How hard is this on a tube pre amp?


I have an audio research ref2 mkII going in to a proceed hpa2. You know those low signal channels, the ones that sometimes you record awesome live shows from? Well.... I feel kinda uneasy cranking the pre past 12 to 1:00 on the dial, but 3 sounds prett dang sweet.. Am I driving the crap out of the tubes?

It's gotten better, ( louder signal ) since going balanced from the oppo 105. But still, some things really have to be cranked.
no_money

Showing 1 response by jeffb28451

Dial it up. No problems. I believe most, if not all, volume controls are actually attenuators and are more linear for stereo tracking (unless they are really fairly extravagantly designed and built) in the upper reaches.

I "slingshotted" pres together from a line stage to a TacT for years and unless you drive it into distortion, so what?
You can do the same thing from a tape deck with volume controls or by setting a phono pre a bit hot.