Teksiis Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 (edited) Howdy guys, I am potentially looking at purchasing a Bel Canto pre-amp (Pre 2) It is likely that I will go ahead with the purchase which means I need to start considering options to pair with it. I was leaning towards mono blocks, something along the lines of the Audiolab 8200MBs or Bel Canto REF500Ms, however not ruling out a stereo power amp either. Wondering what other options I should perhaps consider, I will be aiming to buy second hand with a budget of about 2.5k max, and more in favour of something solid state. Any help/advice is appreciated. Cheers, Terry Edited April 7, 2018 by Teksiis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teksiis Posted April 7, 2018 Author Share Posted April 7, 2018 Also as a bit of an oddball question would this pair ok with something of an older vintage say a Sansui BA-F1 or similar? Cheers, Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BATMAQN Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 3 hours ago, Teksiis said: Also as a bit of an oddball question would this pair ok with something of an older vintage say a Sansui BA-F1 or similar? Cheers, Terry Yep done it worked well only difference my pre has the inbuilt DAC. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teksiis Posted April 7, 2018 Author Share Posted April 7, 2018 Yep done it worked well only difference my pre has the inbuilt DAC. Sweet thanks Seb, was kind of hoping you would have an answer for this.[emoji1] 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BATMAQN Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 5 minutes ago, Teksiis said: Sweet thanks Seb, was kind of hoping you would have an answer for this. You won't be disappointed mate they are a sweet combo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BATMAQN Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 Which speakers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teksiis Posted April 7, 2018 Author Share Posted April 7, 2018 Which speakers? My Dalis at the moment, they will be seeing an upgrade in the near future also though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BATMAQN Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 BA for the bass a nice valve amp for the mids/tweeter, sorted (if they have dual binding posts). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gremrock Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 That pre 2 is a nice amp, but if you can stretch to the newer ref600s you’ll have a better combo, or I’d even hunt down the older eVo series Amps over the 500/1000series. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgehifi Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 (edited) Be very careful Teksiis , these days most digital put out 2v and more at their loudest 0dbf transients. Even analogue phono stages can give out that much these days. The amps your looking at Audiolab 8200M only needs 1.2v in, to give full output of 200w 4ohms, so you need a preamp with unity or very low gain, otherwise your volume control could be only at 9 o'clock for very loud listening. Bel Canto REF500M only needs 2v in to give full output of 500w 4ohms, this just as bad if not worse, as the wattage is more than doubled of the Audiolab the volume control could be the same. BTW I agree with Gemrock the 600M's are better. Cheers George Edited April 7, 2018 by georgehifi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gremrock Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 Interesting thing with the pre 2 is you can alter the 0db offset by quite a margin to alter your volume control (ie. get it quieter, or louder and have more adjustment in this region) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgehifi Posted April 7, 2018 Share Posted April 7, 2018 (edited) Good thinking of them sounds like it's got a gain setting adjustment so you can choose the max output level. Wadia and Mark Levinson did this way back and continue to use it on their top dacs but for a different reason when they found that digital domain volume controls in dac and players, if you use the volume below 75% of full you start to "bit strip" lower resolution from 16bit down to 14bit and so on the lower you go. So they also introduced absolute gain setting jumpers. Like I said in my other post all you need these days is unity gain in most cases, in 90% of cases a passive pre will do Cheers George This is Wadia's digital volume control gain setting instructions. Edited April 7, 2018 by georgehifi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teksiis Posted April 9, 2018 Author Share Posted April 9, 2018 Sweet, thanks for the assistance all, I think I have settled on something now. I will update the thread once I make a purchase. Cheers, Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teksiis Posted April 15, 2018 Author Share Posted April 15, 2018 So after considering all of my options, and spending a bit of time going round in circles like a crazy man this happened: One of the upsides of going this way is that although it is an integrated it can be set to be used as either pre or power separately which gives me plenty of room for experimentation. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts