Sonic Frontiers Line 2 or 1 compared to new SE

Hi Garfish:

I've been a Sonic and Anthem dealer for some years now and am proud to tell you that I helped author the SE versions back in early '99. It all started with a few mods I'd requested from Chris Johnson, President of the company, and slowly snowballed from there. I was so thrilled with the outcome that I nearly begged him to offer either an 'SE' or 'Signature' version at some point. I sold a few of these to clients before an official nomenclature was added and they were thrilled! I think that persuaded Chris it was a good idea. BTW, the pre-'SE' owners are still loving their pre-amps today! While I've heard all three of the SE pre-amps, I'm only intimately familiar with the 3. I contend that it is one of the finest pre-amps available today for under $10,000. The SE's are faster, much more liquid and musical than their counterparts, have better extension top and bottom, better decay, a more solid soundstage image and a weightier and more tuneful bass. I had a full compliment of Seimans put in mine, which I prefered to the stock Sovteks. While I would certainly suggest you do the upgrade, I would more adamantly suggest you get yourself a Line 3 first and then upgrade that when you can. You can contact me on this if you'd like.

Sincerely,
Mario

Garfish, I own a Line 1 SE. Kevin Deal at Upscale Audio gave me a great price and I love the unit. I think the 3 matched sets of Siemens tubes alone is worth the increase in price over the Line 1 standard. But there are numerous other serious parts uprgades too.
I don't know how much SF is asking for the upgrade, but it may be smarter to put the Line 2 up in a classified and at a high amount. See what you can get, because the going rate on a new Line 1 SE version will astound you. I can't believe the difference between a Line 1 and Line 2 is significant enough to consider a Line 2 SE. And I'll bet you can get pretty close to the amount needed for a new Line 1 SE from the classified.

Mario,

What are the differences between the SE and regular versions of the Line 3?
thanks
Rich

Graig- you can pick up a mint Line-3 for <$2500 now.
Go for it babe,ya only live once!!
I'd talk to Mario about one.He knows his S.F. better than anyone.
I remember when he was having his Line-3 upgraded by S.F.He sent them his Line-3 and told them what he wanted them to do to it.I guess they took off from there with the S.E. version.
Good luck Craig....

Garfish, Call Kevin Deal and see if he has a Line2SE left. I bet you can buy a new one and sell your Line2 for less than the upgrade cost.
I have a Line2SE with two Amperex 7308s , which I prefer to the Valvos it came with.