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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!
128x128execine
isochronism
2,893 posts
 
I would certainly consider upgrading to an Audionote Integrated. 
chilli42
111 posts
 
You might consider buying an integrated amp.  It will save money on interconnects and power cables and should be overall cheaper than a separate amp and preamp combination.  Take the savings and use it to buy a DAC for your Tidal streaming.
execine's avatar
execine OP
5 posts
 
that is also a possibility for sure! I have 3.1 Dac already :)
audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,018 posts
 
I would go the integrated route...so many great choices out there now. Just need to start your research, but that is part of the fun. 
jond's avatar
jond
5,798 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.
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