Mix and Match Pre- and Power-Amplifiers?

[admin_exported]

As mentioned in another post, I'm selling my Cyrus AV5 surround processor and two of the power amps and going back to stereo. I'm therefore looking for a stereo pre-amplifier to go with my two remaining Cyrus SmartPowers.

Looking for reviews on-line, it seems quite unusual for pre-amplifiers (or power amplifiers, to a lesser extent) to be reviewed on their own. Do people mix and match pre- and power-amps, or do they generally just buy a matching pair from the same manufacturer?

The Cyrus pre-amp does get good reviews, but is there anything else I should be looking at?

 

[Thaiman]

I do mix and match my quite a few times. It's hard to get it right but when carefully done, the sound can be well worth the effort. Only one Cyrus Pre I have heard is DAC Xp which was awesome.....highly recommended.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, ultimately you can do what you want but kit from the same manufacturer will be gain matched and all that Jazz which will be more of a convenience thing I'd imagine because then you don't need to think about it, but you will if you mix and match - it's unlikely to be some kind of dealbreaking caveat of your choice though.

I'd take your Pamps and go and audition some of the Cyrus solutions, if your gonna be using a dealers setup though, you might wanna bring your old AV processor as a reference pre-amp to gauge your quality increase more accurately. I couldn't reccomend a pre-amp to you without knowing your price range but I'll always squeeze a 'check out audiolab' in there

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I suppose I'd like to spend less than £1,000, although - as I'm also looking for a new CD-player - could spend more on a digital pre-amp such as the DAC-XP as presumably I could spend less on the CD-player, and get the benefit when listening to DAB or DVDs.

Has anyone got any experience of using a digital pre-amp, and would it work OK with, say, a moderately-priced DVD player as a transport? It seems a bit silly to buy a decent CD-player to use with a DAC.

 

[Anonymous]

"It seems a bit silly to buy a decent CD-player to use with a DAC."

You could just buy a decent CD transport and not worry about wasting a DAC stage...

 

[Thaiman]

Why not look out for 2nd hand musical fidelity Pre-24. The preamp with CD player and has digital in put too. I think price is around £800 (rrp £2000)