I need advice on a amp/preamp combo for my sonus faber concertinos. the sumiko dealer in milwaukee recomended a Halo by Parasound A23 amp and a P3 preamp. another hi fi shop here raves about rotel, and suggested the RB 1072 amp and RC 1070. both are equally priced at around $1500 to $1600.
Some features that I like about the rotel is the extensive recording options (useful to me because im a musician and record things frequently) and the phono stage is said to be excelent.
Pros for the parasound are slightly more power, balanced connections between the amp and preamp, and it looks about 10 times better.
Has anyone heard these side by side especially with the sonus fabers?
I have not heard either brand with the SF's. But I would say you're letting the system down with the Rotel. The Parasound is John Curl's design and offers exceptional quality for a fairly reasonable cost. The personality of the Rotel is, IMO, far, far away from the musical nature of the SF's while the Parasound is more closely related to what the speakers are trying to capture. I would still recommend a long audition period with the Parasound playing with the Sonus Fabers. Without any inidication as to what interests you in sound quality, I can only say you need to make sure the pairing is to your tastes.
"my intrests are kind of polar opposites, metal and classical."
You'll have to come up with priorities that delineate how you listen and upon what do you base decisions. Where do you aim your first point of reference? Tonality? Timbre? Dynamics? Timing? etc.
"do you think the rotel dealer would let me bring in the SFs to try with the system."
Probably not. You look shady to me. But you could ask them, they might not be as keen a judge of character as I am.
Do you already own the Concertinos? They're an excellent speaker, and I agree with Jan's assessment of gear to pair with them. While you mention speakers and possible pre-amps and amps, you didn't mention sources. You need an equally good source as the rest of the gear, otherwise the rest of the system will be pointless.
My favorite amp for Sonus Fabers by far is McIntosh. McIntosh is prety expensive - their lowest end integrated amp costs twice what you have in mind ($3k). However, you could look into used gear either through a local dealer, an online respected place like Audio Classics, or Audiogon, you could get one within your budget.
You may be able to find something along the lines of an MA6200 or if you're lucky an MA6300 for around your budget.
no I dont yet own them but I am 90% sure they are my choices. so far they are the most musical speakers ive auditioned in my budget.
my sources are a project expression 3 tt which i do already own and a cd player i am currently undecided on. less experience with cd players and open to reccomendations on those too.
my priorities are musicality and timbre
"Probably not. You look shady to me. But you could ask them, they might not be as keen a judge of character as I am. "
I'm assuming that your total budget is about $3k for speakers and amplification. There are a lot of very good combos for that price. The Concertinos are a misleading speaker. They're relatively inexpensive, but they need to have very good amplification behind them to get your money's worth. I haven't heard the Halo gear for more than a few seconds, so I can't tell you if they're good enough or not. Nor can I say that they'll pair up well with the Concertinos.
My best advice is to set a total system budget - one that includes a CD player, amplification, speakers, and a phono stage if needed. After you've got that total price, listen to complete systems. I don't necessarily mean one brand (athough they can be very good), but systems that dealers put together in your price range that work well together. This way you'll know exactly what you'll end up with.
What did you hear the Concertinos being powered by? If it wasn't the Halo gear, why aren't you looking into buying whatever powered it? How do you know what you liked was the Concertinos and not what was upstream?
I'm not trying to insult your audio knowledge, just trying to see if you know why you decided on the Concertinos.
On another note, the Xpression is a very good turntable for the money. I own a 1Xpression. If you haven't done so already, get rid of the Sumiko Oyster it came with as quickly as possible, and also add a Speed Box. If you think the table sounds good now, you're not hearing what its really capable of.
Typically, one would match the Concertinos with items in the $1200 bracket or more. I haven't heard the latest Domus line of SF speakers, but irrespective of their replay style SF have always represented a good level of quality. The Concertino used to be a lazy speaker which required a fairly powerful amplifier or rather, one which could deliver reasonable amounts of current in swift strokes. This was unique in the SF range at the time and I believe the new Concertino does not have that lazy response.
From what I've heard, the SF style appears to have changed over time to a faster more engaging presentation (it used to be laid back). SF always has relatively benign impedance so you don't need a very powereful amp, just a good one, meaning a good preamp stage, and of course a decent source to match.
In the UK, SFs are most often matched with Audio Research, Prima Luna, Copland and Krell, in part because the distribtuor for SF does those brands. I have also seen it partnered successfully with Art Audio. Most of these brands are tube based so perhaps there's a clue there.