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Why a line preamp?

It's been my understanding that the best component is a straight wire. Further, before the the advent of the phono a preamp was not required. All that was needed was a volume control. Now with the reduced usage of the phono we find we must have the line stage preamp. Where's the straight wire philosphy? Why do we need anything more than a volume control and selector switch? Today I connected my McIntosh tuner directly into my amp since the tuner does have a volume control. It sounded better.
rwilson2

Showing 2 responses by marakanetz

marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
... first of all to add feedback to unstable source output in order to increase dynamics, output voltage and stability for feeding power amplifier.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
The source component that sounds without preamp is THE source component of the high quality with stabilized and well engineered output. In this case you'll need no line stage at all -- pure signal, no feedback(if poweramp has no feedback), best details, open and transparent sound etc... So If you want to find out the "naked" sound of source component ask dealer to plug it to power amp directly when you audition. Phono stages aren't tended to be as stable as DACs/CD-players(unless it goes to BAT P5 or Herron levels...$4..5K) since they're working with much smaller signals and most-likely will need line stage(extra gain and feedback).
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