2. amps-preamps
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Preamp for Atma-sphere s30

Hi,

My Hovland hp200p was "stolen" by a transport company after it was repaired in another town, so now I am looking for a preamp for my Atma-Sphere s30. I am looking in the second hand market. I am looking at a Audio research LS26, and a bat vk-51se (both second hand). It is sadly not posible to test before buying, they are in another part of Norway. Is there anybody that have any experince with these preamps together with the atma-sphere s30? Any other sugestions to what preamps that is a good match?(It has to be a remote controlled preamp!)

My hifi gear is:
Atma-Sphere s30
Merlin vsm mxe with super bam(xlr/rca)
Emm labs cdsd and dac 6e se
Wilson benech full circle
Logitech transporter
Cardas g.r cables

Regards
Kjetil
kjetil666
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
7,068 posts
 
Marty, there's been of lot of improvement in the S-30 in the last 15 years :)
dob
577 posts
 
Merlin always presented with Joule-Electra pre/power amplifier. Surely S30 is great power amp too but I would use Joule-Electra preamp...
martykl
3,563 posts
 
Ralph,

I got the impression (maybe from one of your posts here) that there were changes made after the first 15 units. I've never heard a later production example, but my early example certainly had its strengths which were evident when it was appropriately partnered up in the right system and weaknesses that were exposed by less happy marriages. I have no reason to doubt your observation that later units are less "picky" . I hope my post made it clear that I wasn't generalizing about the sound of current/later production S-30s, as I have no experience with them.

To this day, I'd list it among the best looking industrial designs to ever come out of high end audio.

Marty
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
7,068 posts
 
Thanks Marty. We can update those older S-30s so we can get them to sound just like the current version. If we do that the warranty reactivates.
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