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Do I need pre-amp? Upgrade amp or buy pre-amp? Audionote system

Hello everyone,

I have a strange question.. Tried googling, but found a number of various answers but still not to the point where all is clear.

Currently I own Audionote P3 Silver amplifier which has integrated volume control, play music through it without any pre-amp, sounds great, no issues. I was thinking to upgrade it to a better AN amp, but upgrade would cost around the same as a good pre-amp. My question is - do I upgrade to a better amp or purchase pre-amp and use it with current amp?

AN has Meishu line, which as I understand has a built in pre-amp, so theoretically, Meishu should sound better than P3 despite being same line just because it comes with integrated pre-amp?

Thanks!
execine

Showing 3 responses by jond

jond's avatar
jond
6,039 posts
 
I agree with @tvad the M3 would be a good match and your P3 Silver is a great amp already. A Meishu Tonemeister may sound better but maybe not. I would definitely suggest posting your question here:

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/strictly-for-fans-of-audio-note-uk.422880/

Lots of AN users and some dealers post there as well as Peter Q from time to time.
jond's avatar
jond
6,039 posts
 
I was just looking on the AN website look like the P3 has been upgraded to Tonemeister status. Getting your amp upgraded might give you a very significant increase in sound quality at a fairly low investment.
jond's avatar
jond
6,039 posts
 
Weirdly someone asked a very similar question on that thread I posted yesterday about Meishu vs P3, here is the question and a very helpful dealer response.
I will use only one input into the amp so a P3 Silver Tonmeister will give me the same performance as a Meishu Silver Tonmeister? (Signal from a Dac 0.1x that will be upgraded to a 3.1x). My amp today is the AN Cobra
Incorrect. It will not give you the same performance, in this case, less is still less. The pre amp stage in the Meishu Silver Tonmeister is not a detracting feature. If you don't want a separate preamp then just get the integrated rather than the P3. It's about 18% more in price initially but if you are not going down the road of pre and power amps, then perfectly justified. If you do want a pre and power eventually then the P3 would be a good option.
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