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World's best Pre-amp for $10K and above?

Looking for the HOLY GRAIL in Audio? Here it is. I'm in my early sixties and retiring to my final system, which I was going to purchase during the past twelve months and decided to put on the brakes, and investigate whats out there as the most advanced engineered high end audio products for the money in the market place. As far as I'm concerned, the two top engineers in the world for the best Amp and Preamp at low prices are Bent Holter with Hegel Audio in Norway and Roger Sanders with Sanders Sound in Colorado. Why? The Hegel P-30 Pre-amp is a game changer, and will easily compete with Pre-amps at $30K and above. The FM Acoustics 268 Preamp that retails for $107K, uses a technology thats called "feedforward" instead of feedback.
Amps and Pre-amps since the early 80's have all used either global feedback, zero feedback or local feedback to filter out noise and lower distortion by sending and filtering the feedback current to filter capacitors or or an extra filter transformer. A small amount of voltage feedback occurs at the output stage in amps and preamps which goes back into the parts and boards causing noise and distortion which smears the quality of the music.The best Preamps in the world all have S/N noise ratios at 125 db's or above. The Hegel P-30 Preamp uses the same feedforward technology as FM Acoustics but is a more current design that Bent Holter calls "Sound Engine" patented technology that eliminates feedback which is why the P-30 Preamp has a S/N ratio of 132 db's, which has never been accomplished in high end audio with a Preamp costing $10K or below. The same applies to Roger Sanders Magtech amplifier which uses a patented linear voltage regulator that controls and regulates voltage with no excess voltage going back into the amp causing heat and distortion problems. The amp puts out 900 watts into 4ohms. Krell makes a pair of mono blocs that also use a similar voltage regulator. The amps are $100K a pair. HERES THE PERFECT SOLID STATE SYSTEM. A Hegel P-30 Preamp. A Sanders Magtech amp, A pair of Aerial Acoustics 7T speakers. The worlds finest SACD player, the Playback Designs MPS-5, designed by Andreas Koch, who invented SACD technology when he worked for Sony. He built the worlds first outboard DAC in 1982 and is legend in digital engineering. The MPS-5 is the most analog sounding player on the market which costs $17K. The Hegel P-30 is only $7500.00 and the Magtech amp is only $5K. The Aerials are $10K. Buy the solid core cables from Morrow Audio. They are low capacitance cables which matches up perfectly with these components. This combination sounds like the very best tube and solid state gear on the market. The whole system will cost about $42K but will sound as good as any system costing $200K. All of these products are game changers. If you want better looking cabinets and faceplates, then blow your money, but you will not get better performance for what this system has to offer. It is the HOLY GRAIL you are searching for and there is no better combination for the total cost of the system.
audiozen

Showing 9 responses by peterayer

peterayer
1,382 posts
 
I've never read anything like this thread in these forums. I don't really
know if the OP is joking, serious, or if he is a dealer for these products.

I have one question: Once you have assembled these holy grail
components, who is going to set it up properly for you? You might be
surprised, but proper set up in a good room is critical to great sound.
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
What happened to the world's best pre amp?
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
Atmasphere, are you saying there is no "art" involved in designing amps and preamps? If it is all engineering, then given any number of competent designers using the same circuit, would they not develop identical sounding amps and preamps because they would all make the same design decisions based on engineering specifications regarding wires, caps, solder, etc? Or why do competent designers choose different circuits if they all have the same goal, namely to make a component sound as much like real music as possible?

In the May/June 2012 issue of TAS there is a series of interviews of nine leading electronics designers. One who is surely competent is Nelson Pass. In the article he wrote "If there has been progress (in the improvement of electronics), it has been where the subjective character has been refined in the service of the listener's experience. To paraphrase McLluhan, we are turning our mature technologies into art."

Much of the design work at Pass Labs, I've read, is by trying something in a design and then subjecting the prototype to intensive listening tests and then modifying it until they are pleased with the result.

This process may not be called "voicing", but it does seem to involve some subjective decision making. Is that not "art". I appreciate your views and contributions as a designer on these forums. Thanks.
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
Atmasphere, are you saying there is no "art" involved in designing amps and preamps? If it is all engineering, then given any number of competent designers using the same circuit, would they not develop identical sounding amps and preamps because they would all make the same design decisions based on engineering specifications regarding wires, caps, solder, etc? Or why do competent designers choose different circuits if they all have the same goal, namely to make a component sound as much like real music as possible?

In the May/June 2012 issue of TAS there is a series of interviews of nine leading electronics designers. One who is surely competent is Nelson Pass. In the article he wrote "If there has been progress (in the improvement of electronics), it has been where the subjective character has been refined in the service of the listener's experience. To paraphrase McLluhan, we are turning our mature technologies into art."

Much of the design work at Pass Labs, I've read, is by trying something in a design and then subjecting the prototype to intensive listening tests and then modifying it until they are pleased with the result.

This process may not be called "voicing", but it does seem to involve some subjective decision making. Is that not "art". I appreciate your views and contributions as a designer on these forums. Thanks.
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
So do we agree that competent designers listen to their designs as part of the development process? If so, than the decisions to use certain parts and reject others are based on objective engineering principles and then refined by the subjective act of listening until a design meets a particular set of goals. It's a combination of art and science and it appears that what we call it is a matter of semantics.

Now, what ever happened to the Hegel P30? Does anyone own this thing?
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
Podeschi, the way you describe the P30 reminds me of the way the Pass XP-30 sounded in my system. But add the nuance, refinement of great tubes and the neutrality and transparency of great SS pre amps.
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
I don't know if it does, but I agree that it is and it is. I borrowed one to compare to my XP-20. It is better, and it costs more. Someday, I hope to buy one. The down side is that it takes up a lot of space with three boxes which should be separated to sound their best.
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
World's best Pre-amp for $10K and above?
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
Thank you for the clarification. I was wondering why there was so much discussion about preamps that I thought you wanted excluded by the thread's title. I understand now.
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