First Sound preamp

I owned a FS Presence Deluxe II. It created a very large and expansive image, and it had excellent dynamics. It was quiet, but mine had a persistent low level buzz in one channel that never went away, even after I sent it to Mr.Go for evaluation.

When I consider all the qualities you describe, the one preamp that comes to mind is the Lamm LL2 Deluxe. It was not quite as quiet as the First Sound regarding background noise ("blackness of background"), but it's performance in the other areas more than made up for the little bit of noise...and I'm really picking nits here regarding the noise. You wouldn't know it was there unless you swapped in a quieter preamp and compared the two.

The quietest tube preamps I have owned have been an Atma-Sphere MP-1 MK III (dead quiet background as long as all the tubes are optimized), and a Modwright SWL9.0SE (equal to the Atma-Sphere).

The Modwright preamp sounded more like solid state than tubes to me insofar as the 3D imaging goes.

The Atma-Sphere created an enormous image, but it wasn't as three dimensional as the Lamm.

I haven't found the perfect tube preamp, but for my taste and preferences, the Lamm LL2 Deluxe comes closest to what you describe as your priorities.

Without accommodating her suggestion, you tell her you don't care what she thinks.
Buconero117 (Threads | Answers)

That's an excellent point.

The Lamm does not have a remote.

Drubin mentions a very good point that I had forgotten. I remember now that the FS took the system loudly very quickly and without subtle adjustments. One setting could be too loud, and one click lower could be too soft...significantly so.

I was using 89dB loudspeakers at the time with a 32dB gain amplifier.