2. amps-preamps
  3. 182217-6478

Whats the ultimate goal with your pre amp ?

I have a great pre amp its a Pass labs XP-22. Its a great compliment to the rest of my gear-Pass 250.8-Pass XP-17 phono pre-VPI Prime Signature TT-Auralic Aries 2.1 Streamer- PS Audio Directstream MK2--Harbeth 40.2 Anniversaries.

My question is- At what point is a pre amp overkill ? Example- In terms of performance- How close does a Parasound JC-2 get to a Pass XP-22 ?

In my mind I want the Pre to be uncolored..silent...and have flexibility/with XLR's in and out. Does or should it cost 10K to achieve this ?

The point of this post is to gather opinions on what other audiophile thoughts are .

Thanks in advance for any and all opinions.

krelldog

Showing 2 responses by oddiofyl

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,484 posts
 

I put high priority on the preamp.   It is the heart of a great system.  I had a Zesto Leto,  it transformed my system it is such a great preamp.   I am using my back up preamp while waiting for a DHT preamp I'm having built.   It's a huge step backward in performance going from something like the Leto to my 30 year old SFL 1 .

Lot's of systems where the preamp is the bottleneck and you'll never know unless you try a few different ones.   I was using a CJ Classic 2se , a very good preamp and that Zesto walked all over it.  The difference was profound. 

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,484 posts
 

My thoughts exactly….    Even my earliest systems had the best preamp I could afford.  My last integrated amp was a Sansui AU 9900. That was replaced by an Apt Holman and Apt 1 amp.   
 

Since then when upgrading electronics and it’s tie for a new preamp I will always stretch my budget   
 

I have had some pretty modest systems that sounded like a new set up thanks to a great preamp.   The DAC with volume camp does not know what they are missing. 
 

 

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