Might try a tube preamp

Thanks for all of the great suggestions.  I’ll certainly try using the Chord as a preamp as that will be easy to do.   I already have input 3 on the Gryphon set up as pass through for home theater anyway.

I also like th idea of getting a tube pre on a trial basis.    I haven’t heard much on the Freya.

rshad0000 OP133 posts
  I also like th idea of getting a tube pre on a trial basis.    I haven’t heard much on the Freya.

Freya is great also, has 3 different modes ss,tube, and passive. Also has the best mechanical volume control going around (the one in the Chord is better being digital).
  
But still, my bet is for the Chord direct into the Gryphon to sound the most transparent , dynamic, and un-coloured.
But then some people like colouration's that all active preamps give, even passive ones to a much smaller degree.

Cheers George  

Hi Rshad40-

Though not focused on digital, you might want to check the forum discussion “pre-amp shootout” for some of my impressions.  The Doge 8 Clarity line stage with NOS tubes is a great price performer that is right at home with my high-end components.

Want a Freya, I’ll gladly sell you mine with the best sounding set of NOS tubes for it. That said, for the money, I would go with the Don Sachs 2. He’s no longer doing crazy combinations of things to them though. He’ll find and match the preamp to the impedence of your amp, and he’ll install an input for balanced cables, but he has tried about every tweak known to man now, so he won’t use Billy Bob’s wang dang output caps or other things that would please customers but degrade the sound. If you have speakers a tube amp can drive he also sells an amazing amp, and both would be under 6K. Not the 5 you spoke of, but it will blow most if not anything under 25K away, and a lot of gear that sells for more. That, or I’ll sell you my Freya with unused original tubes, Ken Rads and early 40’s Raytheons and a PrimaLuna Prologue Five, which will almost certainly sound better than your current setup, though the amp is underbiased so it only puts out 36 watts I believe, but I’ll sell both for 1600 shipped to the lower 48. I obviously went on to higher end gear, but if you start here, you can probably get your money back if you upgrade later. That said, I still second Don Sachs’s gear.

You cannot go wrong with a Prima Luna Dialogue Premium or any Conrad-Johnson that you prefer. Tubes are great!
Rollin