Best Preamp = No Preamp?

Jmaldonado
ever hear the term synergy...?
My take on the "high end sound " is the result YOU come to love after much hardware experience....synergy comes to mind...so be it if you call one component dry and and others compensating...Jmaldonado whatever terms you use within your comfort zone remain that.
to me it's as much about finding the colorations in your gear that make your feet tap. If you call your colorations neutral, that's your bag baby and nobody will fault you for that. That's the beauty of this passion!!

A friend lived with a Benchmark feeding a power amp directly ' no contest ' an active preamp created a more listenable presentation.

I agree with the preamp believers. I used the Benchmark direct with several power amps, and it sounded weak, compressed, flattened imaging...not good.

The Bel Canto DAC3 has much more drive and bass and dynamics than the Benchmark when run direct. The DAC3 has a much larger power supply and a digital volume control that was designed with some buffering to get around the usual problem passive drive has.

However, placing a quality tube preamp in the circuit shows you what you are missing. More air, more expanse, more space, more dynamics. However, if you can't afford a good enough preamp, you won't get these results with so-so preamps. I could live with the DAC3 direct, and have, while between preamps. If expense is the factor, the DAC3 might be an answer for you.

A bad preamp is the worst thing you could add to a system. A good preamp can do wonders if your system is not well balanced or not too sensitive.
With a very sensitive system, the best I heard is a passive preamp, resistor attenuators wired directly into the amps, smooth extened on both ends and dynamic.
Less is more....but it needs to be enough!

I too have messed around greatly with going direct and then using preamps and going back and forth and wondering why would anyone bother with a preamp in a sytem that only has one source.

That was until I got a great preamp in my system. It was the best move I ever made. I wouldn't be without one regardless of the number of sources. It's probably not what someone trying to save a couple of bucks wants to hear, but if you get a chance to hear things with a great preamp then you'll likely never go back to direct again.