Hi,

Hope sifus & taikors can give me some opinion & thoughts.

Per my sig below, I currently use Pass Labs X2.5 & I'm thinking of switching to a tube preamp in my setup - I am looking at Audio Research LS17.

Some say a tube preamp pushing solid state power amps is good combination & gives you kind of 'best of both worlds' setup. The tube provides the 'warmth' & 'air' in the overall sound.

All else unchanged...is this a step in the right direction?
Or will this switch be just a waste of time/$$ & something I will regret?

Many thanks.

musickaki, not many sifus here. Try to ask at hifi4sale.net for better advice

Post in here bro...
http://forum.lowyat.net/Audiophiles




Here Home Entertainment Section...mostly plug and play

Not familiar with your gear mentioned but quite a few have gone the route you mentioned. Definitely worth a try. Try borrowing a tube pre-amp from a friend and see how it goes before you went out to buy one.

I see. Thanks for letting me know.

Guess at my age, I don't spend too much time in front of computers or on forums etc. So, I'm not a member of this "hifi4sale.net" site you mentioned.

Anyway, thanks again for your quick feedback. Appreciate the heads up.

---

Added on January 13, 2011, 5:27 pmThanks, azbro. I will do that.

---

Added on January 13, 2011, 5:29 pmThanks, Optiplex330. That is a good suggestion. Noted & might just be the way to go. Cheers.

This post has been edited by musickaki: Jan 13 2011, 05:29 PM

Hi,

My dad has settled upon this particular setup after years and years of experimenting and he is happy with the sounds.

I enjoy it as well, but there are certain genres of music that in my opinion stress his setup ie, hard rock music. For orchestral pieces, jazz and blues its very nice.

I am contemplating this move as well, but have not pushed to try it yet.

By the way, how do u rate the emo mono blocks?

I hv listened to the xpa 3 and 5 and don't quite enjoy the signature. How do the mono blocks sound?

The signature that I heard (not in my system) sounded harsh and very bright.

I hv always wanted to listen an emo in a proper 2 channel system.

Hi anfieldude,

The monos are very quiet, good separation & absolutely zero crosstalk. My DefTechs are pretty efficient (93db) & previously with my SR6003 AVR, I could hear a very slight hiss if I put my ears on the speakers.

Now, with the monos + Pass, it's dead silent. Not sure if its all due to AVR but in any event, I'm happy it's DEAD QUIET & no hiss etc.

Afraid the overall signature is also pretty 'bright' with the monos & not night/day difference from XPA3/5. But it's all about mixing & matching to find one's own audio nirvana, isn't it. That's why I'm thinking of trying tube preamps. I listen to jazz & blues, & at my usual sound level, they're fine & not bright...but that's just me. When my mate played some rock music really really loud, our ears nearly popped. Is that 'bright' or just plain too loud, or both?....it's quite subjective.

In short, for my kind of music I'm pretty happy with the monos & they blend in pretty well in my rig. The harshness you experienced may or may not necessarily be due to just the XPAs. Everyone's rig is different & there're so many variables to what we ultimately hear...but I guess that's what's keeping this hobby so interesting.

Hope my 2cents helped & good luck. And don't forget to enjoy the music along the way

bro ....i dont know if this helps cos i have not been playing hifi for a long time...anyway...previously i was using a pair of Pass Aleph 0 monoblocks+Pass pre-amp and i found that the signature a little laid back ...before you change anything.....what do you think is lacking in your combination?

if you think that your sound signature is quite bright and not powerful enough, then a tube pre-amp would make it even worse....

i think its best that you describe the sound signature that your are having now also the improvement that you wish for in your system so that we could roughly know what you are really looking for....

This post has been edited by Fusion: Jan 13 2011, 11:12 PM

Thanks, Fusion.

EMOs can be bright, but PASS (yes, more laid back) does a good job controlling that brightness. So for me, the synergy's pretty ok. Power is a non-issue.

If you ask me to name one key biggest issue I'm now trying to control/address...guess it'll be "brightness / shrillness at high volume levels".

At moderate volumes, I'm happy as PASS adds more body & thickness to overall sound. When I switched from the SR6003 AVR to PASS, what delighted me most was not how it sounded when played loud, but how much detail there is when played really soft / as background music!

I believe the PASS volume control goes from 0 to 25. For me, normal listening is 8 to 11. It's when I push it pass say 13 to 15 that the so-called brightness becomes uncomfortable.

Is this 'bright' or just plain 'too loud', or both? My mate feels that whilst the sound remains detailed & clear when loud, for him it's too bright. It's been suggested I insert a tube preamp in the equation, but I've ZERO experience with tubes.

Hopefully...tube preamp = controlled brightness at loud volume + more warmth & air to overall sound. Yes?

Or I guess as what bro Optiplex330 said, it would be ideal if I can actually try out a tube preamp in my rig. Listening experience is subjective after all, ya.

I reckon that a tube amp can tone down the brightness of a system. But, sometimes it can sound too warm to some ppl that eventually the timing can be slowed down. This may not be suitable to some music genre like rock & pop songs.

IMO, if your music preference is towards modern type then tube might not be suitable. But then again, others have pair it with a good power amp to great effect.

Hmm last month i did audition LS17 with Anthem amp with Dynaudio Excite X16. Dont really know what to say, but Vocal and Jazz sounded pretty good.


This post has been edited by dlyz: Jan 14 2011, 04:19 PM

I am looking for a good preamp too. This is the only missing link now. Once I found one, then will order a good pair of XLR cables

BTW, you have to be choosy in the pre-amp that comes with XLR connectivity. Am I right to say both XLR & Din cables are much better than most expensive RCA cables?

Mostly yeah..

Many pre-amps come with Balanced XLR inputs and outputs. Or should I say, when you reach certain level, you will find all the gears that you are hunting have the Balanced XLR.

DIN is mainly for Naims. But I think now they also use RCA but not XLR. Old Naims have the DIN only.

I already have a few models in mind Now, need to save $$$

Bro, care to share what do they mean by XLR "Balance Output"? Does it mean the sound to Left & Right is more balanced?

---

Added on January 15, 2011, 9:27 amI wonder what brand & model this big taukey has in mind









This post has been edited by mikapoh: Jan 15 2011, 09:27 AM

Here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_audio

No intention to reveal it here. Need to lay low . All these gears are my personal collection.

If have more moolah, will get a good CD transport or CDP.

It refers to a different kind of cable and connector, where the signal is balanced in order to reduce the noise floor.

Example of connector:



At the back of amp looks like:



This post has been edited by jchong: Jan 15 2011, 09:36 AM

XLR.
My amplifier have XLR. My CD Player do not have XLR. So need to change CD Player. More money. More headache. Best not to ask if you do not want more stars circling your head. Ignorance is bliss.

balanced is when you have both red and black wires actively sending signal.


the ground (usually the black wire in most config/speaker/connection) is carrying the red wire's inverted signal. so both wire are active. this reduces the total harmonic distortion and increases the signal's resistance to inteference. the third pin is the ground reference (which could be left out since the ground is effectively the sum of both wire).

to have the full benefit of balanced setup you need to have the entire chain from the source up till the speaker operating in balanced mode. the amp especially need to be operating in balanced mode driving both the red and black wire actively. balanced config quadruples the power output of an amp.
this could be quite costly to attain and you have to make sure the amp is driving both wire actively since some could only be accepting XLR but summing the signal inside the amp and only driving the red wire leaving the ground channel as ground.

tried such setup during my uni years.