Amp/Preamp Asylum

Posted by Rick58 (A) on November 05, 2014 at 14:42:57

Wow, I'm stoked !!! My lovely wife agreed to get me an early Christmas present, as a 'factory refreshed' P 7 became available at Audio Advisor (thanks Joe!). It's black - I preferred silver - but at the price ($1499.99, no tax, free shipping) I can't complain.

I had sold my McIntosh C220 earlier in the year to help pay for our daughter's wedding ... this unit seems to do many of the same things and more (only lacking a mono switch). Remote volume, balance, and trim adjustment (as with the C220), but adding remote bass/treble/bypass, and of course the 7.1 capabilities and more ...

I don't expect the phono stage to be *quite* as good as the C220's all tube unit (and that's sort of secondary to me anyway), but possibly/probably the preamp overall may be even more resolving than the C220. I doubt I'll be able to really 'tell' from aural memory, but in any case, it'll be very nice to have remote volume in the system again.

I've been using my KRK ERGO as a 1-input 'preamp' for a couple weeks. Interesting to see if bypassing or removing the ERGO now makes a difference in overall system performance. I didn't hear any degradation with the C220 in there - after installing/calibrating the ERGO, it did seem to be 'transparent' in all the ways I deem important.

Woo hoo!