Where are the budget pre-amplifiers ?

[Yiangos]

Why magazines don't review budget pre-amplfiers anymore? This is,together with loudspeakers,the most important part of the audio chain,for different reasons of course (just to avoid a debate lol).

[Neil McCauley]

David Price knows. But he might not want to say, or more likely not be able to find the time to say.

Marco has the direct line to DP. Based on a previous AOS experience it seems that DP is a sensitive soul and that he has requested 'prior warning' from Marco before engaging in AOS dialogues

All the rest of the responses – if coming from non-magazine staff, (and I include myself in this category) will probably be just noise masquerading as informed opinion and in that respect at least will probably be entertaining but next to useless.

[Yiangos]

Thanks Howard.....Gawd how i wish we were transported back to the eighties when hi-fi was simpler and more musical !!!

[Neil McCauley]

In the main, and speaking as a 'civilian' I agree with you.

However as a retailer, I have to say the situation, being right in the middle of the 'turntable wars' as very cogently and accurately described by Ken Kessler in the latest Hi-Fi News was no laughing matter.

I was championing the cause of Michell, Pink Triangle, STD and others while at the same time being Linn's #4 UK retailer and crime of crimes, not a Naim stockist. I was following the Linn ethos of A-B demonstrations but with the "wrong gear"!

The unannounced visits from Linn's self appointed enforcer Russ Andrews (yes, that one) was always a time of unalloyed pleasure for me as a consequence of me happily pissing him off , but not for the weaker dealers I suspect.

In that context at least, I believe I was the last man standing. After Subjective Audio, it seems that retailers were either [a] all Linn with a bit of Rega or [b] the other good stuff and no Linn.

So ...... I look back on the 1980s - as a retailer - with mixed emotions.

[chris@panteg]

Back in the late eighty's there was a lot of nice cottage industry valve pre amps about , i bought a concordant excelsior and there was also the rose and glen croft's pre, what memories

[chris@panteg]

Hi Howard
Do you remember the feud between PQ and Chris Frankland, it did not help much of course
but was fun reading ,i am sure most retailers wanted both of them to shut up.

[Neil McCauley]

Forget new - if you want real value.

For amusement and nostalgia, I bought a mint condition Meridan 501.2 from Dave at Green Home Electronics for £250 inc carriage.

Yes, my LFD, Benchmark and Manley preamps are in some respects superior - but not by much.

My advice to all my customers looking for high value low cost used preamps is to let me direct them to anything I find that is relevant on EBay and to get them to buy direct. I feel good, and so do they. It's an unusual approach I know, but why be a businessman all the time I ask myself? So I'm not.

My advice, based on direct personal experience is to look for any 500-series Meridian, the Audiolab 8000Q and yes, the underrated Quad 36. Also - the very rare battery-driven Technics preamp. No doubt other AOS members can suggest other vintage preamp bargains.

[Neil McCauley]

Hi Howard
Do you remember the feud between PQ and Chris Frankland, it did not help much of course
but was fun reading ,i am sure most retailers wanted both of them to shut up.

Yes, I do. All I wanted (I can't speak for other retailers) was for the 1980s editorial sheep to realise that the ‘garbage in – garbage out’ Linn ethos was very far from the whole story.

I argued – utterly unsuccessfully – that a tidal wave of detail if passed through a poor quality amplifier and mediocre speakers was still an unpalatable sound irrespective of how much detail you extracted from the groove. And the rest is history.

[chris@panteg]

Spot on Howard ,i put together my current system from the speakers (snell J) back because i know and love the sound' and have a much better system now than back in the eighties , so i have gone against the linn ethos as it were.

[Yiangos]

Marco has the direct line to DP.

David Price speaks with Marco ? I bet he is not aware he's using a Denon dl-103 ! lol