Quote Originally Posted by DSJR View Post
OK - my vibe again, so one of you at least in another thread thinks I'm deaf and deluded if I think a passive is better than a good line buffer. I'll take that, but the whole point about ARC preamps was that their (mostly) designed-in warmth of tone (a deliberate colouration/processing so not really 'high fidelity' in the true sense) kind of neutralised any stridency on the Krell power amps used with them. THIS generation of Krell was a departure, sounding less hard and tonally flat than the previous range, which was hot running and pretty horrible PA style of presentation if memory serves - maybe it was worn out or over-stressed caps, but they really weren't very nice despite the cachet. The variable 'plateau-bias' design made these amps usable in the real world and to me sounded rather better too. I personally don't think this amp NEEDS to be hobbled with a coloured sounding preamp from the US.
My experience with the earlier KSA50 (not the 50S Martin has) is that it was dire WITHOUT a coloured sounding ARC LS26 from the US!!!

And I do think the LS26 was coloured in a way the KSA50 totally needed. That particular ARC threw huge 3D soundstage and some very nice tonality in the mids. I don't think all ARC preamps are coloured to that extent, BTW.

However, a KSA300 with an Krell pre and DAC I heard later sounded very good, really, on both Apogees and some Usher Dancer variant. I was surprised.

Jerry tried the LS26 on his MBLs and hated it. I don't think it'd work well in that situ at all. Its huge soundstage would just lack any focus with a pair of omnis which disperse sound all over the place by default.

No matter, Martin has enough experience to find what he wants sooner or later. Almost. I say almost because none of us ever really do find exactly what we want, in truth.