AudioCircle
Audio/Video Gear and Systems => The Starting Block / Introductions => Topic started by: diyaudiophile on 26 Feb 2007, 12:38 pm
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I have the YBA Audio Refinement integrated amp with seperate tuner and CD player. I really like this system but was wondering if any one had some advice on putting a seperate amplifier in and using the integrated amp as the preamp. Would this be worth doing ?
a review on my system:
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/srajan01.htm (http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/srajan01.htm)
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diyaudiophile
I have the YBA Integre (same family sound) and had similar thoughts years ago but in the end found that upgrading the speakers really made the YBAs (and I suspect the same goes with Yves Barnard Andre's Audio Refinement) sing! The Rogers LS3/5a was a great synergistic match which brought out the delicacy of this superb line of French amplifiers. You might want to tweak with speakers and cables rather than go the drastic route of using it as a pre-. Just my 0.02 cents' worth!
Best regards
Dennis
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My original AR Complete did not have a Main IN/OUT but maybe yours does. I would say that if you are going to upgrade to seperates, get a real pre-amp. Most integrateds I have used as pre-amps in the past have sounded average at best..
Also, if you like the sound of the Complete. Get a YBA INTEGRE DT.. It is a great sounding integrated..
KiD
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The Audio Refinement Complete Alpha does have preamp outputs.
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A friend of mine had an Audio Refinement Complete.
Last year I showed up at his place with a with one of THESE (http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/t-amp_e.html/). We compared it in his system to the Audio Refinement and you should have seen his jaw hit the floor.
He concluded that something must be seriously out of whack with his amp, so he sent it off to Plurison, the authorized Canadian distributor and service depot for YBA. They said there wasn't anything wrong with it so when the amp came back, Bill quickly put it up for sale and sold it.
The little T amp (http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/sonicimpact/t.html/) trounced the Audio refinement in every way except for bass and power output. Not bad for $30, eh? That's cheap enough for anyone to try.
If you can make do with 10 watts and have some basic soldering skills, then I would direct you to DIY Paradise (http://diyparadise.com/charlize.html/) and go for the Charlize. It's a much better amp than the Sonic Impact. However if you need more power, then I would suggest a Gainclone...
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I'm a big fan of AR gear. I've heard a Complete Alpha integrated hooked up to AR Multi 2 amp. It sounded great particularly low level dynamics. I think it's a worth while upgrade. It retains the AR sound of the Alpha but with way more punch. Using a Multi also makes it easy to bi-amp. Use the 50 watt integrated for the mid/high and the multi for the bass. The Multi2 has separate gain control for each channel making it easy to seemlessly blend with the Alpha.
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A friend of mine had an Audio Refinement Complete.
Last year I showed up at his place with a with one of THESE (http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/t-amp_e.html/). We compared it in his system to the Audio Refinement and you should have seen his jaw hit the floor.
He concluded that something must be seriously out of whack with his amp, so he sent it off to Plurison, the authorized Canadian distributor and service depot for YBA. They said there wasn't anything wrong with it so when the amp came back, Bill quickly put it up for sale and sold it.
The little T amp (http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/sonicimpact/t.html/) trounced the Audio refinement in every way except for bass and power output. Not bad for $30, eh? That's cheap enough for anyone to try.
If you can make do with 10 watts and have some basic soldering skills, then I would direct you to DIY Paradise (http://diyparadise.com/charlize.html/) and go for the Charlize. It's a much better amp than the Sonic Impact. However if you need more power, then I would suggest a Gainclone...
I have both the Audio Refinement and a T-amp and find the T-amp completely out classed by the AR.
Maybe moving up to the AR replacement line, YBA Design, would be a better upgrade path.
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:lol: I am not a big Audio Refinement nut nor YBA for that matter but a few posts down is a guy with his 30$new 8$used
amp thatz so much better theses people need to get jobz! I have owned alot of gear like oh 140 -150 pieces once in a while
there are components that fight way above there weight class but when stuff like my Yugo blew a new Mazda5 outa the
water the other just ignore itz 97% imagination kinda like their sex livez