Spectral Amp

I heard the spectral amp/preamp driven by the Wadia CD player at a dealer when I was listining to Revels. I asked if the CD could drive the amps directly and was told they tried it and that the music sounded lifeless. This matches my own experience in my system driving poweramps directly from DAC's that from the spec's should have no problem with the amps. More detail but less musicality. I also find Spectral dry.

Carl I think it is fairly dependent on the DAC-Poweramp combo. As in the pair of our posts on the topic of passive preamps... How much difference you hear will depend on the specific combo.

Carl I'm glad you are so sure of your self. Your taste for clever veiled peronal insults on your various posts is ill-becoming. My more tentative posts come from my experiences that things aren't always so clear. Different combos sound different. Does the specific listener care? Maybe not but they do sound different. The last six months have benn a rather intensive eqipment evaluation project. and have have tried a lot of combos, usually with four plus set ups available at any time to mix and match. Removing the preamp has always sounded different but rarely unequivocally better. Any device has a "better"/"worse" load/interface combo. I often felt that the manufacturer's preamp/amp combo wan't the best. Electonics I have had in the my house for at least two weeks recently (not even counting dealers) Spectral 180 amp/20 preamp, ARC SP 11 Ref 1 VT200, Melos 402/Music Director/333, Bryston 7B, CJ Premier/16LS 8x, Threshold Stasis, Innersound/CODA, Tact, Adcom passive Theta Progen VA, Sigtech with DAC, MSB Gold link. MIT,Illuminations, Synergistic, Quatto fils. Dunlavy SCV and tuned room. BTW eventhough I believe I'm older my last hearing test went out to 19K