Great pre-amp. I am looking for the Pre 2L SE. Please call me at 843 442 2732 if you have one for sale. Thanks.

Sweet sound, clean, great pre

non

I have owned this Pre amp for a couple of years now, I must say mine does go though some tubes [needs replacements about every year] but the sound is GREAT, tubey yet on par with any solid state in terms of detail and air. For the price I dont think anyone can go wrong with this preamp. I'm thinking about some mod's like silver wire etc. but to tell you the truth I'm totally happy with it just the way it is....my amp is Aragon 8008BB and Dynaudio Audience 82 speakers with kimber 8TC wire...weak link in system is kimber, so I'm going with Cardas after testing many different cables...IMO Kimber lacks imageing and bass.

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audio research, classe, adcom,

Huge and deep soundstage; natural instrument and voice reproduction; huge but balanced low end bass. Quality parts and assembly to die for.

Zil except volume control through remote's still a little too sensitive.

Natural and warm sounding but slamp like a solid-state. First-rate imaging, soundstage and detail. An excellent product that would become a collectors' item if not already.

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NAD, Audiolab, Anthem 1L

Wide soundstaging and articulation

No balanced outputs or inputs

I own the pre 2l se. This preamp is mated with a nad 521 cd player, and a anthem mca 20 amp..... driving paradigm monitor 20 v2. This pre amp does an exccellent job at articulating a wide soundstage. Not to mention, the headphone amp is high current and uses the tubes to apply the gain.(awsome w/ sennheiser HD-600's) This pre amp, the special edition is fast, transparent, and actually has little tube characteristic sound, although I feel the sound is smoothed do to the tube gain stage.

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NAD, rotel

Very high-end sounding, with ability to tube roll for fun (not necessity imo). Variable gain switch. HT Passthrough. two outputs. Every feature I need and really great sound.

Volume control. Just one crappy design problem keeps this from costing more, that's all. God almighty did they make a crappy volume control on this preamp. But it only prevents fine remote adjustments at low volume, so I will not ding the rating. I can get up off my ass to turn the dial at night...

I've used this preamp for 8 months. I kind of have an urge to return to solid state for simplicity, but can't pull the trigger on selling this preamp. It sounds just outstanding, crystal clear and clean sound. HT bypass makes it probably a keeper for life, I just can't find an affordable highend alternative with that feature. I think it sounds great with the stock tubes, but being kind of the antsy sort, I bought some used Bugleboys on ebay to replace the Sovteks. No real improvement . I tried some new Teslas (the cheap ones from Triode). No real improvement. Then finally I found a different quad of Bugleboys with a little more life in them - abracadabra! Now that's high end! I wish I could pop for some nice NOS tubes, but frankly the way this pre sounds with the simple Sovteks blows me away. Any other tubes that work out are gravy on the cake. I'll only part with this preamp if I find myself in a position to steal a nice solid stater with all the features I need. Not too likely. This preamp is a killer!

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an old NAD preamp for about an hour before I went back to the Anthem. Monarchy 18B. Various receivers (none worth mentioning)

Musical, detailed, smooth

Volume knob

Overall, the Anthem is a nice warm-ish preamplifier that is both tube and transistor in character. It has much more palpabale imaging than a solid state preamp, yet retains much of the bass of a solid state preamplifier. My only gripe with this preamp is the volume control, terribly touchy!!! The volume jumps from soft to loud in 1 push of the volume button on the remote. However, the volume knob was upgraded on the SE version. A home theater bypass is also a very nice feature for systems that are both HT and music. i used a Lexicon processor before this, and while the Lex does some neat 7.1 music effects, there is simply no comparison as the Anthem is worlds better in 2 channel.

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NAD S100, Krell, Lexicon, Carver, Sunfire

Competitive price. Sounds are natural, not too warm and definately not harsh, no listening fatigue.

Sensitive volume contol using remote.

I have a modest Home Theater set up consisting of Yamaha RX-V2092 receiver and Audio Source Amp 3 to drive front speakers (Polk RT12) sourced from a Sony DVD/CD player with dual lasers and digital and optical outputs. Have a couple tweaks in the system for CD listening (a CAL Gamma DAC and Monarch DIP) which did not do much to improve the sound. I bite the bullet and tied a tube pre-amp. Music was fine with original set up with the exception of high notes on the piano. The Anthem Pre 2L took care of that. I have the Special Edition that includes some silver point to point wiring and upgrade in tubes. After about 5 hours of breaking in, you could tell the strings on the piano were hit with felt covered hammers not the metallic sound I heard through the Yamaha built in pre-amp. String instruments also had more body and were less harsh (lower odd order harmonics?). The bipolar solid state Amp 3 worked fine in this setup. I was a little concerned that the Amp 3 would contribute to sterility or harshness, but not the case. I see no short comings in the Pre 2L SE other than the touchy remote volume control at low listening levels but this is minor. There is a little hum that is audible till about three feet but not noticeable with music playing even at low volume. I can not say this hum is coming from the pre-amp as I have a total of 6 + components connected together and it could be a very very slight ground loop hum.

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Pre-amp in Yamaha receiver.

Simple design and just great sound.

Volume control is a little funky but, the sound is so good I can live with it.

If you think this preamp sounds good with the stock 6922 tubes, replace them with a set of Siemens 6DJ8s from Vintage Tube Services. You ain''''t heard nothing yet !!!!

Flexibility, Clarity and Neutrality

Volume knob workmanship

I sold my entry level hometheater system to concentrate on building a sound 2-channel system. After purchasing my new speakers, then my amp, I went looking for a good 2-channel pre that also could intergrate into a HTS. After finding a few, I went with the Anthem Pre2L. The laid back but neutral sound that passes through this pre amp is very pleasing to me. Like said in an earlier post, this is not a warm and fuzzy sounding pre but a clear and relaxed picture that I really prefer overall. The build is nice and strong and gives you the sense that this will be the last piece in your rack that's going to break down. A real plus is that it has a processor loop which has allowed me to integrate my rebuilt 2-channel system into a Home Theater setup. I went out and bought a Sony AV reciever to amplify the center and surround channels while the fronts are handled by my 2-channel power amp. Now there's no need to get rid of my pre amp because I want to watch a 5.1 movie.

The only thing that bugs me is that the volume control knob has a little "free play" in it. It's not a whole lot of movement and besides it's a small gripe once you realize that this method of volume control is an alternative to using the more transistor/digital noise inducing volume controls that come with mass market pre-amps and recievers.


I like this pre a lot and I haven't begun to experiment with new tubes yet but if these supplied tubes are supposed to leave much to be desired, than I can't wait to hear what the so-called better ones sound like.

I give it a 5 for value at the price that I purchased it. Give Jeff and Mark a buzz at Jeffssoundvalues.com. You won't regret it.

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Acurus RL-11, Aragon 24K, NAD 3120

Simple elegant design. HT bypass. Great imaging.

None at the moment

I have this teamed up with the Amp 2SE and could not be happier. I have reviewed the Amp 2 earlier.

The Pre 2SE sounds great. I can't say enough about the quality Anthem puts into its products. Classic looks with great sound is the ticket for me.

I love the ability to not lose the HT system and still have a very nice two channel setup.

This pair makes my Paradigms sing. Great bass, awsome soundstage and tames the brightness of the Paradigms.