2. amps-preamps
  3. 169721-127218

How important is the pre-amp?

Hello all,

Genuine request here for other's experiences.

I get how power amps can make really significant changes to the sound of a system. And of course speakers have an even bigger effect. And then there is the complicated relationship between the speaker and power amp. But I wonder about pre-amps.

In theory a well designed preamp should just act as a source switch and volume control. But does it add (or ruin) magic? Can a pre-amp color the sound? Alter pace and timing? Could you take a great sounding system and spoil it with the wrong preamp? Stereophile once gushed (while reviewing a preamp that cost as much as a car) that the preamp was the heart of the system, setting the tone of everything. Really? Some people don't even bother with a preamp, feeding their DACs straight into the power amp. Others favor passive devices, things without power. If one can get a perfectly good $2K preamp, why bother with 20K?

What your experiences been?
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Showing 3 responses by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,538 posts
 
I believe that the preamp is the heart of most good systems. It has been for mine for fifty years. It is the heart of the magic. Some folks have sucessfully connected digital equipment direct to amps but so far that seldom works well. This may work in the future, but getting compatible and synergistic is exceptionally difficult. If you do a survey of the literature it is really hard to do, many people that try it, give up and go back to a preamp.

You really have to be careful about this “most important” component thing.  Maybe.. for components at the same level of performance or cost “the most important component” is. But even that is hard. For me, I generally put the most money into the preamp. It is the heart, and you don’t want it coloring the sound.
ghdprentice
6,538 posts
 
@azwineguy

I certainly have never heard it. Well, I guess a $15K surround processor versus a $1.5K preamp. But no, never.

Also, I am currently enjoying a glass of Chateau Haut Bages Liberal Pauillac, 2018 while listening to my all tube system. We have our home theater upstairs… top of the line… but no match for my system down here. Life is good. I lived in Tucson for 25 years.
ghdprentice
6,538 posts
 
I agree that the death of the preamp is inevitable. But if I had to estimate when the shift would start with significant movement it would be twenty years. That would put it where the CD player is now… a few companies stop production… the ones that are future minded, most users are not yet aware that the age is over. Most people are not aware the world has changed until long after (check out the discussions of CD vs Streamer). But analog needs to die… Don’t see that soon. So that leaves a point maybe 25 years as a good transition point. Even if I was twenty five years old, I would buy a preamp.
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