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Review 3 of 17
Price Paid:
$250.00
from ebay Summary:
Before buying this pre-amp I have owned the Carver C-4000 holographic pre-amp and Monarchy SE-100 Delux monoblock amps. The day I brought home a pair of factory rebuilt Magnepan 1.5QR speakers, I heard colorations and lack of detail in my system compared to the system the speakers came from. I wasn't financially in the position to make significant changes to my system, so when I saw this B&K pre-amp, I thought I'd give it a try. The reviews on this site and from others I knew, convinced me it was worth trying.
The coloration was gone. The detail was impressive. It removes itself from the system sonically and you hear the source component itself. I tried swapping a few CD players and I can distinctly heard the ways in which each one was different! I've never heard that big of a difference in source components before.
This was all in the passive mode. The active mode (which I use for phono only), has very minimal coloration only (nice job B&K!). I haven't played around with swapping phono cartridges, but this is a good phono stage. It's better than the Rotel and Creek phono stages you see for $100-150 used. Lots of detail, if any weakness, it's a slight lack of dynamics. Although what one person calls dynamics, another would call inaccurate or colored sound. I don't know where the line needs to be drawn, but the phono stage could use a little more punch. Clarity, resolution and detail are there, though. Makes my old Carver phono stage sound really, really mucky and bad.
Will I keep this pre-amp? Yeah, definitely. At least until I finish auditioning source components. I feel I can trust the clarity this pre-amp offers to base my decisions. I will audition other phono stages, but honestly, I feel I'll have to spend over $400 on a used phono stage to hear much of a difference.
I would recommend this pre-amp to anyone who currently uses "old-school" 70's Pioneer, Marantz or 80's Carver equipment. Nostalgia isn't everything. Also, anyone leaving the world of mid-fi equipment like the kind found in nationwide chain electronics stores, you can get this pre-amp and build a system around it, knowing it will serve you very well.
I gave it 5 stars on value because I honestly didn't think I could find something this good at this price. I gave it 4 stars overall because if the phono stage doesn't have the punch I'm looking for, though the clarity is great.
It could be my phono cartridge (Benz Micro Glider)... that remains to be seen. Strengths:
Very clear pre-amp. Really lets you hear detail from source components. Great phono stage for the money. Gold plated connectors, lots of inputs, seperate power supply to minimize noise, balanced output jacks as well as two sets of RCA jacks for bi-amping. Weaknesses:
Some sound cross-bleed. I left the VCR on and had it switched to the CD player, I could still hear the VCR very faintly through the speakers. You have to turn off other sources to avoid this.
No remote also. Similar Products Used:
See above.
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