Originally Posted by
Steve Toy
No twin knobs please but I'm genuinely interested in a valve pre that will see off my solid state Spectral DMC-15. I tried a Glasshouse TVC passive and whilst it was more organic it was rather shut-in both spatially and dynamically compared to the Spectral. It was also less dynamic to the point of a slight shoutiness even if this was without any real hardness as such.
I'm looking for the dynamics, timing and soundstaging of the Spectral with perhaps more natural sounding vocals. The Spectral is very, very good indeed and is probably worth around £2000 on the s/h market. It was £4700 new back in 2001. The latest version of it is £4800.
Basically 2k is my top-line budget for a pre.