buson160man
1000+ Head-Fier
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I went with a used audio research Ls2 mkII.This preamp is easily the best preamp I have owned.I had a early krell unit and a precision fidelity preamp but this almost twenty year old preamp smokes both of them soundwise.The gain on the Ls2 mkII is 18 in sigle ended operation.In balanced output the gain is 24.I have not yet tried this this preamp in balanced fashion yet but it is tempting considering the balanced connection on the emotiva speakers.The Ls2 has a hot rod feature which constitutes of a dedicated direct input that bypasses the function selector and is wired directly to the volume pot.I have made some comparisons and found it to definitely improved the sound as compared to the sound of my cd set-up running thru the function selector.It is not that the sound is bad through the function selector it just sounds more open and better when connected to the direct input.
This is a line unit only and has no phono preamp capability.It was at the time audio research's attempt to get the best possible sound from a line stage at a somewhat more affordable cost.The unit originally sold for 2650 dollars at the time.Which eighteen years was pretty expensive.But it did cost half of what audio research's most expensive full featured preamp cost at the time.From reviews that I have read it was actually a better sounding line stage than the best full featured unit that audio research produced at the time.The fact that this unit sounds so stellar even compared to more modern units is a testament to audio research's design teams.The units stellar performance after almost twenty years of use is also a testamanet to its long term reliability.I guess they got it right when they designed this line stage.Kudos to audio research for a job done very splendidly.
I am ecstatic about the preamps performance with the 6s and last night I pulled a long listening session and what a difference it makes when you use a high quality preamp on the airmotiv 6s.
I am also amazed at the capability of this almost twenty year old design(the preamp of course).
I appreciate your suggestion but the audio research only set me back about a thousand dollars and the new peachtree unit goes for three times that much.
The nova preamp section is basically identical to the preamp section in the decco 2.The reason I went with another preamp was that the decco 2s preamp section did not have nearly the required gain to get the airmotiv 6s to sing .Really the audio research unit is in another universe compared to the decco 2s preamp section.You really have not heard what your airmotiv 6s can do until you have tried them with a really excellent preamp the likes of a audio research or something like it.
Try your sixes with a true high end preamp and if you think you love your airmotiv 6s you will find them to be a truely heavenly experience when used with a proper preamp that can tap their potential.
What pre-amp did you go with? There is a new peachtree grand pre x-1 that looks promising.
When I took my 6s to a local hifi shop I auditioned them w/ the nova pre and was impressed but ended up getting the nuforce dac-100 because I needed it for my hd800s as well.
I went with a used audio research Ls2 mkII.This preamp is easily the best preamp I have owned.I had a early krell unit and a precision fidelity preamp but this almost twenty year old preamp smokes both of them soundwise.The gain on the Ls2 mkII is 18 in sigle ended operation.In balanced output the gain is 24.I have not yet tried this this preamp in balanced fashion yet but it is tempting considering the balanced connection on the emotiva speakers.The Ls2 has a hot rod feature which constitutes of a dedicated direct input that bypasses the function selector and is wired directly to the volume pot.I have made some comparisons and found it to definitely improved the sound as compared to the sound of my cd set-up running thru the function selector.It is not that the sound is bad through the function selector it just sounds more open and better when connected to the direct input.
This is a line unit only and has no phono preamp capability.It was at the time audio research's attempt to get the best possible sound from a line stage at a somewhat more affordable cost.The unit originally sold for 2650 dollars at the time.Which eighteen years was pretty expensive.But it did cost half of what audio research's most expensive full featured preamp cost at the time.From reviews that I have read it was actually a better sounding line stage than the best full featured unit that audio research produced at the time.The fact that this unit sounds so stellar even compared to more modern units is a testament to audio research's design teams.The units stellar performance after almost twenty years of use is also a testamanet to its long term reliability.I guess they got it right when they designed this line stage.Kudos to audio research for a job done very splendidly.
I am ecstatic about the preamps performance with the 6s and last night I pulled a long listening session and what a difference it makes when you use a high quality preamp on the airmotiv 6s.
I am also amazed at the capability of this almost twenty year old design(the preamp of course).
I appreciate your suggestion but the audio research only set me back about a thousand dollars and the new peachtree unit goes for three times that much.
The nova preamp section is basically identical to the preamp section in the decco 2.The reason I went with another preamp was that the decco 2s preamp section did not have nearly the required gain to get the airmotiv 6s to sing .Really the audio research unit is in another universe compared to the decco 2s preamp section.You really have not heard what your airmotiv 6s can do until you have tried them with a really excellent preamp the likes of a audio research or something like it.
Try your sixes with a true high end preamp and if you think you love your airmotiv 6s you will find them to be a truely heavenly experience when used with a proper preamp that can tap their potential.