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July 16, 2010 - 2:43pm
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Advise on completing system
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It appears you have 2 speakers and the Krell amps.
If you stayed 2 channel you need a 2 channel preamp of which you might find a good model off www.audiogon.com for a good price.
If you have good sources (DVD player/DTV or Dish Sat source for the Sony) you could listen in stereo that would be very nice.
The preamp would control your source selections and provide vol control for the overall system. You may find a Krell unit if you wanted to stay with one brand.
More info would be needed in terms of a price point to meet for the preamp to give better recommendations.
If you are staying with two-channel you wouldn't necessarily need an HT preprocessor as any good DVD/Blue ray player will do decent video processing and send it to your TV via HDMI and output mixed PCM to stereo outputs. So a two-channel preamp would work fine. If you are looking for budget components think about the Emotiva USP-1 preamp and ERC-1 CD player. They are definite overachievers, but many people would cringe pairing $400 components with grand plus equipment.
http://emotiva.com/usp1.shtm
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/preamplifiers/689-emotiva-usp-1-stereo-preamplifier.html
http://emotiva.com/erc1.shtm
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cd-players/703-emotiva-erc-1-cd-player.html
http://www.avrev.com/home-theater-audio-sources/cd-players/emotiva-erc-1-cd-player.html
My priority is audio playback so I will probably keep the system two channels. The room is not that big anyway. The way I'm seeing it is that I need a couple of source components (i.e. Wadia transport, used cd transport); a combination preamp and D/A converter (or separates)and some decent interconnects.
I haven't stayed up with the industry so I really don't have a clue what has come out over the last few years to help me achieve the completion this system.
Given the bad economy, I probably don't want to put more than a couple of grand into it but I'm willing to prioritize and get the audio working first. I'm willing to also do this using high end used equipment if that helps.
Go to www.audiogon.com and type Krell into the search bar and go through the gear listings and see if there is something you like. I am not sure why you are stuck on Wadia.
There are 6 dealers listed off the audiogon page. You might call one or two and get some suggestions from them.
If your Sony has HDMI ins, which I would think it would, you might look at the Oppo 83SE ad your main source player as it plays all the silver discs. With a decent 2 channel preamp you would have the beginnings of a very nice system.
For a midland price I would consider the Parasound Halo P3 which can be use balanced and also has an added moving magnet phono stage and is a very good performer at $849.00 . Parasound Halo P3
There are alot of choices here and do not let yourself become confused over brands. You can find a review of the OPPO universal player off the Phile site under Columns. Dr. Kal did a great job reviewing this excellent piece that is a great buy. Music in the Round 41
You can also go to Equipment Reviews and look up some Krell gear that has been reviewed in the past.
Thanks Jim. This is good advice. I'm not neccessarily stuck on Wadia except they have a nice looking I-pod transport for around $400 designed to bypass Apple's built in DAC. If you don't have a good vinyl or CD collection (which I don't), it seems like the way to go.
Do you or does anyone else know of a good DCA/Pre-Amp combo that doesn't cost $17,000 new or $8,500 used? I thought I remember at long time ago the Theta made one, but I assume DAC has come a long way since then.
Thanks again for the link. I will definately check out the Oppo 83SE and the Parasound Halo P3 and keep an eye on the rest.
HT
The Benchmark DAC/Preamp which is about $1800 I believe. Check JA review in Phile.