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Tube preamp question

Hello all,
I've recently been looking to possibly add a nice tube preamp to use with my spectron musician ii (hybrid upgrade/no V cap upgrade) monos and Anthony Gallo ref 3.1 speakers. I am currently using a Lexicon MC-12B preamp, bybee power filters with wireworld power cables, cardas balanced xlr and spectron remote sense cables. (I am also using lexicon rt-10 universal player and Oppo bdp 103). I love the Lexicon preamp and mostly watch movies but have been more and more appreciating music on my system. I'd love to add the warmth of a tube preamp but is there anyway to use both or would a tube buffer between the universal player and preamp be the way to go (a happy medium). Basically I want to use the Lexicon for movies and a tube preamp for mostly 2ch music. Is there any way to "pass through" the lexicon and use a tube preamp when I want to listed to the tubes?
I would also need a balanced tube preamp due to the fact the spectrons must be changed internally from balanced/unbalanced.
Any help/input/ideas would be very greatly appreciated as always
duckdownman
pdspecl
197 posts
 
Dodge 8 Clarity and replace the tubes with good NOS tubes.
Has remote, and excellent tube phono section as well. Simply the best tube preamp I've heard and a great value for the cost
jfrech's avatar
jfrech
1,816 posts
 
Swampwalker gave good advice above..I'd have to agree with him...and the BAT tube preamps, used, around 2k or up are a great choice, If you could go up a little bit and get a BAT VK51SE you'd have to spend a lot of cash to get a better preamp...(like 10k or more...)
rlwainwright
1,901 posts
 
You might want to consider pinging Audiogon member "dopogue", he has a lot of experience with Gallo Ref. speakers and tubes. Plus he's a super-nice guy...

-RW-
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
I agree with Swampwalker and Jfrech, BAT seems to be the natural choice for what you are looking for. Fully balanced, tubed, a bit on the warm side, and HT pass-through.
swampwalker's avatar
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swampwalker
5,132 posts
 
I have never used a Lexicon but I am "thinking" that the analog pass-thru feature MAY indicate that those inputs do not route the signal to the digital signal processing section or DACs in the Lexicon. But I "think" it might route the signal thru the volume attenuator so you would have two attenuators in the circuit, generally not considered a good idea. But I'd read your manual on the Lexicon carefully and perhaps even talk to customer service to make sure.
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