What preamp for Lamm M1.2 ?

I would look at
placette passive or active linestage - they also have 30 day return policy.

or cj ACT or CT5 pre amp. both have 20db gain, but you will not get any tube rush with your lamm amp. my cj prem350 has similar gain to your Lamm amps and I have 90db speakers - no noise just music.

If you should decide to go for the emmlabs CDSD/DCC2, I would suggest you try going with the DCC2 built-in preamp to start with. You may like it. Afterwards, you can start to look at a separate dedicated and actually compare the sound in your wonderfully designed room. You can then decide whether it is worth investing a significant amount to upgrade the sound of going direct with the CDSD.

Thom_y,

I am aware of the fact, that the DCC2 has an inbuild preamp. The problem with DCC2 (or AA Capitole for that matter) is that it sounds much better through an external preamp (preferebly tubed one) than direct. That was my experience, anyway.

So I would like to get a preamp first, and then look into the Meitner combo again.

Cytocycle,

Thanks for the sugestion. A close friend of mine has the Jeff Synergy II, so I think I will borrow it from him for a couple of days and listen for myself.

Now I always believed that a Lamm always paired with a Lamm to get the Lamm sound that you've paid for. I wish I had the Lamm combo (any).
On the other side you'll have to find a pre that is totally abscent from the signal to obtain the Lamm amplifiers timbre and that's not easy.
|Good luck

Glai -> I was considering CAT amps too ... to be honest, JL-2 Sig was on top of my wish list for quite a while. I think it still is one of the best, maybe even better than the Lamms I got, but it is a tubed design and as such generates A LOT of heat. It may create a serious problem where I live in the summer months, so I eventually went hybrid.