Hi-Fi / Music

Shaun Haselden

Active Member
Having settled on a system for the last four years we moved house..! This of course required reinventing the sound system. I have over 30 SACD's so I thought it time to buy a player to make the most of them in the form of a Denon DCD-2500NE. Next, my PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium power amp; gone..! That left me with my PrimaLuna Prologue 3 preamp and a pair of KEF R5's. Now due to the fact that we listen mainly to electronic music I found and bought a secondhand Usher R1.5 power amp for its bass grip and power but I am hoping that this will be useful for modern jazz recordings as well. Due to arrive on Thursday of this week I'll tell how I get on some other time.

Our music of choice..? Shpongle, Ozric Tentacles, Younger Brother, The Peaking Goddess Collective and tons more. You get the idea ?
 
I once came ascloseasthis to buying one of those Usher power amps, for use at the bottom end of a bi-amped system. I thought it was very good, so I expect you might well like it. Mixing a valve pre amp and solid state power amp is something I have been doing for over 20 years, so I wholeheartedly approve of the route you're taking Shaun. I hope it works out well for you.
 
Thank you Chris. I first spotted this amp type a decade or so back and it became a bucket list kind of thing rather like owning a Harley Softail. I realised the Harley thing back in 2016/2017 and have now been given the chance to own the amp of my choice. My preamp produces a massive stereo image and lovely valve type sound so I am really hoping the two will get on well together.
 
A big soundstage is a thing I value very highly. I often hear a poor pastiche of that in a lot of very expensive systems (often US gear with a certain high profile UK company acting as distributor), where the drum kit grows proportionately with the stage, meaning the drummer must have 3 metre long arms!
I really hope you enjoy the next iteratioj of your system. Looking forward to the photos!
 
Here we go. Delivered, installed and sounding so good. Only used so far with my PrimaLuna Prologue 3 valve preamp. I also have a Lightspeed LDA passive to try it with.
 

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Well, what a turn up..! The cheap-ish Lightspeed LDR passive has absolutely destroyed the expensive valve preamp. The stereo image is way bigger and more focused and the treble is much smoother. The Usher power amp sounds like a very powerful valve amp with its warmth but has an amazing amount of low frequency power, most unlike any valve amp I have ever heard in the past.
 
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