surprising comparison of tube preamps

So is your point leading to any reason to believe that integrated units have an  advantage?  Any, or would they need to be fully balanced from input to output?

@akgwhiz To the first, perhaps; integrated amps do have the advantage that a passive volume control will work fine in them and there's no interconnect issue between the preamp and power amp sections. But often separates are built to a greater scale with less internal compromises.

To your second question, they don't need to be balanced but it helps, since the power supply is often the key compromise in an integrated amp. Balanced circuits impose less noise on their power supplies.

I am wondering if people have an explanation for this but, more importantly, have been looking into getting a very simple tube pre to use for the phono part of the system. Mapletree audio sells a simple preamp that I believe is a SET OTL (are all preamps OTL?).

@arhgef 

’OTL’ means ’Output TransformerLess’ and there are preamps that use output transformers. They are often used for driving a balanced line, where the shield of the cable isn’t supposed to carry any signal current at all.

This property is useful to prevent the cable from imposing an artifact of its own. If you’ve ever heard differences between cables you know what I’m talking about.

There is a standard involved (and I’m talking about this because your amplifier has balanced inputs which if favors) for balanced operation, known as AES48. None of the ARC products support this standard. In fact there are only a few manufacturers of preamps in high end audio that do.

This might be worth looking into if you want additional transparency with a sound that is also engaging.