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Heathkit W5M owners: What pre are you using?

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Posted on August 3, 2016 at 12:23:28
daseman
Audiophile

Posts: 40
Location: Seattle
Joined: April 20, 2008
 To all W5M owners (past or present): Which preamps are you using/have you used? Just curious to hear your experiences and impressions of various preamps with these amps.

I'm currently using a Heathkit sp2. It's a fine match, of course. Down the road, just for kicks, I may put the amps in my main system, which uses a DHT preamp.

Cheers. - Blake

 

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RE: Heathkit W5M owners: What pre are you using?, posted on August 3, 2016 at 17:26:46
Michael Samra
Dealer

Posts: 36118
Location: saginaw michigan
Joined: January 30, 2005
 Blake
The W5Ms are incredible amps and even stock they sound incredibly good due to the iron and Williamson circuit.If your preamp us to the task,those amps don't care what you drive them with but no matter what you are using,it should be upgraded and even the W5Ms should be upgraded to modern components.The DHT preamp you have will do your amps proud as long as its clean and hum free. I use a Fisher 400CX2,a Heathkit AA-11,Fisher 80c pair,Audio research SP3A1,Mcintosh C20,HK Citation 1,Fisher 400c,and an AirTight ATE-2. All have been upgraded and treated to McShane type rebuilds and a few extra tweaks of my own.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken

 

RE: Heathkit W5M owners: What pre are you using?, posted on August 3, 2016 at 18:45:37
daseman
Audiophile

Posts: 40
Location: Seattle
Joined: April 20, 2008
 Michael,

Thanks for the feedback. Now I'm definitely going to try them in my main system.

And wow - that's an enviable list of preamps in your arsenal!

Blake

 

RE: Heathkit W5M owners: What pre are you using?, posted on August 3, 2016 at 20:59:15
pioneergb
Audiophile

Posts: 2
Location: Boston
Joined: September 28, 2006
 Mikey
What pre am I using with my W5M?

 

RE: Heathkit W5M owners: What pre are you using?, posted on August 4, 2016 at 10:26:17
sberger
Audiophile

Posts: 3433
Location: no. california
Joined: October 25, 2002
Contributor
  Since: April 3, 2008
 Tube: Dynaco Super Pas 3, Decware CSP2, Heathkit SP-2, Heathkit AA-141A

Solid State: Yamaha C-4

I'm probably missing a couple. Bottom line I've never encountered a preamp that doesn't sound good with the W-5's.

 

Mike, what about the 4W-AM amps, worthwhile?, posted on August 4, 2016 at 12:10:35
gkargreen
Audiophile

Posts: 1562
Location: DC
Joined: February 5, 2005
 what do you think, Michael?

 

RE: Heathkit W5M owners: What pre are you using?, posted on August 8, 2016 at 04:33:23
Michael Samra
Dealer

Posts: 36118
Location: saginaw michigan
Joined: January 30, 2005
 whatever one you want.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken

 

RE: Heathkit W5M owners: What pre are you using?, posted on August 15, 2016 at 11:13:14
daseman
Audiophile

Posts: 40
Location: Seattle
Joined: April 20, 2008
 Quick postcript to my earlier inquiry. I placed the W5Ms in my main system, with a 112A DHT preamp. And the result was sublime. There's something magical going on with this DHT pre in combination with these vintage KT 66 push pull amps.

 

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