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What tube preamp to get to smooth out the sound?????

Hi have Wadia 850 cdp directly to pair of Odyssey Monoblocks, speakers are NHT 3.3's...Im very happy with the strengths of each component but recently sold a Adcom gfp 750 pre because all I listen to is CD, so I figure why not sell it and go direct..but the sound is not as good as when I had the preamp, direct sounds more hard/etchy , not as smooth as with the pre..I want to buy another pre but get something better than what I had before instead of SS was thinking of getting into tubes to get more warmth/smoothness I want to get rid of any harshness/etchines .... trying to keep it under 2k used, any suggestions from others who had this kind of problem I hear BAT is particulary good...
eantala
jman
99 posts
 
Blue Circle BC3 is can be had for well under 2k used..power supply can be upgraded..only 2 6922's means you can do lots of tube rolling without breaking the bank and voice the pre as you wish.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Is it possible that you are now hearing some grain and sharpness in the high end of the NHTs? I have small NHTs for my HT, with nowhere near the resolution you have in the rest of my HT system, but I know that some say that they can be bright. As for a pre, I like my BAT VK3i which I recently retubed with Siemens NOS E88CCs and NOS GE 6V6GTs. Bought the tubes on ebay at a pretty decent price and it sounds great. I do have Vandersteens which some call a little laid back, but it was a big improvement over the stock Sovteks (which admittedly may have been a little long in the tooth).

And Suzy, we understand your reluctance to name names but hopefully the recent changes here (moderated forum) will help tame the harshest flames. Glad to hear a new voice.
jazzdac
1 posts
 
Sir!
I would check out a CROFT VITALI SC/3 tubes and it will not take you to two banks. E-mail Henry at Eminentaudio@MSN.com

Good Luck
Art
kirk930's avatar
kirk930
285 posts
 
back to the origanal topic. tube preamp under 2k; jadis dpl, or maybe even a jpl. cat, conrad premiere 10. 7 b . vac. these to me are the most lush for under 2k. used of course.
crosseyedmary4
10 posts
 
try audible illusions modulus 3 A i picked one up at this site for 1100
ive also got an adcom 565 and the A I is a better pre amp not just spec-wise you can hear it it will smooth it out and actually give you more detail and put the vocals in their proper place and i have an extremely critical ear
but keep in mind nht s are a very very bright speaker

tony
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