and just get enraptured with the music. They say solid state is cold
and heartless, Spectral puts the heart and soul back in.

I couldn't agree more...love the dmc30sl for it's ultra revealing ways, and the overall Spectral/Avalon sound for sheer musicality.

Just wanted to add another datapoint tho' not exactly related to the DMC-30SL:-

Today an audiophile friend kindly brought over his Spectral DMC-20 2-chassis preamp. We compared it to my CAT SL1 Mk3 in my system. The DMC-20 is a fantastic preamp indeed & I agree with 'Shubertmaniac' that the DMC-20 put back heart & soul into the music. This pre is very revealing & neutral. It has a musical midrange, extended highs & excellent bass. One of the many tracks we played was "Rainy Day" from John Lee Hooker's "Don't Look Back" CD. Fantastic, stomach pounding bass (not to mention excellent vocals). I had to constantly remind myself that I was listening to a ss preamp!

This, IMHO, is the highest compliment that can paid to a ss unit:- when we switched back & forth with my CAT preamp, we could not tell any difference in the sonic signature! We, of course, could see which pre was playing in the system but if we were blind-folded, no way we could tell! If I had to struggle to find a difference then I'd say that the mids of the CAT were slightly sweeter & fuller than the DMC-20. This I attribute to one being a ss design & the other a tube design. The DMC-20 was slightly lean in the midrange vs. the CAT. However, both preamps are on the accurate side of neutral. It would be fair for me to say that the CAT is the tube cousin of the DMC-20 or the DMC-20 is the ss cousin of the CAT.

Then we took the DMC-20 to my friend's house who owns a heavily modified Audio Research SP-6A. What I can tell you is that the SP-6A held up remarkably well to the DMC-20. The SP-6A has a very beautiful bloomy midrange & those of you who have owned any of the SP series preamps know what I'm talking about re. the bloomy midrange. If the DMC-20 was slightly lean in the mids vs. the CAT then it was much more lean vs. the SP-6A. At this pt. many of you must be saying that I must be smoking some sort of weed! I reassure you that I'm not & I know what I'm talking about! This SP-6A was brought up to spec. by Richard Gray & then K&K Audio upgraded the power supply caps to computer grade Panasonics & the coupling caps to Kimber. Now, this preamp will hold its ground even to a DMC-20 type pre. It is stunning to realize this & one has to hear this SP-6A to believe it.

Anyway, the DMC-20 has more extended highs & a better control of the bass but it loses the midrange hands down to the SP-6A. The owner of the SP-6A & I agreed that the DMC-20 high freq & better bass was not worth the large price differential esp. since my friend was able to get the SP-6A in stock condition for a pittance & paid a very reasonable amt. for the upgrades. We played a bunch of music - Alison Kraus "Live", Grateful Dead "American Beauty", some bluegrass music, various Jazz vinyl. The vinyl was piped out of the SP-6A from the tape-out & fed into the DMC-20 & into my friend's BelCanto SET40. When we played the vinyl, it was very diff. to ascertain the DMC-20 signature so all my comments above refer to when we switched to CD & used only the DMC-20 as the preamp.

Anyway, today was very nice day comparing preamps. I am mighty fortunate & pleased to have listened to the DMC-20 for it is one of the most musical ss preamps I have heard in a very long time. The designer has done a splendid job of giving its ss heart a lot of soul. I can see, now, how you owners enjoy its musicality. If I had to chose a ss preamp one day (I hope that day is far, far away!) then the DMC-20 would be on my very, very shortlist. Good choice guys!

Bombaywalla: I started out with an ARC SP8 and ARC D115.2 with the Acoustat 2+2 and enjoyed the system for years. I also had a DMC10 and a pair of DMA50s also. I would mix and match various combos to see which would work. However about three years ago (place blame on Audiogon!) I got worked up about buying a new system, I was in near sticker shock at first, but also because of Audiogon I was fortunate enough to put together a very decent system. The center piece of the electronics was the DMC30sl. I think it serves its purpose quite well. In regards to the ARC preamps, I still like them, in particular their very seductive midrange, and upper bass regions. Everybody seems to think that ss preamps
get shrill in the treble region or at least grainy. In most cases they are correct in that assumption, however, the Spectral seems to be lacking in this aspect; it is smooth all the way to the top of the frequency range. I just think in general it is harder to make a very good ss preamp( ditto ss amps) than tube (pre)amps. I have no plans to change or get up tight about my system with a ss preamp or ss amp. I just enjoy it for what it is: a window to sound reproduction.