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 1 response by rajugsw

rajugsw
198 posts
 
So I’ve ran both. My PS Audio DirectStream DAC Sr. Direct into a pair of PS Audio M700’s. An excellent pairing making me wonder why would I need a preamp for anyways. Then I got an BAT VK50-SE and ran Orchard Audio Gen1 StarKimson Amps on the Mids/Tweets/Upper Bass and a class D ICE Amp on the Lower Bass drivers. Traded the PS Audio Amps for the BAT Preamp.

There will always be two camps. Straight Wire with gain and input switching. The other Camp is the reverse (my camp as well) where the preamp provides the “color” and the Amplifier is a gain block. 
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