Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo cheap pre amp

If I say a pair of M80's and a Rotel RB1080, which I think wid has. Would buying the cheapest pre amp I could find do any damage, or affect it in anyway? Basically I would just need something to change the volume. Or is there more to pre amp's than that?

Hello ChunkYE,

You are correct it is me that has the M80's and a RB1080.As far as a cheap preamp the only one that I have owned and was happy with was a Parasound PHP-850,it was a very nice unit and sells for only $249.00US.I have seen them on the used market for only $150.00US.You can't go wrong with the Parasound unit in my opinion.I have also tried an Audiosource pre 1 unit and did not like it,it was cheaply built and for what ever reason the sound was terrible.

Right now I use a Rotel RC1070 preamp which is a really nice unit and goes for about $500.00US.On the used market I have seen them for $350.00US.

This is one of the sweetest cheapest pre-amp I have auditioned to date.
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ddpreatube&1096685225

This is the 2nd.
http://ciaudio.com/
click on VPC-1

If you get the cheapest thing you can find i wouldnt expect it to sound all that spectacular to be honest...

If course you could buy a passive preamp which is more like just volume pots but thats a different matter.

For cheap id reccomend the Bottlehead Foreplay, you can build one for around 200 bucks and best part is that its tubes It is a rather good sounding peice

In reply to:

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If you get the cheapest thing you can find i wouldnt expect it to sound all that spectacular to be honest...

If course you could buy a passive preamp which is more like just volume pots but thats a different matter.

For cheap id reccomend the Bottlehead Foreplay, you can build one for around 200 bucks and best part is that its tubes It is a rather good sounding peice

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I would agree with you Brandon 100%. The Foreplay is a great pre. But I know someone who has the Foreplay and he says the Radii sounds better (to his ears) with a certain type of tubes. Maybe because it has 3 tubes and it is of a different socket (...one that is more experimentable. Lots of brand for the socket size/voltage for the Radii. Yes the Radii is cheap but it sounds fantastic!!!! As for the passive pre I would put an any passive pre over any integrated becuase the passive pre doesn't ADD anything into the source path. Most passive pre only use a attunuator and Vishay metal film resistors and bypass jumpers which steps down the full volume of the output source. Again nothing added. All you will hear is the sonic signature of the player...whatever that is.
I have done lots of demoing in the last little while and I know I am not much of a fan of tube amps because I find the SS amps gets more punch and detail. But I do like the sound of some Tube Pre... yes it does add something to the signal path but it does sound sweeter to my ears.
I am in the process of selling my Elite Receiver and picking up one of this to connect to a universal player that decodes DTS & DD and push it into separate amps.
http://mapletreeaudio.com/Line5.htm

If I don't get enough cash I plan to put a tube line buffer in between my MF(Musical Fidelity) CD player and MF Integrated amp.
Line 2A SP Preamp/Signal Processor
http://mapletreeaudio.com/assembled.htm

Saturn, is there no end for your equipment turnaround?
Have you considered opening up an audio business?

How are the new Usher's working out?

I guess my system is okey. I havent set down in front of my system for more than 10 mins this last 3 weeks...hence I havent tried your experiment. It has been chaotic at work and been spending a great deal of 24 hrs at a time there. Anybody see my fiancee lately?

The Usher are excellent. That is staying a while based on my past auditions. One of the managers from a local shop Audio Excellence Yorkville came over to demo them and said they are better than the Wilson Sophia's. He was dumbstruck at the price.

By the way out went the Bryston's in went the Musical Fidelity integrated...can't wait to get a hold of that multi channel tube pre-amp. grinning ear to ear