Hi all,
I am currently using the rogue 66 with a chipamp, b&w cm4 speakers, clearaudio TT with Lehmann Black cube...The retail products I have auditioned include the Hovland HP100 (my favorite, and one which i can get a really good deal on), the ARC SP10, Marantz 7m (really nice with Brimar tubes!), McIntosh C220 and a few others (including the FI Y).
I really like the presentation of the hovland - warm, liquid mids, extended and natural highs and tuneful, strong bass. These qualities are really quite imprtant to me.
However, I have also thought about trying a DIY effort. The bottlehead foreplay i supposed to be decent witha large following but I doubt it's in the same league, and have wondered about the AudioNote kits...have any of you heard the L3 or L2 pre's from Audionote? Or any other high-end designs (Vacuumstate, etc)? Maybe even Franks preamp? Just not sure how some of the 'higher-end' DIY pre's would measure up to the Hovland.
Thanks for any help/suggestions.
Byron
I am currently using the rogue 66 with a chipamp, b&w cm4 speakers, clearaudio TT with Lehmann Black cube...The retail products I have auditioned include the Hovland HP100 (my favorite, and one which i can get a really good deal on), the ARC SP10, Marantz 7m (really nice with Brimar tubes!), McIntosh C220 and a few others (including the FI Y).
I really like the presentation of the hovland - warm, liquid mids, extended and natural highs and tuneful, strong bass. These qualities are really quite imprtant to me.
However, I have also thought about trying a DIY effort. The bottlehead foreplay i supposed to be decent witha large following but I doubt it's in the same league, and have wondered about the AudioNote kits...have any of you heard the L3 or L2 pre's from Audionote? Or any other high-end designs (Vacuumstate, etc)? Maybe even Franks preamp? Just not sure how some of the 'higher-end' DIY pre's would measure up to the Hovland.
Thanks for any help/suggestions.
Byron