What amp/ preamp combo has the most Gorgeous, Lifelike Tonality?
- Thread starter caesar
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The amp and pre that you select, that lets you listen to and enjoy the music without thoughts of wanting to upgrade to the latest/greatest thing.
If you get lost in the music.... then you're there!!!
If you get lost in the music.... then you're there!!!
I think it's hard to remove the gear we hear during ultimate personal music reproduction experiences from the system contexts.
you have an ultra mature and tweaked system and room, including an optimized preamp and amp, and then try to assign some sort of objective rank to these pieces.
beyond that it becomes a beauty contest where we mostly each choose our personal gear.
I suppose I'd add that in my case my darTZeel preamp and amp have remarkably gorgeous lifelike tonality in my particular system context.....the best I've personally heard from reproduced music (big surprise, huh?). but......would they do so in other system contexts? or would other gear be as good or better in mine?
so what do we know about the question from my experience?
and that is just my own perception about things. nothing more, no claimed ultimate truth or objective finding. and would we all actually define 'gorgeous-lifelike-tonality' exactly the same? another question.
you have an ultra mature and tweaked system and room, including an optimized preamp and amp, and then try to assign some sort of objective rank to these pieces.
beyond that it becomes a beauty contest where we mostly each choose our personal gear.
I suppose I'd add that in my case my darTZeel preamp and amp have remarkably gorgeous lifelike tonality in my particular system context.....the best I've personally heard from reproduced music (big surprise, huh?). but......would they do so in other system contexts? or would other gear be as good or better in mine?
so what do we know about the question from my experience?
and that is just my own perception about things. nothing more, no claimed ultimate truth or objective finding. and would we all actually define 'gorgeous-lifelike-tonality' exactly the same? another question.
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I cannot comment on how the tonality of the dart gear sounds in your system but in the multiple systems I have now heard this gear "gorgeous lifelike tonality" would not be how I would classify the dart sound. How it is that you are achieving a completely other kind of tonality from what I have heard in other systems is not clear to me.
In MF's review of the Lamm ML3, he made it quite clear that the Lamms and not the Darts had the more "gorgeous lifelike tone" of the two amps. Given what I have head from Lamm (not the ML3 but most else) and from Dart I would agree with MFs analysis.
I don't think any combo I have heard achieves the realism and gorgeousness that Mike does. I would take Mike over Fremer considering that MF would have limited ability to get the best out of a piece of gear given his massive speakers in a tiny room. Though, for most audiophiles MF's analysis will be more relevant given limited ability to invest and extract from a component
Among all potential contenders that we've had here, the Absolare Altius pre + 845 SET power amps stands out as the most lifelike and organic.
/ Marcus
/ Marcus
You will get a lot of different answers from different users. So a question like this is more or less pointless. Among the best I have heard are Absolare and Kondo (Japan). But of course there are many others as good as the ones I have mentioned. It is a matter of taste, room, preferances etc etc.
JP
More gorgeous is not forcefully life like. I have been going between the cj GAT and the ARC REF 40 (Anniversary) preamplifiers - the cj is clearly more gorgeous, but the ARC tone is more life like.
Just an opinion in my system and room, as every one is pointing.
BTW, I never go to a cinema that sells popcorn - WBF is the exception.
Just an opinion in my system and room, as every one is pointing.
BTW, I never go to a cinema that sells popcorn - WBF is the exception.
More gorgeous is not forcefully life like. I have been going between the cj GAT and the ARC REF 40 (Anniversary) preamplifiers - the cj is clearly more gorgeous, but the ARC tone is more life like.
Just an opinion in my system and room, as every one is pointing.
BTW, I never go to a cinema that sells popcorn - WBF is the exception.
I don't think the two things need be mutually exclusive...they often are but there is no reason "forcefully lifelike" cannot also be gorgeous...live and up close it is often exactly this case.
Would love to hear the Koda 70 amp. I had a NAT hybrid SET (Symbiosis SE) that was close to the holy grail...but not quite...
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