The 525 should provide adequate output (2.2V) to the Saga. Suggest you borrow/try a different audio source, and swap out the signal cables, just in case you have a bas cable.
Initially I played a couple of cd's (Monk - Brilliant Corners, Tool - Undertow, Kvelertak - Nattesferd, some Miles Davis I think...) and turned everything off, quite disappointed and bewildered. Haven't really spend time listening again until today, mostly I've been trying to find some more info, fretting and sweating...
Today I decided that having an experience in the back of my head that was disappointing wasn't conducive to problemsolving. I found that I had to listen again to a variety of genres and recordings, whilst ignoring the fact that I had to go past the lower 30% of the volume setting to get to what I'd call a reasonable sound level. (I'm new to passive pre's after all).
So I went through a number of cds:
Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus - sounded great
Clutch - Strange Cousins from the West - this was fine*
Death - Symbolic* - ditto
RATM - S/T* - ditto
Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty - boy, this was compressed; very audible clipping
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique - much better
Grieg - Peer Gynt - I could try the volume @ 100% here
![Wink :wink: :wink:](https://cdn.head-fi.org/e/people/wink.svg)
on the opening notes. Anyway, classic recordings often have massive dynamics (some even to the point of too wide a range :O). Plenty of those here.
Front Line Assembly - Explosion - another compressed clip-fest (sounds great in the car tho'... maybe it needs permanent residence there)
Opeth - Pale Communion* - it haz dynamics
*Rock/metal shows me much clearer now, through Saga, what I've known a long time now: The DLS, although insanely good speakers for their price at the time DO have limitations, they loose control slightly when them double kicks and blastbeats get rolling, especially at louder volume. They also lack a bit of punch in the lower registers. It was masked to some extent by the pre amp gain with the NAD, but when pressed here it is much more evident. This was something I was aware of all along, even at purchase. Still, not a speaker I'd hesitate for a moment to recommend, unless you only listened to death metal, dnb or jungle at earsplitting levels. Too bad they're discontinued.
My very general observations (tainted by my complete noobishness with audiophool phrasings):
I'm getting some slight distortion on midrange and treble on some recordings (Rollins (some piano parts), Death (high hat, cymbals on Crystal Mountain)). I'm somewhat treble sensitive already, so distortion in this range sticks out. Might be the speakers, not too sure here. Dynamics overall seems ok, at least with recordings where such things are allowed. The voices on Peer Gynt were clear and present, but voices generally has always worked well on my system.
The Saga is much more resolving than the NAD, a bad recording is much more evident. It also made some things more in-your-face, like my footnote on rock/metal above shows.
To summarize: I need to listen more. My expectations was probably biased from the beginning; so much so that known limitations stuck in my craw as a fault on the pre, rather than other components. I'm not in auditory nirvana, but it is not as bad as I initially made it out to be.
I might still go for a Vidar anyway (cue "everybody should start here"), after all having some matching components doesn't hurt. And I might start saving up for some new speakers.