2. amps-preamps
  3. 126097-68724

Best Preamp - NO preamp... (?)

A few hours ago I decided to experiment and bypassed my highly regarded, excellent passive preamp and hooked up my PS Audio DSD DAC directly to the power amp.
There is no going back...
Every aspect of the sound has improved so dramatically that I'm simply blown away. I'm a bit shocked, playing CD after CD and I still can't believe it.
My phono stage has gain control as well, so it seems that from now on it will be disconnecting RCAs and plugging each in turn.
Since I usually do vinyl day or cd day (or week) anyway, the trouble seems totally worth it. Letting the cable settle in for a bit is not an issue.
Am I just crazy or are any of you doing the same?
Should I be concerned about damaging  the RCAs over time?
Thanks for your thoughts and experience. :-)
128x128ami
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
The $6K PS Audio BHK signature was the only one that came close to having no preamp at all, but still a clear second best.

Still in your own words, with the same source it came a clear second to going direct. With that $6k saving, you could throw that at the source, imagine what you’d have then ???

Cheers George
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,601 posts
 

ami

Thanks! for sharing-  Happy Listening!

voodudrew2's avatar
voodudrew2
4 posts
 
Need some help here. Have a Cary Cinema 11A that I run sound to my TV with and I am adding a Quad Artera Play + that has a great preamp and CD player. This is very important to me as sound is #1. The Artera will be arriving soon. If I run the Artera into the Cinema 11 A which acts as an AV, will that render the preamp and DAC in the Artera pointless? Will I still be getting the full effects of the DAC and preamp? Thanks
jorgjean
76 posts
 
I was running a Benchmark DAC3 HGC directly into 2 AVM M30 Monoblocks. Very Cost efficient as the Benchmark has the Preamp onboard. By recommendation of Benchmark I was considering to ass their HPA4. I ended up adding the Hegel P-20 instead for aesthetic reasons. 

All I can say that it improved the SQ massively. Much bigger, much deeper, more refined. Basically the preamp section of the Benchmark 3 is replaced which the much more substantial Hegel preamp and the Benchmark DAC running in DAC mode improves performance aswell.

In my case the adding of an additional component has made a significant change in the overall system, in the desired direction.

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

As you said you were comparing two preamps, you found one better than the other, as you said the Benchmark has it’s own internal preamp.

What’s discussed here, is going direct from a dac’s "output buffer" (that has no internal preamp), direct to the amp/s using the dac own digital domain volume control, andtherefore having no preamps at all in the signal path.

Basically the preamp section of the Benchmark 3 is replaced which the much more substantial Hegel preamp and the Benchmark DAC running in DAC mode improves performance aswell.
Maybe, a passive should have been tried running in DAC mode

Cheers George
More to discover