Stereo set up for Indian classical..Budget 1 Lakh

[Dr.Bass]

Hi All,

The Rethm Maarga's took longer than I thought to configure and are expected to arrive the coming Sunday. I must say that dealing with Jacob from Rethm has been a true pleasure.

Meanwhile, I have purchased the Stibbert Goldenote Tube CD player and a Lyrita 2A3 Amp from a friend. I guess this system is the one of them best I could have bought as a newbie. Looking forward to the speakers to arrive and once I have put them together, I will be happy to host FMs for a listening session.

Meanwhile, the secondary system (for TV) is yet to fall in place, I have bought a Denon 1510 Amp but have not liked any speaker yet. I had finalized a Paradigm monitor 7 but after doing the home demo, I realised that Bass is too boomy for TV usage. so had to return the Paradigms.

A very good setup Mr.Singh. Please share some listening impressions.

 

[sajit]

Hi Mr. Singh,

Even I am planning to buy a Rethm speaker. Can you please suggest me a suitable amplifier to couple with a Rethm Trishna or Maarga. Any suggestion will be of great help.

Regards,
Sajit

 

[jai1611]

The best are their own amplifiers. At a lower price point, the Lyrita 2A3 is quite good but needs a source with high gain to work well with the Rethms.

I've been experimenting with a combination of he Lyrita DHT preamp with an ampcams ACA amplifier lately. Not reached any firm conclusions yet on synergy with the Rethms

 

[hydra]

I've also more or less come to the conclusion that it is best to use one of the Rethm Amps with their speakers.

Rethm now has a hybrid amp (6922 valves in buffer stage, single ended Class A power stage) that's quite good: I tried out a pre-production prototype for a while. I'm not sure of exact pricing, but I was told it would be priced close to the Trishnas.

 

[jai1611]

I've been experimenting with a combination of he Lyrita DHT preamp with an ampcams ACA amplifier lately. Not reached any firm conclusions yet on synergy with the Rethms

Been experimenting with the ACA and Lyrita DHT preamp with the Rethm Saadhanas. The key points and comparison with the Rethm Gaanam Tube Amp:
1. The ACA+Lyrtia combo does quite well on tonality and resolution (almost comparable to the Gaanam). This is impressive given the fact that the ACA is solid state. The Gaanam does reproduce a better sense of the venue/space. Its also a bit more open
2. The soundstage is better with the Gaanam with better breadth and depth.
3. Dynamics are comparable between the two. The Gaanam has better flow while the ACA/Lyrita combo is a bit faster. The differences here are subtle

Overall, while the Gaanam is clearly a better amp, the Lyrita + ACA combo does remarkably well for around 1/6-1/7th the cost. Put differently, if I hadn't heard the Gaanam, I would probably quite happy with the Lyrita - ACA combo. Also, the Gaanam is a somewhat fussier amp but gives more room for optimization through tweaking the setup.

In case any Rethm owners in Bangalore want to try the ACA + Lyrita combo, let me know.

 

[hydra]

Thank you for your impressions, jai1611!

This combo does look like an extremely VFM option for amplifying the Rethms.

 

[Dr.Bass]

Recently heard the Lyrita DHT preamp and their 2A3 power amp, very very good products. Tonally correct, dynamically satisfying and above all music just flows from this combo!
How I wish I had a speaker that could work with 3 watts