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Warm Sounding Preamp Suggestions

I'm looking to dial down some mid/high glare from my newly acquired B&W 801 S2.  I'm getting a little fatigued and want to see if I can warm it up a bit with a preamp.   Right now I'm using a Yamaha Aventage Receiver and a Threshold S500/II. 

Any suggestions?  Tube preamps? 
dastro
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213runnin
562 posts
 
Parasound p5 and Nad C165BEE are both worth a look for being on the warm side.
mgreen27
147 posts
 

I can tell you from direct, first hand experience, that in order to fix your problem, you need to get rid of the speakers. I can also tell you that you will definitely get rid of them. The only variable will be how much money spend trying to make them work.

If you are compelled to spend money, start off with a passive line stage. Schitt sells one for around $50. That will allow you to remove the Yamaha receiver as a preamp. Doing that should take a lot of the edge off. Keep in mind that any bandaid components you buy now, will probably not be a good match for whatever speakers you buy when you replace the B&W's.

swampwalker's avatar
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swampwalker
5,132 posts
 
A lot of people talk about B&W being bright.  It is possible, however, that what you are hearing is the brightness = higher order harmonic distortion from your amplifier.  I've heard them sound glorious with a very good tube pre-amp and power amp rigs.  That being said, the pre-amp section of that Yamaha AVR is probably not the strong point of your system.  I'd also have to disagree with mgreen27; a passive is more likely to be transparent, so if the speakers are a problem (which I don't necessarily believe) that would not help.  I suppose if the Yammie is adding additional brightness it might help. 
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mesch
1,679 posts
 
I believe I would replace the receiver with a tube pre.   
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