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The biggest and baddest Pre Amplifiers of all time?

My system underwent a massive improvement in SQ last summer when I took the preamp clear out of the signal path, and fed the power amp directly with the sources. Since that time, I have followed the "less is more" approach. I do have a preamp in my system now, but it has no tone knobs. It has a switch for different sources, a balance knob and a volume knob. The song playing right now is "My Little Brown Book" by Duke Ellington. Sublime.
 
PabloTincho said:
Does anyone have any info in the BGW 203 ? I am able to find one for less than $100, is big

https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/bgw/203.shtml

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I believe that's commercial gear, American made from what I remember. Maybe they tried consumer but I doubt it.
 
triple20 said:
Not the biggest and baddest but both represent top of the model line units.
HH Scott Alpha 1 and Pioneer C 73
Judging by the results of testing and inspection from my tech,I'll guess the HH Scott uses high quality components in it's build,built around 1976 and still in spec and functions as designed,needing no work.

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There has been a Scott Alpha 1 for sale off and on in Portland,OR for over a year now. The seller wants too much money ($400) for it. I might be interested at $200 but the rarity of it makes repairing it problematical. I have enough trouble getting someone to repair more common equipment.
 
Old HiFi Guy said:
There has been a Scott Alpha 1 for sale off and on in Portland,OR for over a year now. The seller wants too much money ($400) for it. I might be interested at $200 but the rarity of it makes repairing it problematical. I have enough trouble getting someone to repair more common equipment.
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Sorry to hear the problem with finding a good tech,I'm lucky here in the Chicago area,have a very knowledgeable tech.
 
jazzmans said:
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This is a simply fantastic preamplifier, does what a preamp is supposed to with nothing else, and has the neatest collection of channel combination/subtraction I've seen in a preamp before.
iu

Er, nevermind, it sucks, don't buy them and drive the price up.

Apt Holmann Preamp.
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jazzmans said:
iu

iu


iu


This is a simply fantastic preamplifier, does what a preamp is supposed to with nothing else, and has the neatest collection of channel combination/subtraction I've seen in a preamp before.
iu

Er, nevermind, it sucks, don't buy them and drive the price up.

Apt Holmann Preamp.
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Very nice. You even have the rack mount front panel. I owned one and wish I had never sold it. Had the APT amp too.
 
Back in the Dave Reich days, Classe made less than 200 DR7 preamps. The power supply looks (and weighs) like a power amp and it is connected to the preamp controller with a custom umbilical. It has two phono stages and volume is adjusted not with potentiometers but with arrays of individual resistors via two switches with many steps.

Over the top, large, was expensive new, and sounds very good.

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PabloTincho said:
There is some info on a Japanese site, very expensive for the time, more than any Japanese super preamp

https://audio-heritage.jp/BGW/amp/model203.html
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I just hooked mine up. I'm speechless, It is incredible. Wipes the floor with the Accuphase C202 it replaced, much better than the NRG preamp that cost 5k in the 90's.

Going to stay in the rack for a long while I think

Not to mention all the pots are really high quality stepped attenuators, it's a heavy well built unit with all quality brand name components. The switches are really high quality, nothing like the press buttons on the Hafler 101 preamp for example
 
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Nominee from the floor. The Crown SL-2/PSL-2. Iconic '80s studio gear. Designed as a "straight wire with gain." Serviced examples sell today for twice original retail.Screenshot 2026-08-19 at 7.15.23 PM.png
 
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Dazaa said:
I had no idea Crown made anything like that! Looks very Revox inspired style wise, love it. How does it sound?
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The Crown DL-2 and SL-2/PSL-2 twins are iconic among Crown fans...and not plentiful. Between the early '80s and early '90s the SL-2 was a 1U rack stack mate to the PS200/400 amp series, maybe the most musical Crown combo, aimed at studio and audiophile uses. Produced over time in brushed aluminum, charcoal and pure black.682819553_10240785400242013_1917769016488981191_n.jpg
 
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I submit the Mark Levinson LNP-2:

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Still coveted by pro audio to this day. Hand-built by Mark himself, this product "put him on the map".
 
A company that impresses me with their products is Canary Audio out of CA. I was pretty close to picking up the top-of-the-line preamp, and it is impressive if sheer quantity excites you. Two sperate units, one for each channel, and then the power supplies for each channel are in a separate chassis, so it consists of four units. with ambilical cords to combine them. I backed out due to the room they take up.
 
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