Amp for Revel Ultima Studio 2s

Is it best to stick with one manufacturer for the pre amp and power amp (eg. Simaudio P-8 pre amp and W-8 amp) or can I get better results by mixing a tube pre amp with a solid state amp (eg. Audio Research Reference 3 pre amp and Simaudio W-8 amp)?

thanks for you comments!

Thanks for the input! A Simaudio P-8/W-8 is stretching my budget so ideally Id like to spend less.

i do think Sim and the Studio 2s are a good match. a local dealer is selling an ARC Reference 3 and associated ARC 220 amp on consignment which I may also try out.

Auditioning the Mac 452 and Levinson 532h today. Will post my thoughts.

Cheers.

Nothing, actually. That's a good point! But when I heard the more powerful W-8 drive the revels there was a greater sense of control and space. So I guess I'm going from very good to excellent performance.

Tried out a bunch of diffent combinations of Mac, Usher and Levinson amplification yesterday. Aside from the fact that I learned that Mac is not the sound I'm looking for, there were a couple of surprises:

1) The combination of the Levinson 326S pre amp and the Levinson 532h power amp does not work well. Very dull and kind of washed out in terms of sound. Strange - you'd think that all gear within a brand would work well together - not the case here. On other occasions I've heard the 326S pre amp with the 532 dual mono amp and the 53 monoblocks, and both were extremely good combinations...

2) The Levinson 326S pre amp and the Usher R-6.0 power amp (only $3,600 for 150 wpc amp) sounded fantastic! Huge open soundstage and slightly warmish, engaging sound. The only thing that was missing from the sound coming out of the Revel Ultima Studio 2s was the lowest of low frequencies. The Usher R-6.0 is a real sleeper, high value product that's worth checking out!

On my first point above, I just heard from my dealer who said his 532h had a bad output stage, which solves the mystery of the poor performance I heard with the Mark Levinson 326S and 532h. Apparently it's not a synergy issue between these 2 ML products after all!

interesting insignt! Thanks!

how did the ARC Ref. 3 compare to the Levinson Pre amp?

Never got to hear the ARC Ref. 3 pre-amp, unfortunately. It was for sale used on consignment...I would be interested to hear it some day though. There seems to be a solid chunk of audiphiles who believe strongly in pairing tube pre-amps with solid state amps!

I listened to the Mac C50 pre-amp and the MC452 amp (all solid state Mac gear). I did hear the Levinson/Usher gear in the same room and on the same speakers (Revel Ultima Studio 2s) as the Mac gear (same CD player - a Levinson - and cables too). I found that the Mac gear had a different sound that I'm used to from my current Simaudio gear. The Levinson/Usher combo was closer to the Simaudio sound.

I perceived greater "soundstage depth" and "space" with the Simaudio, and particularly the Levinson (the pre-amp threw a huge, deep soundstage wheras Simaudio is a tad more forward) gear whereas the Mac gear sounded more "direct" with more "body" or "presence" to the music but less depth. Tough to describe in words but you'll hear a significant difference if you do the comparison.

Funny, my Simaudio dealer sells both Mac and Simaudio and he said "If you like Simaudio, chances are you won't like Mac." - it comes down to what you prefer but the two brands are quite different in how they present the music.