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
Always go with the most expensive unit. It might not be the absolute best but it'll get you in the ballpark. Then tweak the crap out of it, of course.

An ordinary man has no means of deliverance.
If its worth the most on the used market after 10 years or so chances are its also the best.

List prices of new gear is not nearly as reliable an indicator of overall quality. What people end up actually paying over time is more like it. Its probably more predictable in advance with products from well know vendors with a history of good products under their belts.

Hello,

concerning the Hegel P 30, I agree with Ralpheburns who wrote:

"I do have one complaint though, that the P30 remote control jumps the volume in steps bigger than the 1 db than I had grown accustomed to. Because I generally listen at low levels, I simply take advantage of the bit-headroom of the HD25 DAC and reduce input levels, but I'd be interested to hear if others have another approach"

There is a very sharp rise in volume around 10 o’clock on the volume, so it can be difficult to set up the volume with accuracy (too low or to loud). furthermore when you push up the volume with the rolling button, you can hear a slight distorsion in the loudspeaker...

Hegel is fully aware of these concerns, I discussed with them in 2015 and asked them to call me when they find an upgrade/design solution. I've never been contacted ...

The P30 is a good machine, but in my opinion, at its level of price it's not acceptable to have these defects. Indeed, the P 30 is hegel's preamp flagship. 

Just to add to the Topic Hegel. 
I added a P20 to my setup, separating the preamp part of the Benchmark DAC 3HGC. 
This is a fantastic preamplifier. Transparent, detailed, well shaped and deep bass. Clear but not sharp or edgy. 
Source digital is Bluesound Node 2i and for Vinyl a Transrotor Darkstar with SME 309, Lyra Kleos and Phono Preamp Whest PS.30DTSE

DAC is a Benchmark 3HGC version, loudspeakers are Dynaudio Sapphires, 2 Monoblocks AVM M30. 
Cables are inakustik LS-1102 and moderately priced Coax and XLR Starquads from Canare. 
Holy Grail components for me are Hegel P-20, Benchmark DAC3, Lyra Kleos, Whest PS.30DTSE.

The other components value very much because their excellent performance and price / value realtionship.


All the best audio components I have heard are the product of  decades of evolution and fine tuning not the latest technological 'breakthrough"