Preamp gain vs. poweramp sensitivity


Hello,

Just purchased an Art Audio Carissa which has input sens. of 600mV (very high). At first, I was thinking that I would want a high-gain pre because the Carissa puts out only 16W/ch and could benefit from some preamp gain.

However, I believe upon considering the sensitivity that a high-gain pre is NOT desired because:

1) I would need to open the VC only a bit before the Carissa was driven to full power.

2) For the above reason, the high-gain is wasted anyway because the pre wouldn't be able to put out what it's capable of without overdriving the Carissa.

Do I have this straight? The relation of gain to voltage is not clear to me. The preamp is specified as outputting 2V yet, with a standard 2V source, that is actually unity gain! So what exactly does "20db of gain" in a preamp mean?

Thanks for clarification on this question.

Paul
paulfolbrecht

Showing 1 response by chazzbo

Paul
Good question.You can look at my questions I just had with swapping out andf old Denon for a buddy with Maggie 3.6's whose input sensitivity must have ben really hot because now new higher powered Bryston (which meets THX therefore 2MV standars for input sensitivity) requires much more of the volume dial (which I told was in uitself not a bad thing in that pre's will wrork beter if they get turned up and don't just use 7'oclock to say 10 o'clock).But freind I had was freaked that he went from alteral bi-map 150 stereos (thuis a totasl of 225 watts totalk output) to a the Bryston which benches near 300 wpc.But he had to put his Mac 712 pre at 12 o'clock high to get what he got at 9 0'clock from the Denons.Bryston very helpful eplaining unity gin to me and I'd have to know what the Mac and Deono's were set at to understand it.But still it was just a difference that through him.Harmonics ,well everything sounded beter with Bryston and when turned up to 3'clock ones reeas began to bleed.But alwaysd the neuraoitic he says new CD's sopund great but his Blue Note CD's purchased in 80's sound like they were recorded in Rudy Van gelders parents living room (hold they were actaully recorded in his parents living room) and now sound like like crap.Tried to explan to hoim that iuncrease of quality from medum current mid fi to a true audiofile amp would no longer allow his amp to cover up the crap.Now his Magnepans SOUND like superior speakes whereas before I got depressed everytime we played music on his system and it sounded so bad.I thought "Why is everybody saying Magnepans are maybe the best bang for the buck in Hi end unless you needd massive volume or foundation shaking bass".Now I know.
But your question about the 20 db of gain is in intruiging to me as well.
G'luck
chazzbo