What Solid State PreAmp?

Most of your room EQ is below 300Hz. 4kHz is actually quite high and useful for attenuating the hard edge of poor CDs or system shortcomings.[...]

For many CDs, program equalization is needed. The 4Khz band on the c46 can be turned down all day long and the harsh highs remain on a rceording. For example some some well thought of Steely Dan CDs are that way.

The local dealer has all the highest-send Mc sources, cables, power conditioners, etc. A good recording sounds great. OTOH ones with compression and boosted highs aren't fixed by playing around with the 4Khz -band equalizer on the c-46. Of course it's personal preference.

Others want a boomin' bass and searing highs. Coming from pre-digital audio of the 60s, 70s and early 80s, many of today's recordings are most unpleasant sounding to these 47 y.o. ears. Maybe that's why Mc makes for example the c45 and c2300 with standard treble controls (that roll off from the top). YMMV.

My MC402 fixed 90% of the issues I had with many recordings. I'd like to go ahead and get a preamp for the tone control and for voltage matching purposes.

Maybe Atmaspere's tube amps do even better with the highs as he claimed. I would like to audition one but no dealers around the state. And still the price is on up there.

As far as purity, accuracy, shortest signal path, I gave up on making that the endgame. Spent way too much time and $$$ on that. I simply want something that sounds good.

You'll never fix a bad recording with EQ. I just stay away from them. The vinyl and SACDs of Steely Dan are fantastic.

Dave

For the most part, I agree with Dcstep. That is, once in a certain price range (ie, higher, say over $3K although to some that's not so high), the preamp should be voiced by the designer who knows what he's doing, and should have the guts to say, this is what it's supposed to sound like. A la Shindo above.

Now below some price gear is more, shall we say, flexible, in that budgetary constraints were applied in its design and build, and some amount of tube rolling and/or mods can be beneficial because well, the designer simply could not allocate those funds and still stay priced 'right'. A great example is the EE Minimax pre, which I have owned and enjoyed for some time now, although it does not get much play any more as I do own a nice SS pre over $3K, which is voiced just fine - for now.

Much of what Dcstep has stated above I am totally in agreement with, but am adding the thoughts above. It is IMO quite 'weak' of a designer of high end gear to say, well here is my best shot, but you amateurs can probably make it sound better. Of course no one said that, but some (like myself) interpret it that way when they admit this tweak and that tube will make this $5-10K preamp sound better.

What about the new Plinius Tautoro?

Pass Labs XP-20 should be in the list