[mach46]

i have contacted craig regarding this matter. he mentioned he was using it for a pre amp as will paired with colossal gas ampzilla amps. he also mentioned electra print. i have yet to try the zana as a pre amp, but i dont have a separate amp thats worth the effort. im curious has anyone else tried and what results have you heard? is it truly a worthy hi-fi center piece?

 

[boomana]

I've heard the Zana Deux as a pre-amp to the FirstWatt F1 quite a few times. It makes for an amazing K1000 rig and also for a single-driver speaker set-up. I like my SP amp as pre-amp to the F1, but I prefer the Zana Duex.

 

[mach46]

my people are big on the low wattage rigs... mating them with full range speakers. there really must be something to it, so many respected opnions dig that type of set up.

 

[mulveling]

I use a Zana Deux in my current speaker setup. I didn't see the point in spending big bucks on a dedicated preamp when I can have a nice headamp & preamp for the same price

Best dedicated preamp I've owned was a BAT VK-5i - $5K msrp, $1700 or so on agon. It's been a while, and I don't have hard comparisons on the same system, but I don't miss it a bit. Intuitively I'd definitely take the Zana Deux; all the BAT had over it was a remote control. My system as a whole now is far better, but again many things have changed besides the pre.

The System:
Tannoy Dimension TD10 speakers
Zana Deux pre
Heathkit W4A tube amps or McIntosh MC2100
Denon 3910 for digital
SOTA Star w/ FR64fx arm & Benz Glider cart for vinyl - assuming I can ever tear it away from my headphone rig (currently in a different room)

My current system's philosophy, I suppose you could say, lies in middle ground between the 2 extreme camps. The heart of the Tannoy Dimension TD10's is a single 10" dual-concentric driver that, in theory, blends the coherence of single driver with the dynamics and full range of a multi-driver system. They're fairly efficient at 91db, but not uber-efficient. Hooked up to one of two mid-power vintage amps; a 20 Watt tube amp and a 100 Watt SS, both with transformer coupled outputs. I've tried much higher powered (and much more $$$$) modern hifi amps but the result was a touch too sterile. Current result is liquid musical bliss

Have heard a multi-driver, mega-watt Thiel/Krell system that sounds spectacular; lesser implementations of the big speaks/big amps philosophy don't have the magic (it's hard to find the magic). Though I haven't heard the single driver systems, as a dynamics junkie I've gotta admit I'm highly skeptical, and not terribly interested in exploring there, yet.

 

[mach46]

mulveling thats exactly what i was looking for.