Bufus, I Mark Levinson/Quad experience took place in a store demo. I have a similar Mark Levinson (no.39)/Jadis (SE845) setup, and am considering a Jadis preamp (JPL2), so wanted to know if the Jadis preamp would make my system sound better. I won't have a chance to test it out, so wanted to know if adding a preamp in this kind of situation generally improves the sound. I certainly don't want to buy an expensive and unnecessary piece of equipment, and find out it degrades the quality of my system! Unfortunately, I won't have access to any manuals before my immediate purchasing decision, since I'm in a different city.
Thanks for the explanations about impedance matching and extra gain, it really begs the question about my understanding how a preamp works in the first place. Does anyone know any website was a 'primer' or 'basics' about hifi explaining this? I wish audiogon had a section explaining technical basics for beginners like me.
Does a preamp actually add any more gain than the volume control on my CD player does? Or is it 'better quality' gain? I heard somewhere that the volume control on my CD player can both attenuate and add gain to the signal. So for low volumes, why would having a preamp be better if the improvement were primarily due to gain? At low volumes, would the direct sound be better, if it weren't for impedance mismatching?
Thanks for the explanations about impedance matching and extra gain, it really begs the question about my understanding how a preamp works in the first place. Does anyone know any website was a 'primer' or 'basics' about hifi explaining this? I wish audiogon had a section explaining technical basics for beginners like me.
Does a preamp actually add any more gain than the volume control on my CD player does? Or is it 'better quality' gain? I heard somewhere that the volume control on my CD player can both attenuate and add gain to the signal. So for low volumes, why would having a preamp be better if the improvement were primarily due to gain? At low volumes, would the direct sound be better, if it weren't for impedance mismatching?