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Is no preamp the best preamp of all?

As an experiment I hooked up my OPPO BDP-95 (which has a volume control) directly to my amp. I was very pleasantly surprised to hear a significant improvement in clarity and sound quality. Typically I have the analog outputs on the OPPO running through my preamp in Analog Direct. I have heard that the circuitry within preamps can cause cross-talk in the analog signal, deteriorating the quality of the signal. So, would having no preamp (and therefore no other circuits to interfere with the signal) be better than an expensive analog or digital preamp running in Analog Direct? I am not really interested in Room Correction or DSP of any kind. I was considering purchasing a Bel Canto PRe6 (which I've read is excellent for multichannel analog), but would it be better to just have the OPPO running directly to the power amp?
cdj123

Showing 1 response by georgehifi

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georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
08-26-11: Daverz
I'm aware that I'm losing information when I use digital attenuation, but how does this translate into what one hears that is different that what one hears when an analog volume is lowered. Saying that one "loses resolution" is not really telling me anything as I don't know how a "loss of resolution" sounds different from just a lower volume.
Daverz

Below around 75% on a digital volume control, you start to get what's called "bit striping" this sounds like the early 1st gen 14bit Marantz cdp's, sweet smooth but a loss of air and detail/dynamics compared to the harsher sounding 16bit Sony's of the same era. The lower you go with a digital volume the more bit striping happens, 12bit 10bit and so on.

Cheers George
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