Disclaimer: sorry, i mention here the prices and yes I know not every one can efford it, but wanna share my personal journey and raise awareness about electronics matter a lot in stereo.
I thought 2 years ago an powerful integrated amp (€6.5kj) is fine with speakers in the 15k range.
So after listening in various places the last 12 months, I’ve also seen serious highend stereo setups.
So I thought: now having the perfect digital chain, nothing can dramatically improve anymore…
I got the fortune to get an Soulution 725 PreAMP and 3 days ago 2 lovely LinnenberG Monos (Friedrich Georg Händel) to match my PreAMP. Yes, we are talking about ~50k I’ve spent!
I’d also an Robert Koda K10 in comparison…
I was shocked: never thought it is day and night, but it is!! So much difference in better imageing, black background, details, punch…WOW!!
So some folks asked me: are you crazy, you need spent 2rd on speakers and 1rd on electronics!
My answer: NO, electronic with the right synergy it changes dramatically, you dont need the 100k speakers. Still use my lovely ELAC S507, as they fit perfect my listening room.
My journey on electronic has riched a very, very high goal.
Congratulations!! Beautiful system… I especially love how your Soulution matches the room
Yes, everything makes a difference. Not sure why some people choose to believe in some ‘price allotment’ of how one thing must cost more than another, but that’s as artificial as saying you can’t eat breakfast foods for dinner. I know folks who have spent more on their damn FUSE than their amplifiers.
As long as you’re buying used, it’s much easier to justify going up the chain. The higher you go, the more everything matters, power, interconnects, source, isolation and vibration management.
Some speakers scale immensely well. There are a lot of examples of sub $1k speakers out there that will impress when you connect them to componenets that are ten times their price. Not all of them scale but regardless of how well the speakers scale, there’s a point when they’ll become the bottle neck
As far as a preamp goes, they can have the most impact on a chain and that’s something that surprised me as well.
I was going to ask for your impression on the Grim MU2 as a DAC.
Yes took me years of trying to get rid of preamps and using passive devices to minimize the components in the system to figure out preamps really do matter a LOT, for me though it happened 20+ years ago.
I think both the schools of where to put your money Source First or Transducer first have merit, but in the end reality doesn’t really match philosophy, and any rules of thumb are just that.
Forgot where I heard the comment. It may have been looking at some Shunyata talk or perhaps Ansuz where they said that your best power cable should be your preamp because that’s the component EVERYTHING hangs off of.
It’s just a throw away comment I know but it left an impression.
and for a reald good price !! (New €24k)…
