The Beginning:
I LIED! It’s not a shootout. Why? Because fuck you that’s why. Really though, it’s because it took much longer than I thought, I was much more emotionally invested in some aspects of it rather than others, and because I don’t think it would end up a very fair result or an accurate representation of how I felt about each piece. So the format of a shootout wouldn’t work in the end. It’s also because I don’t feel as though I have enough personal experience (with both 2ch and preamps) to really confidently do a detailed comparison like I have done with DACs. This has been a weird one for me. It’s been much more of a pain in the ass, and really fruitless endeavor compared to my DAC comparisons, but still interesting nonetheless. It’s going to be filled with a bunch of dumb shit that makes me chuckle while writing it, because I don’t think I could bring myself to do it otherwise.
I’m going to try to be pretty simple and reasonably brief on this one. Please don’t take this as a “state of the preamp market” or whatever else, because it’s just stuff that I’ve liked in the past, cherry picked essentially, tested again in my current setups (+ some extras to satiate curiosity) just to really see if I can get a feel of what preamps really do in a setup, how to properly pair them, and what still holds up from what I remember liking. Perhaps I’m missing out on some new hotness or older legends because of this. I don’t really care. Not really my goal to try and find a new preamp for myself or someone else, just interested in revisiting some old favorites and a few new ones as well, learning for myself. Here is what I’m going to do:
- Sort the preamps into an arbitrary respective performance category (hmmm reminds me of something)
- Talk about my thoughts on the most impressive and least impressive pairing
- Give a general overview of my experiences and takeaways
- Maybe I’ll do a very brief comparison so the title isn’t a complete lie?
That’s about it. Still interested? Not sure why you would be, but great. Warning in advance, the cheap stuff is BORING. Seriously, it’s really a drag in comparison to the higher end stuff, and that’s likely really colored my opinion on it. Sure, there’s decent to be had in that range, but it’s nothing compared to really what’s above. One of the few categories of product where jumping as high as you can go is really worthwhile imo. But perhaps I’d feel differently if I hadn’t heard how important the pre can be and only lived with lower end gear never hearing anything higher.
Fuck You Level:
All of these are a middle finger to everything you’ve ever heard, some of them cutting deeper than others. They’re just better. They know they’re better. And they know you can do nothing but bask in their excellence.
- Robert Koda Takumi K15EX
- Lamm Industries LL1.1 Signature
- AC Impera II Sig
- CH Precision L1 + X1
- Ayre KX-R Twenty
Fuck Me Level:
More kindhearted than the aforementioned, they’ll destroy what you expect out of a preamp, but in an inoffensive and more understated way. Lovingly fucked. Not as much as the previous, but still to an amount where this is where most would want to end up. More palatable price points too.
- Allnic L-7000 w/ Constant Impedance & L-9000 (mini comparison)
- FM Acoustics FM155MKIIR
- Audio Research Corporation REF 6SE
- VTL TL7.5 Series 3
- Backert Labs Rhythm 1.3
Nice Place To Be:
Yeah, these are nice. What, expecting more out of this one?
- LTA MicroZOTL Preamp Level 2
- Atma-sphere MP-3 MK3.3 w/ V-CAP upgrades
- Coincident Statement Linestage MKIII
- Audible Illusions Modulus 3B
- Pass XP-12
Not as nice of a place to be (but it’s still good right?):
The sonic equivalent of “Wow, nice place you have here.” There might be one or two things that somewhat impress you, but is it really where you want to be? Might be fooling yourself a bit wanting to stay.
- Modwright SWL 9.0 AE
- Rogue RP-5
- Horne Shoppe The Truth
- AVA FET Valve CF
- Quicksilver Linestage
Why did I pick these? Because I already heard and liked them, most of them at least. And it’s a reasonable amount of variety. I decided since there’s little worth talking about things I didn’t like or thought was mediocre, I’ll just stick to what I know I liked in various demos or setups of the past, and see if they still hold up now. The only potential case where I’d want to use my findings to guide a future decision is if one of them replaces what I already have know, or if it does something that I don’t fully understand yet. There might be one or two of those cases here, but I’ll get to that later. I’m not going to have all of these in all at once (can’t make that work scheduling wise, can’t afford to make that work right now lol), so been working on them in category chunks.
Testing Equipment:
For this case, I’ll keep source chains consistent component and cable wise for what I think sounds good. Some of these chains will be reusing some stuff from others as I swap things around, I just put together what I liked with what I had on hand lol. So not going to swap around tubes, cables, sources, etc outside of the chunks of chain themselves. For my sanity at least. So if I’m using lets say the Horizon, it’s going to only be in the configuration and frontend specified. Yes I know some of the cabling or sources might be overkill for some of the amps and dacs, but I’m just using what I thought was the best sounding combo on hand. Also not going to mess with iso stuff since I’ve been moving everything around a lot, sorry about that as well.
