He may well also to be correct.
All of us on the outside can only speculate and posture, especially when all we have is an anecdotal story or two.
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I’ve always felt companies building class A amps especially Pass built their products like tanks! Large, impressive heat sinks, bold industrial look. Never felt they lacked on quality.
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Class A requires a lot of heat dissipation and thus the design requires beefy heat sinks.
We sold (a few) of the Mark Levinson pure Class A amps in the late 70’s. 25 watts / 120lbs. Toroidal transformer the size of a Folgers coffee can. Sounded great.
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Added a new to me Pass XP-22 to my system last Friday. Replacing a Schiit Freya + that connected my Stellar phono before. Was going direct with the DS MKII to my Orchard Audio amp before. Passed the 100 hr mark on break in. It’s been changing almost daily. Probably shouldn’t be listening seriously until this weekend. Still trying to wrap my head around what it does.
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Great choice for preamp. I had an XP-12 then upgraded to the XP-22. Love what it does for my system.
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The only reason that I miss a preamp is for headphone use in that system. But I have two other systems with great headphone sound so I’m good.
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I’ve kind of been obsessed with preamps for over a year now. Last night I was listening to Qobuz and the system was sounding really good. I came to realize that the sound I was hearing was something that was deeply satisfying, all that I could want really. What was I trying to accomplish by replacing the preamp I recently sold? Vinyl obviously, but I’m not even sure the juice is worth the squeeze there. Streaming is really where my interest has been for sometime now. Just the fact that there is always a source of new material available keeps me engaged and interested. And, given a good recording, the results are fabulous. All this talk lately about how good the new PMG preamp is, and how it can improve results over a DAC direct, has me wondering about the wisdom of adding it to the chain if I decide to ditch vinyl.
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Just received the StellarGold preamp yesterday. I’ve been running it straight for about 24 hours now. Haven’t heard much change in it at all so far. Haven’t heard anything about break in with this preamp so I don’t know if it’s a thing with it but my guess is no. Thomas Tan nailed it in his YouTube review on The Absolute Sound site when he said this preamp has a smooth sound on top. Overly smooth in my opinion. Overall not a bad sounding preamp but I just switched back to my MKII direct and there is no comparison. The magic returns MKII direct. Guess my sights are squarely back on the PMG preamp. Didn’t hurt to try right?
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Got to say, the StellarGold preamp has improved quite a bit with some break in time. I’m at about 50 hours or so and it’s opening up quite a bit. So far I would say now that it sounds like what you would expect from a real good modern solid state design. Wouldn’t call it neutral but it sure is clean. Hope it continues to in this direction with more time.
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I tried the AC coupling mode for the first time today. It definitely addressed one of the major issues I had with the StellarGold preamp- the cool and lean bottom end. Very nice to have the option to change up the sound. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have the resolving power to really appreciate what my Fidelium interconnects bring to the table so I most likely will be sending it back.
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And after you get the PMG preamp, you might end up upgrading your Fidelium to Front Row Reserve to fully realize the capabilities of the PMG preamp. The never-ending rabbit hole…
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Maybe try a Topping preamp. If you’re preference so far is a digital attenuator, you might like the Topping. I believe it has lots of connectivity.
I think I will try the Benchmark LA4 next. Pretty resolving from what I understand. Not a fan of the form factor but the price is right. Seems like I remember they had some kind of sale last year around Christmas time. And they due offer a trial period. A little concerned it may be too analytical sounding.
Benchmark gear is awesome
Certainly haven’t forgotten about the PMG preamp. High on my list for sure. Would like to eliminate less expensive options first though.
Benchmark and I go way back. My second DAC of merit was a Benchmark DAC1 USB. Had it in my system for many years. My current DS MKII is much better IMO.
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Have you looked at the music room for used preamps? (where I got my Levinson 534 amp)
The Benchmark has an open, pure, transparent sound.
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What would you call it?
I would call the StellarGold preamp cold and really lean in the bass in DC coupling mode. AC coupling warms things up a bit. Resolution is so so. Really like how the remote ties my PSA pieces together. I like the volume control.
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