valve pre amp advice

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oceanobsession

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Im currently running a rotel rb 981 130 watts rms power amp. also a rotel rc 972 pre amp. also an arcam cd192 and a pair of shahinian arcs . im thinking about changing the rotel preamp for a valve preamp im told that this makes for a great pre power combo what do you have to consider in maching them im interested in these on ebay item no 220205304735 and
220205298644 and 280203478879 or would it be best to change both for an integrated also one to consider on ebay item no 160211463585 any advice would be helpfull. i will only be buying seconhand and will never step foot in another hi fi shop again thanks all
 
Yup, a good valve pre should really bring your system to life, imo.

The Graaf would be a great choice - I used to have a WFB2 (one down the range from the WFB1) and it was a really great sounding pre. It just sounded "right"!

I've never heard either the Croft Micro or the Music Angel - but by reputation I would expect the Graaf to be better sounding than both.

The Consonance hybrid integrated is interesting - I've owned a Consonance 300B valve integrated and it really was a fab piece of kit - one of the very few items I regret having sold on.

What one would I go for? Tricky .... in fact, I'd expect them all to sound good - so I'd probably plump for the Consonance integrated to get the remote control! :)
 
Re valve pre amp advice

thanks jerry for your advice i think im missing detail from my setup. so this amp has to go i did here my speakers with a electrocompaniet eci5 great but to expensive there is another option on ebay what do you think thanks again item no 330213958493 DK Designs VS.1 Reference Mk.3 Integrated Amplifier
 
I don't know the DK designs, but have heard good reports.

If you don't mind me being critical of your current setup, the Rotel pre-amps's are really quite poor compared to their power amps. I would imagine that any of the options you have mentioned would be a substantial upgrade. I know it is a bit of a generalisation, but at mid-price I don't think you can better a good valve pre-amp for naturally presented musical detail - solid state active pre-amps at that sort of price tend to be a bit bland and/or shallow.

Another option you might consider is a passive pre-amp - the ones that NVA sell on eBay are excellent value for money. Less than £200 delivered for a NVA P50 passive pre, if I recall correctly. They are sold on a money-back basis, so def an option worth considering. I've got a pair of the NVA top of the line monoblock power amps - fantastic!
 
Re valve pre amp advice

I got outbid yesterday by £7 on the tesserac tala pre amp £1500 in its day 1996 it went for £142 it looked like a bargain. anyway what does passive mean. also would the graaf pre amp work with the rotel power amp that looks like its got lots of components inside plus it would go colour wise not that it matters. thanks for your help only its my only way of finding out about gear because im done with buying new cant stand the sales men and there lies
one of my favorits by your man
Shostakovich:Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102 II. An
 
Based on my experience with a Tesserac power amp, you might be glad that you were outbid! I found a Tesserac power amp to be very thin sounding and forward/bright - so if that is their "house sound", I for one would give it a miss!

I would imagine that the Graaf would go well with the Rotel power amp - I can't imagine there would be a technical incompatibility.

A passive pre-amp is simply a volume control and input switching device - a passive pre does not amplify the signal at all (which active pre-amps do) - passives are therefore much simpler and more 'purist' than the more usual active pre-amps. Passives have no mains input, they are not powered at all (unless they have remote control, mains power is then required to rotate the volume knob or activate input switching). They therefore have no power supplies to get wrong - decent power supplies are one of the main costs of most good active pre-amps.

There is one main potential problem with passives - the volume level available is more limited - depending on the sensitivity of your power amp input and the loudspeakers they drive there may or may not be enough volume level to make the music loud enough for you. I am sure that this is one of the reasons that NVA offer a money back promise if you don't get on with their passive pre-amps.

Decent passive pre-amps like the NVA can sound wonderfully open and transparent and detailed - you'd have to spend thousands of £ imho to get the same quality with an active pre-amp. The sonic drawback of passive pre-amps can be that they lack the 'drive' and 'slam' of a good active pre. You pays your money and make your choice!

(You should also use fairly short (1m or less) interconnect cables to go from a passive pre to the power amp).

Other excellent passive pre-amps are the TVC (transformer volume control) types - e.g. from Promitheus at moderate price levels. See this link for example www.promitheusaudio.com/tvc.htm

Hope my wittering helps! All this just my own views of course - others may differ. :)
 
Re valve pre amp advice

Hi just another question regarding the graaf pre amp there seems to be 8 valves how much would they cost to replace would you know thanks phil
 
oceanobsession said:
Hi just another question regarding the graaf pre amp there seems to be 8 valves how much would they cost to replace would you know thanks phil
Click to expand...

I have just obtained a Graaf wfb1, and it sounds so natural and right partnered with ARC d130 and Wharfedale Diamond2's(just temporary, honest!). But the Diamonds never sounded this good! As regards the valves, in my preamp there are 4x6922 Sovtek and 4xPC900 Telefunken. Neither type will break the bank to replace.
 
Graaf wfb one

...everything oozes class under the lid: toroidal traffo, 470uf Kendeil caps(7), Black Gates, quite the best layout i've ever seen-no wires, surprisingly clean just like new. High-class mm/mc phono stage with low, medium, high gain and 3 load settings. 3-valves per channel in phono stage. Have not detected an ounce of grain in either line or phono. Overriding sense of tremendous drive would definitely suit a system requiring a wake-up or speakers requiring more body. Could possibly do with more ventilation in the bonnet - whilst not hot to touch gets very warm even on top shelf.
 

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