I'm on the look out for a pre-amp that will drive some Albarry monoblocks with authority. These have a very low input impedance of 5Kohms. This seems to be quite a tall order for many pre-amps and I'd very much appreciate some advice.
I've realised that I will need a pre-amp with a low output impedance, but its clearly not as straight forward as that. I've tried enough pre-amps to get a sense that these monoblocks could be fantastic, potentially even better than my Unicos with the right pre, but so far I only have oblique perspectives that give me different parts of the whole; I want a pre-amp that will show me all the possibilities of these strawberry blocks.
[For instance, I've tried the Albarry's with my Unico Pre, which has an output impedance of less than 100 ohms, but it didn't quite work. I've tried an Albarry passive, but the dynamics were lost. I've tried driving them directly with my DAX Discrete, which was good but ultimately it uses digital attenuation and took away some depth and body from the Albarry's. I've tried two Croft pre-amps. These sound very sweet with the Albarry's but ultimately just couldn't quite drive them with complete authority (Glenn actually told me that the Albarry's have far too low an input impedance for his amps to drive). Now, finally, I've tried using a Sonneteer Orton integrated as pre. Against all odds, this is close to a great combination (I always thought that Sonneteer should make an Orton Pre). But it just can't quite grab hold of the bass. I can hear from all these attempts how superb the Albarry's could be, but I haven't quite got the ideal yet.]
Has anyone any ideas as to what I could try? The Albarry's have great natural body and colour, but they are also very clean and dynamic. I don't feel the pre needs to do much but support this, let all the colour through, and get a firm control of the bass. Easier said than done of course.
(Please don't say the Albarry preamp, because they've put the price up twice in a year, and I can't afford it.)
Budget ideally would be about £1400 s/h but I could stretch to £2k ish if I was wowed. I realise that makes this thread close to the 'Preamps for £2k thread' running at the moment, but I have quite a specific demand.