Why did I pick this gear? Either I already have it, I’m comfortable with it, and/or I think it represents a different challenge or pairing demands/needs that would add value to be showcased. It’s not perfect, there’s some things I’d want to try to show more contrast, or because I think there would be strong synergy, but this is what I could get my hands on, and what I was willing to personally drop time (and in most cases also money) into for the test. I really don’t want to have to buy or ask for stuff I really don’t like, that only fills a very niche use case, or is a real hassle to procure lol.
Digital Frontends:
- Totaldac d1-sublime w/ (and w/o) d1-drivers, live powers
◦ UpTone EtherRegen w/ Mojo Illuminati V3 → Totaldac d1-switch → Antipodes K50 AES (Squeeze)
▪ Esprit Aura RJ45, Echole Limited Edition AES, Purist Dominus Diamond Power (for DAC & K50), TWL Obsession (for network gear)
- Lampizator Horizon
◦ Sonore opticalModule Deluxe w/ Mojo Illuminati V3 → Sonore Signature Rendu SE optical Tier II → Ideon Absolute Time
◦ Takatsuki 274B, Brimar CV1988 Black Glass, Tung-Sol KT170
FTA Sinope USB, Audience FrontRow HP Power (for DAC & Absolute Time), TWL Obession (for Sonore)
- Berkeley Alpha Reference 3
◦ Sonore opticalModule Deluxe w/ Mojo Illuminati V3 → Sonore Signature Rendu SE optical Tier II → Berkeley Alpha USB
Audience FrontRow USB, Tara Labs RSC Air Evolution AES, Audience FrontRow Power (for DAC), TWL Obsession (for Sonore & Alpha USB)
- Mojo Mystique EVO Pro 21
◦ Sonore opticalModule Deluxe w/ Mojo Illuminati V3 → Sonore Signature Rendu SE optical Tier II → Berkeley Alpha USB
Audience FrontRow USB, Tara Labs RSC Air Evolution AES, Audience FrontRow Power (for DAC), TWL Obsession (for Sonore & Alpha USB)
- Crane Song Solaris Quantum
◦ Sonore opticalModule Deluxe w/ Mojo Illuminati V3 → Sonore Signature Rendu SE optical Tier II
FTA Sinope USB, TWL Obsession Power
- Soekris DAC2541
◦ PI2AES w/ SGC LPS
Snake River Boomslang AES
- OG Schiit Bifrost 2
◦ Allo USBridge Signature Player w/ SGC LPS
TWL Passion USB
Analog Backends:
- Riviera AFM-50 → Borresen 01 & Spatial Audio X5
◦ Siemens 5814 Triple Mica, Audience FrontRow HP Power
- Aries Cerat Concero 25 → Voxativ PI 2 AC4X, Dynaudio Special 40
◦ Elrog ER845, Audience FrontRow HP Power
- Parasound JC1+ → Borresen 01 & ATC SCM19v2
◦ TWL Obsession Power
- Yamamoto Sound Craft A-08S → Voxativ PI 2 AC4X & Omega Compact Alnico
◦ EML Mesh 45, Western Electric 717-A, RCA 80, Audience FrontRow HP Power
- Quicksilver Mid Monos → Dynaudio Special 40 & Spatial Audio X5
◦ Mazda 12AX7 Long Plate, Siemens 6922 A, Mullard EL34, Audience FrontRow HP Power
- First Watt F8 → Spatial Audio X5 & Omega Compact Alnico
◦ TWL Obession Power
- JOB 225 → ATC SCM19v2 & SVS Ultra Bookshelf
◦ Purist Dominus Diamond Power
Brief Headphone Section:
- Eddie Current Studio T → Focal Utopia & Mysphere 3.1
◦ Danacable Lazuli Nirvana, Custom Silver Cable
- Mass Kobo 394 II → Mysphere 3.2 & Final D8000 Pro
◦ Kimber Axios Hybrid, Brise Mikumari Ref. 2
- Riviera AFM 50 → Hifiman Susvara, Mysphere 3.2
◦ DHC Prion4 taps, Kimber Axios Hybrid + Kimber taps
- Aries Cerat Concero 25 → Hifiman Susvara, Mysphere 3.1
◦ DHC Prion4 taps, Custom cable
Analog Interconnect Options (RCA & XLR):
- Audience FrontRow
- Purist Dominus Luminist
- Cardas Clear Beyond
- Snake River Signature
My Patience:
This is going to take awhile, it’s been taking awhile, I’ve been sort of working on this idea since the beginning of the year. Expect it to be mostly done by the end of the year. I’ve had a ton of things happen this year that I’ve had to deal with that have really removed a decent bit of my time and desire to listen, and I’ve had to rearrange and reconfigure my setups many times, and I’m sorting to get sick of a lot of it. So expect a slightly more bitter take on things than normal at times. This isn’t to say I’m going to compromise potential accuracy or be unfair, potentially a bit lazy though at times, and I’ll likely have stronger feelings on things that I really end up liking and disliking than normal. But oh well, already said this isn’t going to be as structured and throughout as others, and not even really a comparison lol. Comes with all the caveats + more that I’m too lazy to write, this isn’t really going to be public so I feel ok ish skipping over a lot of the disclaimers since most here know what problems come with stuff like this lol. See ya’ll later, doing the boring chunk first to get that out of the way
