Will tube preamp add?

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36 minutes ago, al2813 said:

Wow a lot of new answers since last night. And as in many other cases as many opinions as responses 🙂 

I am not a big fan of active speakers as good as the ls50w may be (and as expensive - the difference in price now is significant). I like the jigsaw of components I can swap from time to time 🙂

 

I think I will try with a better DAC. I am currently debating between the danafrips Ares 2 and the Gustard. Schiit is an issue at the moment as it is impossible to get them in Europe (Schiit has currently almost zero stock in Europe). 

 

 

 

 

 

You might consider iFi's products as well. I've preferred them over the Schiit products at similar prices.

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4 hours ago, Blake said:

100% purchase 2 subs, not just one.  Ideally, the subs will have their own built in DSP.  Subwoofers add more than just low frequency.  They also help to recreate the sense of the recording venue and improve sound staging.  It takes a little bit of work to get the placement of the subs correct, and then blended in, but once you get it right- wow!  One of the most perplexing things for me is, how so many in our hobby dismiss subs and low frequencies in general, like they don't matter.  They are totally fine with just lopping off an important part of the music, which is the polar opposite of the goal of high fidelity.

 

I am not at all a bass head and I completely agree with this. In my case I cut the lows from my Quads increasing their dynamic and SPL capability as well.

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41 minutes ago, fas42 said:

 

Subs can do the job, but this is not guaranteed - a setup I visited that had everything done right as regards producing low distortion deep bass notes, using two massive sealed subwoofer setups, still failed to give good "weight and feel" to the bass lines in the music. I'm using some decent, bookshelf sized active speakers right now, and the sense of the bass in some tracks was quite overpowering - too much in fact; resolved by increasing the effective mass of the units. The same factor is at work in the comment about Quads sounding better with the bass removed - stabilsing their frames would have been another option for improving the sound.

I’m not sure what the first part of your response is supposed to mean, but no amount of frame stabilization is going to do what I am- not even close