Migration to Seperates

Running a tube preamp into the amp section of your integrated should give you a taste of what a tube preamp might do, even if, as Judsauce points out, it might not show you how good separates can be.

To do this, connect the tube preamp to the MAIN AMP-IN input; do not connect it to a line-level input like CD or AUX, as these are intended for sources only.

Jusdsauce - Could you tell me more about what you mean regarding seperation? Do you mean that giving similar quality seperates that I could expect more precise channel separation? THX!

Johnbender - I did notice that on my integrated there are removable jumpers connecting the pre and power sections of the integrated. It sounds like this means that by removing the jumpers I can seperate the two sections and try paring it with a pre or a power. Is that right?
Thanks again to you both.

Regarding your second question, Jimmy: yes, you are right. remove the jumpers, which act as cables between preamp and power amp, and then run a cable from the tube preamp into the amp-in connector on your integrated.

Doing this will will allow you to utilize only the amp section of your integrated. Keep in mind, though, that the preamp section of the integrated will still be "on," but it won't be "engaged," so it won't be part of your signal chain. But since it will be on, it may interfere to some degree with your amplifiers performance, as some would say it already does, by virtue of it being an integrated amplifier. I don't completely understand this idea myself, but I think this is what Judsause means, and it's also why so many audiophiles prefer separates, because separates completely isolate the components (which integrated don't do), thus providing better sonic performance.

That said, I think your integrated is a very good piece (I wish I had it), and I don't really know how much better a separate power amp might sound over that which is in your integrated. But I don't know. Hopefully some others will chime in...

Good to know. My intent was to pick up a used c2200 for now and if I felt like it was an improvement, sell the 6900 and buy a used power amp.
Why?
Good question. Just looking for "more" i guess. And I must confess that I am hooked on the Mac visuals so I wanted to pair a mac pre with a solid state amp from another maker.
If I cant hear the improvement of the pre then it will get re-listed.
But I am new at this and if you feel like I am missing something obvious in my system, please feel free to point it out. The great thing about the used market is that I can try things and if I dont like the results I can get out of them with out much financial damage...

This sounds like a good plan. Please report back after hooking up the tubes. I'm also thinking about adding a tube pre and using the amp section of my integrated (at least until I can afford a new amp), so I'd like to hear your impressions.