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High quality pre-amp improve sound processor

I'm building a high quality 2 channel rig in my home theater. I'm wondering if I have my sound processor go into the 2 channel preamp does the sound quality improve or take on the flavor of the 2 channel pre-amp? I read about tube buffers and such that's placed before the amps give more tube like sound. I'm wondering if it's the same going through a high quality pre-amp with the volume still controlled by the sound processor. I would think the pre-amp would affect the sound kind of like op-amp rolling.
marshmellow

Showing 3 responses by zd542

zd542
5,339 posts
 
When you build a system for both HT and 2 channel, the HT processor is usually the biggest bottleneck for getting quality 2 channel sound. Like others have said, get a good 2 channel preamp with an HT passthrough.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"09-07-15: Mechans
The sound from your processor going into the 2 channel preamp is probably not a good idea as the signal will be getting changed and manipulated an additional time from the original signal. I doubt that you can add "high end" 2 channel flavor to it. You can try it and see, and btw the effect of buffers yielding tube sound is over stated IMO, they are useful for impedance mismatches I am told."

That won't happen if the 2 channel preamp has a HT bypass. Its used to deal with that exact problem.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
Another thing you can do with this type of setup, is connect 1 source to both preamps. For example, if you have a universal disc player, you can run an IC from the front analog outputs to an input on your 2 channel preamp. You can also run a digital cable to your HT processor for movies.
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