Quote Originally Posted by frenchmon
I dont know about that poppaC....my Rotel pre with the XRAY is pretty sweet. The XRAY is kinda sweet sounding and warm by its lonsome and was made for tubes. Musical Fidelity makes tubed gear as well as SS gear and some of their SS seems to have a tubed characteristics. I dont know if you know any thing about Canton speakers but they are pretty dynamic in themselves and have a way of drawing you into the music. They are in no way boring speakers....I once took them over to Peabodys and he said he had never heard box speakers do what they can do....He thought they had a sound similar to electrostats. Then the A+ cables and speaker wire makes for a nice system...its not really hard and edgy like SS and not as rounded as tubes but it does lean that direction as it is.


The XRAY has an external tube DAC...the XDAC V8 that can be had for about $1500 new if you can find one. Used they run about $750-800 on Audiogon if you can find one there. I really dont want to fork out $800 on a used DAC. When I took the XRAY CDPV8 over to Peabodys and connected it with his Conrad-Johnson tubed gear it was a match made in heaven...so, im just think that the P-307 can be used as a tube buffer between my XRAY and preamp or between the pre and amp.

frenchmon
I don't know what to tell you. Clearly you've heard the awesome ability of the tubes in a pre function. It's always impressive with digital.

All the qualities you lust for, I think the tube pre will help to bring out BEYOND your current Rotel. I have heard several Rotel combo's, possibly even your pre. They do indeed sound nice.

All I'm saying is that a guy who likes vocals and jazz should at least TRY OUT a proper tubed pre. I know that you understand better than this, but alot of guys fear that their sound will turn into mush if they have tube/tube-pre/amp.

I suspect they would also add a real immediacy through your Cantons by the sounds of it. I think your view of immediacy is emotion, which is a damn great description. I was lacking a serious chunk of my system's output before putting on those speakers.

Anyhow, I hope you don't think I'm trying to start the ol SS vs Tubes nonsense. If you were going to audition a full out pre amp with tubes, you would have to step up from that particular Grant unit, and look for something a little better to best your Rotel.

I haven't heard any Canton but after your description, I think they'll be on my list. I have no local dealer but perhaps I can head into Detroit or someplace. Be careful when comparing them to panels or electrostats, those guys just may show up at your door, prepared to hurt you. lol. Which models can you suggest I look at?

OK Byron I have to head into the shower and then I'm off to your beautiful country for AKFest.