Advice requested for new usp-1 owner

This USP-1 is a very nice pre-amp. I bought mine the very first day they were released and have been recommending it to Lounge members ever since. The USP-1 has a huge "Bang for the Buck" and will give you years of superb service. The best thing for you to do is following the wiring hookup shown in the attached link. Just follow the graphical cable routes and you will have it up and running in under 15 minutes. Enjoy.

emotivalounge.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=prepro&thread=6678&page=1#97198

Not using in my ht. In my den I am going to have 2 sets of speakers. A pair of in walls (UAW-6.2) for non critical listening which I'll run full range (eventually, they are still in box). Plus I have my era D4 and I'll add my dynamo sub. Going to run the d4 frequency limited and let the dynamo full in the bottom end. Basically going to power on whichever amp is appropriate for the speakers I want to listen to. Will not be running both amps at the same time.

I really wanted XSP-1, but at 3x the price I just couldn't justify it now.

Received and installed my USP-1. WOW.. It is really much better than the NAD as a pre. More texture, detail and frequency. I noticed that some music passages were getting muddy with the NAD, not anymore.

Definitely not disappointed that I "settled" for the USP-1.

Now to integrate my sub and see how much better things can get.

Thanks to all for the thoughts.

Hi brubacca

Picked up a USP-1 two weeks ago and very happy with its performance seeing that it replaced my Bryston BP25P, I actually now prefer the phono-section over the BP25P’s.
Also the USP-1 is dead quiet.

The only point I’d like to make is that the volume does run hot as I and others have noted and you may not appreciate the full potential of the USP-1 if you are stuck below 10 o’clock or lower on the dial for moderate to louder listening, although it also depends on the recording or source.
Powering my Bryston 4BSST I switched the amp to its 2 volt/ 22dB setting and it was a huge improvement over the 1 volt/ 29dB setting and I now find most of my listening with the dial between the 12 and 2 o’clock position.
Prior to lowering the amps sensitivity setting the USP-1 sounded like a budget pre-amp compared to the Bryston but getting a higher gain on the USP-1 changed things dramatically at least with my set-up.
The most perceivable improvement was better control, more perceived nuances and harmonics, increased dynamics and the sound overall taking on a more natural presentation with no perceptible distortion or strain even at loud levels.

So the only advice I may offer is to see how it mates with your amp and speaker combo, if you find the volume gets too loud too fast a pair of attenuators might be in order otherwise you’ll be missing out on what the USP-1 is capable of.

Now having said that, I recently acquired a UPA-2 this week to power my surrounds which has it’s own potentiometer so again I was able to adjust the input accordingly and was so impressed with the output I just put in an order for a XPA-200 which might replace my 4BSST, so I may also need to order some attenuators as the XPA-200 also has a 29dB sensitivity input, but I'll wait and see.

Came across this post, so maybe we're good to go.

emotivalounge.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=prepro&action=display&thread=26639


So we assume you indeed took delivery, let us know you're impressions.