The Truth About Preamps

The top of the line Adcom is a very nice preamp is rated Class A by Stereophile and can be found used for less than $1000 or by it new for about $1500 it sounds great.

If you want to run with out a preamp, you would need to by a fairly expensive CD Player.

I would recommend the Levinson #39 or #390s. These units sound great without the preamp and are built to be played that way. You should be able to find a #39 for about $3000-$4000 on Audiogon or audition and buy an new #390s at a dealer and you'll still be way ahead.

The cool thing about these units is that if you want to add a preamp like the #380s or other high quality preamp as funds appear you can still do so and still have one of the best CD players out there in the #39 and #390s.
Another upside would be that if your preamp ever needs updating/service you could still use the #39 for both in your system and not be out of tunes.

Good listening,

Steven

There are pros and cons to both sides of the equation. Personally, I think there's an added sonic benefit to running through a quality pre-amp ... One thing nobody has mentioned is the need for a pre-amp when using more than one source (tape deck, tuner, phono). In most of today's systems, a pre-amp will be necessary to use secondary sources.

I have a Spectron MII (digital) amp, a Supratek Syrah (tube) Pre and a Granite 657 (tube) CDP. The CDP has an analog volume control. I have run the system with and without the pre. My experience was that, though the sound was cleaner direct without the pre, overall I preferred the sound with the pre. The pre seemed to do a better job of driving the amp (more bloom, as I think someone put it above).

I have four sources. Doing without a preamp is senseless for me.

I still would not buy a high priced cdp so I can bypass a pre amp. My pre amp allows me to adjust gain for each channel, or just go passive. I like the versatility.

My $1600 (used) pre is single ended class A. The cdp will use an off the shelf op amp. That is a serious discrepancy for me.

There are wonderful pre amps both used and new, that can be bought for less than five grand. They all will have more sophisticated volume and gain circuitry than any cdp.

I don't think there's anyway to tell if a particular direct
CDP to Amp combo will work in your system until you try it.
The same can be said of passive preamps. Many CDPs have inputs for other sources, both analog and digital.

Like Disc, I'm using a MII and look forward to getting the digital input board for the amp, which will allow the use of just a CD transport or A/D output.

Is anyone using an A/D to run their analog sources into a
multi-input CDP like the Wadias?