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Topping Pre90 Switching op amps?

I have found that the pre90, in my system, renders many recordings beautifully transparent and many other recordings thin and brittle. It seems that swapping op amps might be a solution. Has anyone done this? If so kindly report on your experience. 

dbb

Showing 2 responses by yyzsantabarbara

yyzsantabarbara
4,570 posts
 

I tried about 6 amps on the Topping pre90. There was a volume issue with the following amps and the pre90. It was way too loud and did not have any granularity on the volume settings.

- LSA Voyager 350 GAN

- CODA #8

- KRELL K-300i integrated

- D-Sonic m3a 800s

The following 2 amps sounded very good with the pre90:

- Benchmark AHB2

- Parasound A21+

The last 2 have some gain adjustment that likely was able to deal with the pre90. There are a lot of comments on ASR web site about this volume issue.

I got rid of the pre90 because of this frustration and went back to the Benchmark LA4 preamp, which works with all amps and is also as transparent as the pre90.

I am not a Topping hater; I recently re-bought the Topping D90LE DAC after I sold it previously.

 

 

yyzsantabarbara
4,570 posts
 

If you want the sound of the pre90 without the hassle, then the Benchmark LA4 is the best bet.

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