Mixing Dartzeel With Other Brands.

[Tabl10s]

Hi,

Is it an audio sin to mix Dartzeel with other pieces of amplification? I have an Ars-Sonum Gran Filarmonia integrated and want to bypass the volume control with a preamp.

The short list is either a Holo Audio Serene or a Dartzeel. I could also go with a 108 and Serene or the Dartzeel Intergrated. Anyhow I dice it, this has to be my last purchase as I'm on a limited income and I can't afford a Dartzeel combo.

PS:

What cables favor Dartzeel?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Hi,

Is it an audio sin to mix Dartzeel with other pieces of amplification? I have an Ars-Sonum Gran Filarmonia integrated and want to bypass the volume control with a preamp.

The short list is either a Holo Audio Serene or a Dartzeel. I could also go with a 108 and Serene or the Dartzeel Intergrated. Anyhow I dice it, this has to be my last purchase as I'm on a limited income and I can't afford a Dartzeel combo.

PS:

What cables favor Dartzeel?

you can find darTZeel, both preamps and amps, in the signal paths of many fine systems where both pre and amps are not darTZeel. the darTZeel presentation of not being tubes and not being solid state does make it 'fit' well most anywhere.

in the case of using the darTZeel preamp with your integrated, i would expect it to be complimentary to what the Gran Filarmonia is doing. the dart pre will also include a world class phono, and a top level volume attenuation featuring optical coupling.....it's the best there is. and it's battery powered so does not need an expensive power cable to sound great.

i assume you would be looking for Mk1 dart pre based on price; those are very good. and if you ever want to upgrade it to Mk2, that is a really great upgrade.

the Mk1 dart pre is optimal for single ended interconnects; rca. no particular brand to recommend. stay neutral to bring out the dart. the Mk2 can do justice to balanced. dart to dart is best with the 50 ohm BNC zeel.

 

[Tabl10s]

Aye. Do you have an opinion on their Intergrated, Sir?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Aye. Do you have an opinion on their Intergrated, Sir?

it's very good. i've spent time with it at shows. not had one in my system. don't know your amp so i would be speculating on any compare. but i could be very happy with the dart integrated.

dart separates are a bit better than the dart integrated, but you don't miss any of the good darTZeel stuff.

 

[Tabl10s]

Thanks.

 

[KeithR]

I tried a 108 successfully for an afternoon with a LTA tube preamp which surprised me. Neither the owner nor myself felt the need to change to my Music First TVC.

I've owned the CTH 8550 which is a great piece, esp3ecially if you do vinyl

 

[rugyboogie]

Have the darTZeel pre and have used it great success with the following,

darTZeel NHB 108 One
Classe dr3b
Wyetech Topaz 211
ML 23.5
ML 20.6
Pass x350.5
Krell FPB 450 Mcx
Luxman M800
and lastly the Lamm m1.2 mono

 

[Zeotrope]

Have the darTZeel pre and have used it great success with the following,

darTZeel NHB 108 One
Classe dr3b
Wyetech Topaz 211
ML 23.5
ML 20.6
Pass x350.5
Krell FPB 450 Mcx
Luxman M800
and lastly the Lamm m1.2 mono

You have to pay attention to the gain of the pre and the amp.
When I switched from Kondo M77 and Souga, I initially had the DarTZeel 108 amp paired with the M77. That’s not ideal, since Kondo adds more gain in the amp than Zeel’s amp, and less gain in the pre than Zeel’s pre. So you can end up with a lot more gain than required and excess background noise (if the excess gain is being added by the amp).