I’m glad I came this one in my Agon weekly recap email. I started a thread recently with pretty much the same situation/question. I’m also have a Lumin direct XLR into class D monoblocks. My Lumin S1 (superseded by the X1) also has the LeedH volume control. I think it’s sounds nice, but I had to take the plunge to find out since I don’t have any friends that are into audio that I could borrow one from. I have a tube preamplifier arriving next week. I can’t wait to hear the difference- either way. Or, maybe it’ll sound the same? No matter what, at least I can finally hook-up and listen to my turntable again.
DAC DIRECT IN TO AMPLIFIER OR TO PREAMPLIFIER
For the longest time, I believed that the best preamplifier is no preamplifier. Eliminating a component from the audio chain would yield less distortion & greater purity.
Recently, I have had reason to re-think my logic on the matter - and I am (I think) changing my mind. Better said, assuming that the preamplifier in the component you are using (in my case, a DAC) can produce 95% or greater quality sound compared to the preamplifier component, then no preamplifier is the best option. The 5% represents the (estimated) loss of fidelity in adding another set of interconnects.
That said, most DACs do not have an outstanding preamplifier built in. I think most have average passive attenuators, and the better DACs have active preamplifiers that are very good - but not as good as a quality preamplifier.
What are your thoughts?
Showing 3 responses by veerossi
@lak Im waiting for an Atma-Sphere MP-3 preamp. 😁 |
Update: In my case the pre-amplifier made a noticeable improvement in sound quality- more than I thought it would. The Lumin volume control was fine, but adding a preamp confirmed my suspicion that I was missing out on something. This made the difference I needed from my system. I’m satisfied with my gear now and will be focusing on room treatment moving forward. I only listened to streaming and my NAS. I haven’t rewired the turntable for XLR yet, but will in the next couple days. I can imagine that results for a preamp will depend on the preamplifier being used. This might be where the "your results may vary" and "system dependent" comments come from. There’s no going back for me. If I had to describe the difference between running direct from the Lumin S1 compared to running through the preamp: with the preamp- more depth, better separation of instruments, more full sound, and better focused center image. The only downside I’ve noticed is it does make a little hiss with volume all the way down from the speakers, but it’s minor. I’m thinking this is normal since it’s a tube preamp. It’s still less noise than my old tube amp made though. I hope you find this information helpful. |