That's something I must seriously consider. Appreciate your view on this. What preamps would make the most of the 4B?
I own a Sovereign Director, which is about us$ 16,000 in the States. When I hooked that up it blew me away completely, and even 9 months later it still manages to amazes me almost daily.
Drummermitchell recently purchased a VAC, which is in the same price range, and had the same experience.
I can probably get even more out of the Sovereign by stepping up a few Brystons, but as James mentioned before the main difference between the power amplifiers is the number of Watts and thus the overhead. The sound basically is the same when listening to the new SST2 models. Since I mostly listen at livingroom levels, I don't really need the overhead.
So how much and in what way would a MUCH more expensive preamp provide over the very neutral Bryston designs. If the 26/25 are transparent as they seem then where is there to go?
Think of it as driving a
BMW 5 series (BP26). It gets you from one place to another quite comfortably, has a nice amount of power under the hood, and will make people turn their head because: it
is a nice car.
Or, driving a
Maybach (Sovereign Director). Exclusive, top of the bill, perfection until the last detail of the last details. You do not drive one, it relocates the planet around you.
They both get you from A to B. The difference is the way it happens.
