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Luxman C-05 Pre vs. Counterpoint Sa-3

M

mitchwolos

Member
I have a Counterpoint SA-3 tube pre, Im interested in buying a Luxman C-05, its a nice looking, dual mono, adjustable load on the phono, supposedly a very nice piece.

What are your thoughts? Is it worth spending a couple hundred to buy the luxman? I will have to replace the tubes soon i think, there is quite noticeable hiss in the phono stage at listening level. Im more after a blacker backround, but dont want to lose any soundstage or that "tube" sound. But lots of people are telling me the tube sound is BS and the difference i heared was just from going from a crappy NAD linestage to a good one.

Inside the Lux http://page.freett.com/knisi/c-05.htm
http://www.thevintageknob.org/LUXMAN/C05M05/C05M05.html
 
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I can't comment on the C-05 but I have owned the C-03. I found it to be thin sounding and lacking detail. The C-05 is further up the chain so it may be a better performer and for a few hundred dollars could be worth it.
 
I still have an SA-3 kickin around here somewhere, and I found the phono stage noisy too. I decided to see what I could do with it, and had a look inside. The first thing I found was that the only input leads that were shielded were the phono leads- the rest were only cheap stranded wire. Luckily, I had some of the same shielded wire used for the phono input, and replaced all of the other wires with it, grounding the shield at the RCAs. I'd say that this cut the noise by about 25%. The main problem is the easiest to fix though- install metal shields on the tubes. This was common practice on older units, but are rarely used now, likely to cut costs. I bought three shields for the tubes, and soldered a single wire to each to join the three together, leaving enough wire over to connect the wire to the chassis for grounding. The shields have to be grounded to the chassis to be effective. Altogether, these two changes cut the noise on the phono stage by about 90%. Give this a try before you buy something else- these fixes are easy to do, and a lot cheaper than a new preamp!
 
Thanks Skinny!, i noticed the non sheilded wire, but i figured as long as the phono leads were sheilded no big deal. Does your SA-3 have crosstalk? mine you can faintly hear one source through another if there is no signal.
Im going to try and find some tube sheilds locally.
If this works, i think i might replace some of those huge caps with some blackgates, and put some nice RCA jacks in it, as mine only has the ones that look like there from the 50's.
 
Mine has a bit of crosstalk also, I'd assume something to do with the design. Replaced the RCAs on mine also- it had the same cheap ones. Blackgates could be an idea, but they'll be big bucks for the high voltage ones...
 
I don't mean to butcher this thread but does anyone have a picture of their Counterpoint stuff? I think I came across an Amp and Pre Amp combo and I've only barely heard of them. The ones I saw were black with silver knobs and looked pretty beefy. I am still searching! Thanks!
 
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